DAMSELS what is your opinion on them

[tt101]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Actually a mandarin is generally fine with damsels. The danger with mandarins is mostly competition for their food source of pods, unless they've been trained to eat prepared food, which few will survive on long term. Mandarins do their thing & are left alone by most fish, even aggressive ones due to a distasteful coating they have. I've seen my damsel try to nudge my mandarin away from it's perceived territory, but that's about it. My Maroon clownfish has also only ever nudged the mandarin when he lingers a little too close to a clutch of eggs. Never any harm done. BTW, just in case you're not aware, clownfish are included in the damsel species.

i think i heard about the slime coating in the past as well, im going to try a few azures, i don't have too extensive rock work so if it turns out bad then i'll catch them and donate them to flash or something like that lol. i want to add a single or possible a couple varieties of dwarf angel.....such as a bicolor and a flame...and yes i know about how angels will sometimes fight each other but i also heard of many success stories with them...the main idea was to introduce them at the same time. and yes i know that clowns are a variety of damsel but the way i see it is that they are a lot less aggressive, except for the maroons which can be &%$!@# sometimes. thanks for the info. i think i finally found my blue fish that i wanted to add

[Flash]

what size if your tank? do you have zoa's?

[tt101]

Originally Posted by Flash

what size if your tank? do you have zoa's?

my tank is a 65g, its not huge but i think its a respectable size. and the only zoas in have are these 3 heads that hitchhiked with a couple kenya tree frags. which also worries me because i dont want the angels pickingt at the corals and i hear that bicolors are known to pick more then others

[Flash]

no all angels in general will! well 50/50 I have a coral beauty in my 90 but i have no zoas! lol

[tt101]

Originally Posted by Flash

no all angels in general will! well 50/50 I have a coral beauty in my 90 but i have no zoas! lol

well......idk then lol. i guess now i need to choose between either the zoas or the angel......this is a hard choice lol. i feel like sometimes there are not enough fish choices for someone with my tank size compared to freshwater. do you know of any good snails that keep algae off glass and or sand

[Flash]

nassarius and mexican turbos!

[fooser]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

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.

I must agree with Albert. Not just when I tried to throw in 15 in a 50 gallon, but when I throw in a bunch to the ~350 gallon tank, both occassions resulted similarly with them breaking apart from each other, dwindling off, and the bigger one always does get frist dibs on food. Even now when I have 2 left in a 350gallon tank, the larger one eats, and the other one hovers there waiting without moving until a little bit after, and then darts after the food suddenly. So far in my experiences in this hobby, listening to Albert is 99% if not 100% the right thing to do. He knows his stuff and he has pretty much had experience keeping most type of fish available in this hobby at one time or another in his past (no exaggeration).

But if you are keeping different types of chromis, you may get some different responses varying on fish personality (like how some Flame Angels eat SPS and sometims you get lucky and they don't), but if you get unlucky and get even 1 aggressive chromis out of the 4, he may take it out on your other 3....But it is your tank, what you want to do, and I have also seen some really experienced aquarists keep fish species together that normally cant be kept together. Things like timing and conditioning your fish to certain signs helps. I have seen a guy with a 75 gallon keep achilles, lineatus and sohal tangs, all introduced at different times, and not have a problem. He did this by conditioning his fish to not be afraid of a fish trap, when he feeds them he will catch 1 fish and quarantine him out of the display, and rotate this procedure 1 at a time to all fish, so none of them get too dominant, and before adding in a new fish, will take out the most dominant one and put in the new one. The other fish dont bother the new one because none of them care, and the one that woudl care is gone,a nd when that one comes back in, they are not as aggressive... sounds weird, but works.

[tt101]

Originally Posted by Flash

nassarius and mexican turbos!

thanks i will have to look into that, i just dont want nothing that will infest the tank and or lay eggs over everything

[Flash]

all snails lay eggs!! my mexicans lay eggs and my wrasses eat the babies.. ahh the cycle of life!!!

[tt101]

Originally Posted by Flash

all snails lay eggs!! my mexicans lay eggs and my wrasses eat the babies.. ahh the cycle of life!!!

lol is it really unnattractive?