The Damsel Thread

  • Get the NEW AquariaCentral iOS app --> http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1227181058 // Android version will be out soon!

snailrider

AC Members
Oct 30, 2007
470
3
18
davesbmw.com
Since my first salt fish: A Velvet Damsel, I really like these Damsels.

The colors are awesome, the personalities interesting and just a great fish for the salt aquarium.

I would like to make this thread one of information, pictures of Damsels, stories good bad and ugly. A general cornacopia of information on damsels.

So below is a pic of "Hansel and Grettal" Hansel being the yellow tail.
(damsel of regrettal LOL)

Show me what you got :headbang2:

hansel-grettal-1.jpg
 

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
58
Charlotte, NC
Not visible but this was my 55g before I picked it up. When I got it home I found 2 stripe damsels that I quickly named Sadam & Satan and sent off packing to the LFS. Found out they had killed 6 other damsels. Or at least that is what the previous owner told me. I'm not convinced however since her fish husbandry was dismal at best

 

Morel

AC Members
Nov 29, 2002
182
0
0
49
Damsels are great if thats the thing you want for your small saltwater.. But alot of people get them to start, or cycle there tank. They quickly realize that they're extreamly mean and will torment anything else you put in the tank with them :)
 

snailrider

AC Members
Oct 30, 2007
470
3
18
davesbmw.com
Well I dunno, they don't seem to be that much meaner than some other fish.

At the fish store, he had some clowns that were a heck of a lot meaner than the damsel.

Like for instance today, being my lighting is lacking, I use an LED flashlight to look at things in the tank. When the light hits the damsels they glow neon.

Both of them seem to come out and be in the spotlight so to speak, showing off etc. Then Hansel (yellow tail) starts to do a little dance and backs into the coral, and wags his tail for a bit then takes off.

Silly little thing. Sure Grettal is a bit destructive, but no worse than the urchin. But Grettal the velvet damsel, was eating hair algae and other things so she is part of my cleanup crew now. LOL
 

snailrider

AC Members
Oct 30, 2007
470
3
18
davesbmw.com
Grins, that 55 wasn't your first tank was it?

Seems like there would be plenty of room in it, but if that is all the cover the previous fish had, and 8 damsels, well...

I don't know, I have a third damsel a yellow one in the QT as I type. Thinking about moving it up but seems so happy in the QT. I may just culture rock and leave her there.

BTW how do you tell what sex the damsel is?
 

Jesshika

AC Members
Nov 10, 2007
287
0
0
36
Los Angeles, California
www.myspace.com
I had the velvet damsel and he was very nice when he was small but then as he got larger he terrorized the rest of the fish and picked on my clarkii clownfish so much that he didn't come out of hiding for a week. The third pic down I believe is an Allen's damsel.

S5030978.JPG S5030977.JPG DCAM0083.JPG Damselclown.jpg
 

snailrider

AC Members
Oct 30, 2007
470
3
18
davesbmw.com
Jesshika, would you by any chance have a pic of him at the larger stage? Do you still have him? How long do these live?

Love the angle in the first picks. How long ago was that?

Do you have any stories to tell? What did you like about them?


Grins, that being your first salt tank, and two damsels, you kept it going from the previous owner correct? So how long did you keep Sadam and Satin? What prompted you to take them in (back to LFS), and did you really see overt bad behavior? Aprox what size were they at the time?
 

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
58
Charlotte, NC
I kept them for less than a week. I didn't keep them because they weren't part of my intended stocking list. They were 3 stripe damsels and although I find damsels colorful little fish they just aren't for me.
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store