Damsel not reef safe?

Ice · 11-10-2004, 08:14 PM

hi all

about a week ago i purchased two yellowtailed blue damsels, the fish are doing great but they seem to eating the tenticles off of some polyps that i have in the tank. My LFS told me that they were reef safe and every place on the net that i have searched says the same. Are they not reef safe? or do i just have evil fish

thanks

Peter

Craig Manoukian · 11-10-2004, 09:41 PM

I had a yellow tailed damsel that was the meanest fish ever. It was in a FOWLR so no experience with corals. I say evil!

m_lacom99 · 11-11-2004, 03:15 AM

I have the same fish, i dont have allot of corals but it hasnt touched anything. I saw it pick on algae... and my clowns (it thinks its his tank or something). But i have some ZO's and he never touched them. So i say, teritorial but reef safe.

Marc.

hottielover14 · 11-11-2004, 11:30 AM

i always that that damsels were reef safe but semi-agressive and there cousins the chromis was more peaceful. I was thinking of getting a blue reef chromis.

amcarrig · 11-11-2004, 01:50 PM

What kind of coral are they picking on and where are they doing it? On the base of the coral or somewhere else? Are they eating the polyps or just pecking and spitting?

I'm thinking breeding behavior but am not sure at this point.

JohnO · 11-11-2004, 06:58 PM

Annick,

I think Peter wrote that the damsel looked like it was eating the tenticles off some polyps.

I would almost bet that the tenticles had caught some food and damsel was trying to eat the food :-)

John

Ice · 11-11-2004, 07:52 PM

ya they are eating the tenticles off the polyps, the first time i saw them doing it i thought nothing of it but now about 90 percent of the tenticles are gone. the first time i saw that i thought the polyps had just curled the tenticles up like when i'm feeding them but it doesn't look like they are curled up at all

Amcarrig I think they are some type of Zooanthid but i'm not sure on that i'm going to do some research on that and let you know

thanks everyone

peter

fishgirlheather · 11-12-2004, 04:17 AM

My Damsels have done nothing but pick at ny new Hawaiian dusters. I think they will be moving to a FOWLR also. I can just see them eating a new coral when they get hungry.

amcarrig · 11-12-2004, 06:06 AM

[quote author=JohnO link=board=Fish;num=1100157291;start=0#5 date=11/11/04 at 21:58:50]

Annick,

I think Peter wrote that the damsel looked like it was eating the tenticles off some polyps. *

I would almost bet that the tenticles had caught some food and damsel was trying to eat the food :-)

John

[/quote]
Sure makes a lot of sense to me! Especially considering that I've never heard of damsels eating corals before.

JohnO · 11-12-2004, 04:59 PM

[quote author=fishgirlheather link=board=Fish;num=1100157291;start=0#7 date=11/12/04 at 07:17:21]My Damsels have done nothing but pick at ny new Hawaiian dusters. I think they will be moving to a FOWLR also. I can just see them eating a new coral when they get hungry.[/quote]

Well Hawaiian dusters are worms and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a damselfish tried to eat them. Coral on the other hand is a separate thing :-) Not saying that damsels wont nip at corals for whatever reason, it's just that I have never seen them deliberately eat coral :-)

John