My fish are crazy!

[chkltcow]

Well, I believe it now.... saltwater fish are worlds apart from freshwater, especially in terms of personality. My gobies are now getting situated in my tank with the two damsels... and the damsels are getting even weirder. Surprisingly, the Three Stripe damsel hasn't messed with the gobies at all. It completely ignores their existance. Instead, the blue damsel tries to harass them now. She'll swim over, turn around, and flip her tail to spray sand on them. One will come out with its mouth open wide to intimidate her, and the other backs into the burrow and hides. The goby will eventually chase the blue damsel away, who then enters the three stripe's territory, who chases her again. AND... in all of this, the three stripe has found another outlet for his aggression. Apparently, one of the hermit crabs got too close to his territory. The hermit's shell is very distinct, and very big. It's one the wife picked out from Petsmart... nice and clean, not dirty like the ones that the crabs were in when I got them. Anyway, now, wherever this hermit is in the tank, the three stripe damsel will come over and smack at it with its tail to knock it over... and then just swim away. It doesn't bother the crab inside... just smacks the shell around.

Now I understand why people get addicted to SW tanks so easily

 

[3fsh]

Lol... welcome to the world of saltwater!

 

[Navarre]

Damsels are not called Devil fish for nothing.
People say that if you have enough of them they will shoal. I prefer to think that if you have enough you get acrowd of fish that will bicker constantly with each other

Be careful with damsels though, it seems they already are getting territorial and introducing other fish to this tank now will be very dangerous, damsels will take on fish much larger than themselves too

 

[leon]

yep, i second that, had 3 domino damsels, the smallest has now disapeared, and had a true pair of hi-fin banded gobies with a pistol shrimp, both fish are no more , one didnt last 24hours, the other lasted about four days, they were harassed by my large yellow tail!. Ive tried catching the damsels to put them in the sump to give the gobies a chance, but as soon as the net is in the water, theyre in the rock work

 

[hyrookin]

yeah, it may be time to think about taking the damsels out.
they will only get more territorial.

 

[chkltcow]

The wife is dying for a clown fish, but I already know what you're talking about with the damsels. I've told her that she can't have a clown unless the damsels go. They're too aggressive and would harass the hell out of a clown fish. Other than the one goby invading on the blue damsel's territory, they seem to have gotten along well. The gobies hang out together in their burrow all the time... only making short trips across the sand to get pieces of food that have floated down there. Both damsels ignore them, unless they come near the rocks that they have designated as their homes.

I'm still baffled by the three stripe damsel attacking a shell. It's now empty... the crab that was in it abandoned it and migrated to a different shell. But this morning I saw the three stripe damsel pecking at it again, pushing it off the rock where the hermit had left it. In all the time I've watched him, I've never seen him go for the "soft end" where a snail or hermit would be in it...... he always just pushes it around and is content with that.