Blue Devil Damselfish Input

xdcmelissa

xdcmelissa

I
Jul 5, 2007
25
0
0
Atlantis
I have a blue damsel (how bad are these fish? really as bad as people make them out to be, or depends on tankmates?) and a royal dottyback in the same tank.

It's a 30 gallon with 30 pounds of rock (plenty of hiding places).

They are about the same size (fully grown at 3 inches allegedly), and seem OK, but I've been reading that the damsel may become increasingly aggressive.

Are these fish compatible?

ANECDOTAL evidence appreciated. If you are just going to google and find fish descriptions, I can myself (and have), I would like input from someone who has had this mix and whether or not it has worked out for them.

Thanks!

~D
 
i have a damsel in my tank and within two days it killed its fellow damsel and will even show aggression to my hand when i put it in the tank.
 
I'll chronicle progress.

Day two, everyone survived overnight. After an initial fracas, the dottyback hid, now they are both out all the time, and aside from an occasional display (flaring) by the damsel, there has been no additional aggression.

Hopefully this remains the case. We like "dotty" more, so further aggression will eventually result in his retun to the store!!

:confused:

~D
 
Ok. I have a blue devil damsal and a royal dottyback coninciding in a 40g at the minute which I decided to keep runing after I upgraded to my 75g.

The dottyback was originally placed in the tank before the damsal and made his territory.

When I got the Damsal and put him in second (Bad Idea) he bullied all other fish out of their territories, but the Dottyback wouldn't concede.

The Damsal and dotty took a few chunks out of each other early, but then realised they'd just have to get along, and do fine together now.

They are both very agressive and won't back down. The Damsal is a bully, and the Dottyback is one of those little weiners that just doesn't know when to give up.

After a couple of weeks they will keep to themselves, and the scars will heal:)
 
Dottybacks can generally stand up to a little devil abuse - it's when you throw one into a tank that is a succession of different devil/domino/stripe... territories that they get into trouble (catching it from 2 sides, all the time).
 
Thanks for the input guys, that's EXACTLY what we had happen here, and things are going swimmingly (groan).

The dottyback was in first, the devil was added, they tussled for awhile, and things have been great since.

They're pretty much just ignoring each other. I'm now wondering what ELSE I should throw into this volatile mix if anything, maybe I'll start a thread on that.

Or maybe the tank will be the two territorial semi ags and some inverts. Either way I'm glad it's working out!!

~D
 
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