Who hates damsels? WE hate damsels!

[Anonymous]

Well, it seems that, after just a few posts in "another" thread, it's become pretty obvious that there are more than a few "damsel-haters".

This thread is just for you, fellow damsel-hater. Got any good evil damsel stories? If you've kept these little booger-fishes, I'm sure you do.

Do you have or need ideas on how to get rid of these pests posing as jewels of the sea?
Have you had to throw in a lure and fish 'em out?
Or have you, as SO many of us already have, had to literally tear your tank completely apart to then chase the rascal (gotta keep it G-rated..well, PG) around and around with the net?
Or did you just throw in the towel and let them take over the little piece of the sea you had so lovingly created and unwittingly handed over so these befinn'd creatures could lay waste to any other fish you thought you wanted to keep?

Why, one might wonder, would someone call something so lovely devilspawn? If you've ever had a Cyanis pull your armhairs out by the roots you might have your answer. Ever had a domino harrass your HumaHuma to tears? This, my friends, is your thread.

 

[LFS42]

I hate catching them at the store, and those tanks a meant to be easy to catch them in.

I would have to say the best story I've heard so far is the 4" domino damsel
that will kick the living **** out of a full size trigger.
There almpst as bad as tomatoe clowns :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

4", eh? I'd say he's almost perfect panfry size, wouldn't you?

 

[Anonymous]

with the exception of the dominoe, and aruanus dams, i actually really like damsels :wink:

especially alot of the species that never find their way into stores :?

many species are drop dead gorgeous, and their slightly belligerent behavior can be worked around and dealt with, with the proper choice of other 'tough' inhabitants, and proper aquascaping

i had some spawning beau gregory's in my 75 reef-and they never, ever harassed any other occupant of the tank, including the y/t blue devils that were also in there 8)

i would love to have a 180 with aggregates of some of the rarer dams, and some nice dottybacks 8)

hehe

 

[danmhippo]

Hmmm, does that includes the clownfish group? Ya know, they are same family.

 

[Fish Guy]

DAMSELS RULE!!!! They cost 5-10 bucks a pop and never die. Best fish in the world.

 

[Mogo]

A couple years ago, when setting up my tank and despite what I read, my lfs dude told me not to start out with damsels. He said they become territorial and just about impossible to catch. The best advice he has ever given me. The only advice I ever followed.

 

[Anonymous]

Heh...when I was setting up a 29 for my wife a couple years ago, I found this awesome little black and gold damsel (we're both Purdue grads, so black and gold rules). Got him and he was just as cute as could be--about the size of my thumbnail. Put him in with a maroon clown and a baby pineapple trigger.

Yeah two months later the damsel was 3" long, had turned from bright black/gold to crappy grey; the trigger hid constantly and the clownfish had lost an eye. Grrrr. :x And yes, I had to pull about 30lb of rock out of the tank and then still took an hour to catch the little jerk. LFS wouldn't even give me any credit for him, so I told them it was either they toss him in the live rock vat, or I'm flushing him. They finally dumped him into the live rock vat.

And that little one-eyed clown is still living, happy fat and healthy, and mated to my female maroon in another tank now.

 

[JeremyR]

We don't order damsels because we don't believe in cycle fish, but we have a 4" or so "neon velvet" that someone traded in that lives in our hermit crab tank.. rotten fish bites when you go for hermits. We've had it a couple years now, nobody has yet wanted to buy it that had the type of tank that it wouldn't kill it's tankmates in.

 

[MarkO1]

Jeremy, I like the green chromis you have in your clam tank. The little guy follows you around... prolly begging for food. The chromis is a damsel, right?
_________________
Spyder MR1

 

[highrpm]

What about the Jarbaldi Damsel (SP?) The one that lives off the Calfornia coast, and I believe is protected? They are very cool, but get very big. My LFS gets them in occasionally, I am really tempted to put one in my new 190!

I currently have a 4" Sergent major, that is a PITA. I can't catch it though. I have tried fishing lures, fly fishing flys, wax worms, everything. Oh well tank is getting torn down soon to move to the 190.

 

[Anonymous]

They are Garibaldi (hard "g") and they're a temperate species.

Let me illustrate their pugnaciousness this way: I'm scuba diving off Laguna Niguel, steep drop, lotsa rockface to explore (big surge, too, btw--use your patch!). I'm creeped out by the male sea lion that keeps getting in my face, but THEN I have to deal with this Garibaldi that literally grabbed a hold of my mask! Thank God I didn't have one of those where the nose is fitted from the outside, or I swear he would have yanked me by my nose. Damn fish kept going after my regulator, and after a half hour of him and the sea lions I'd had enough.

vitz, I actually like damsels (not a lot of the Dascyllus spp., though), with the Fiji (pink and yellow w/black markings) damself being among my fave's.

However, with the direction the "Punk Damsel" thread was going I figured what the hay.

 

[brewerbob]

The guy at my LFS said to get a grouper; that would give teh buggers a run for their money!! I would imagine an eel might do the trick too.

My LFS said he'd take them back and not to get rid of them. I kind of like them. The stripes chase each other and the domino. The y/t blue and chromis stay out of the way and don't get harsassed too much.

 

[Anonymous]

I like damsels, damsels in distress that is.....

And no pan-fry for me...raw like sushi it's gotta be

 

[brewerbob]

I would think your name sake might work too. A big snapper would slurp those little mud guppies right down.