im gonna take a different approach then all the higher morals here and offer advice instead of lecture lecture lecture.......as most who comment here dont practise what they preach.......
my best advice is to work slowly not to add anymore fish and once they are settled in remove the damsel. i love the saying monkey see monkey do and i use it for clowns all the time when it comes to hosting as i find sometimes seeing another clown host a nem will get others to try as well....fish arent born by themselves and get alot out of what they "see"
try making the eggcrate smaller if they can get their nose all the way through so as not to be able to touch each other yet.
try adding moonlights to ease some tension in the dark at night
after the rock you have in there has been there for a while switch it over with the odd new piece from your display so they dont get bored grazing the same rock
personally i see no harm so far and it would seem to me your in control of the situation keep researching and constant watch on their behaviors ,study them at night and early in the morning to get their full behavior patterens. do the usual and keep your refuge clean and i would leave them in there untill you have made a solid decision on whther or not they will both go into the display.....
for all those who say " ive bought x amount of coppers now and since they died they are better off left in the ocean" im sure alot of us have lost more of other things like clams,corals,and inverts ......i mean ive lost countless zoas and ive killed off kenyas like no tomorrow , ive been on my 3rd elegance and i know of people who are now losing clams by the handfulls........under those same words all these should be left in the ocean because we lost more than one.
a true fact of this hobby is these animals are very delicate and sometimes we dont quite understand why things happen but their are reasons because they live in the wild so unless we try we will never know......and if by some chance what if the copperband was to go extinct???? would be nice to kow that we could help maintain numbers with captive bred
at one time all these things belonged in the ocean only and as time goes by were constantly finding better foods better equipment and better practises....i dont believe in shutting the door especially after weve tried opening it......would be a waste of life given by these animals to us.
cheers man and im down with the "band"
