Royal Gamma & Yellow tail damsel

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by jostafew

I don't agree with the above posts. While damsels as a whole are known to be scrappy I believe that certain species can be placed in a community tank. I had an established Royal Gramma and a smaller clown in my tank for a few months and added an Azure damsel (very similar to yellow tail), and while there was some showing and standing off the Gramma eventually put the damsel in its place. Clown just ignored the damsel's shows. Sadly about 6 months after that the Gramma went carpet surfing (had it just over a year at that point). The damsel is still there, and continues to play nice with the since added Canary wrasse, tiny clown goby, neon goby, and the original clown.

That being said I wouldn't recommend placing even a relatively peaceful damsel in a smaller tank with similarly behaved fish as it's important that the inhabitants have their own space. My tank is approx. 70gal (30x24x24). They shared space in the tank, but the Damsel would always give way to the Gramma who occasionally reminded the Damsel who's boss and they each had their own cave to rest in. Now that the Gramma's gone there's essentially zero conflict between the Damsel and any of the other fish.

And so after so long in the tank, what do you think chased your gramma right on to the carpet?
probably your damsel my friend.

You also had an advantage over the OP in that you had your grammas in the tank first...which can mke a huge difference in territorial issues but in your case, only for about 6 months.

It's an unfair match, Damsels bite and tear in their aggression, Grammas are more of a displayer and open their mouths wide in a territorial display. Compared to Damsels, they are pacifists and not equipped to defend themselves in the same way.

[jostafew]

Gobytron, that's a fair assumption (that the Gramma jumped due to the Damsel), but if you watched the behaviour in the tank for any amount of time you'd see that if anything it was the Damsel that should've jumped. As for physical damage, it was the Damsel that had some rips in its fins for the first week or two, not the Gramma. Now of course every fish is different and maybe I was just lucky but that was my experience.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by jostafew

Gobytron, that's a fair assumption (that the Gramma jumped due to the Damsel), but if you watched the behaviour in the tank for any amount of time you'd see that if anything it was the Damsel that should've jumped. As for physical damage, it was the Damsel that had some rips in its fins for the first week or two, not the Gramma. Now of course every fish is different and maybe I was just lucky but that was my experience.

I think, had you done much due diligence on your tanks inhabitants prior to purchase, you'd still have a gramma.

[jostafew]

Well that's your opinion and I respect it. But for the record I am not the type of person to see a pretty fish and buy it, then find out it's completely unsuitable for their tank. I take the selection of livestock very seriously.

That is where I will stop on this as I do not want to tie up someone elses thread trying to prove my own point.

[Pinchy]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

I had a royal gramma and yellow tail in my old tank. The damsel chased the gramma for about a week then gave up and lived peacefully after that. This was the only fish my damsel ever chased. The yellow tails are usually not as aggressive as other damsels but each fish has it's own personality.

Everything has seemed to have settled down... may not need to take him out after all! They each have their own rocks staked out on seperate sides of the tank and the gamma seems to be doing well. I will continue to monitor but have built a trap to relocate him to the sump if things go south.. thanks again all

and har har har on the fish doing more research on his owner comment... smartass

[jostafew]

Glad to hear they're settling in Pinchy