haha that sounds awesome, congrats. i might set up a 10 gal with a couple damsels sometime soon lol

i had a 4 stripe that would attack my hand when it came close to his rock, evil thing..

when i got my female mandarin the 4 stripe swam over to her and flicked sand on her with his tail, so he spent the night in a bucket and went back to the store in the morning.

took me hours to catch him too, and my tanks only 48 gallons.

Very interested in this topic....
How do you guys think a 30-40gal tank would do with a few yellow tails? Do you think it would be possible, how long would it be "nice" for? Any chance a sleeper goby of some sort would survive in there with just damsels?

i have a 25gl at work with a orange skunk clown and two damsels... everyone is fine!

I think I can help you out here. List of Damsels I would consider to be highly desirable reef fish:

Most Chrysiptera species, including
- Starki Damsels
- Tabolt's Damsels
- Yellowtail Damsels
- Rollandi Damsels
- Springer's Damsels

Most members of the Pomacentrus, including
- Alleni Damsels
- Pomacentrus coelestis

A few Chromis species, namely
- Green Chromis (don't buy a huge school unless you have a big tank AND something that will harass them, otherwise you'll end up with a pair)
- Vanderbilt Chromis
- Chromis operculari
- Chromis retrofasciata

What to avoid:

Pretty much everything else.

Just get one Yellowtail. Two, even three can work, but if it doesn't, you're throwing away a fish and adding a spot of grief to your life.

They're great to put in a tank with a lionfish for entertainment. :lol:

that's how I got my for free.. they were too fast for the lion and eel! loL!

Ive heard just as many conflicting stories about keeping a small group of chromis in a tank as a small group of damsels, at least with the damsels I get more colour then the green chromis.

So it would be either a few Damsel or a few Chromis. Ideally with something to clean the sand..... But the idea of a school of silver fish doesn't really appeal to me, which is why I was leaning towards a few damsel instead, unless I could do a variety of single chromis?

Long-term Chromis schools tend to deteriorate into a single pair unless, as I mentioned earlier, you have a large tank (200+ gallons), a really big school (20ish+) and something that harasses them. Chromis do not school in the sense that something like a freshwater Cardinal Tetra does. That is, they don't school because they're socially docile. They have a pecking order that is only maintained due to the constant threat of predation. Subtract that from the equation and they just end up behaving as any damsel would.

A good example would be my buddy Fooser. He threw something like 30 Chromis into his 300 gallon tank. There's now two. It looks really stupid. I'll see if he can chime in here for ya.

Edit: If you REALLY want something that schools, grab some Blue Eyed Cardinals. They tend to form pretty stable schools and look AWESOME when they're older.