Damsel Terrorizing Tank

[davis7716]

The other day i bought 2 blue damsels, 1 yellowtail blue damsel, and 2 chromis. My LFS told my I could put these fish in to help cycle my tank. But one of the blue damsels seems to be terrorizing the rest of the fish in the tank. He darts out all the fish. Should I take him back or will he calm down once he gets use to the aquarium.

[graphixx]

How Long have you had the tank up????? first of all if your still in the cycle of your tank I would not have that many fish in the tank. I would start out with one fish. Damsels work well but when youstart adding fish then yes they do get aggressive.

[mutts]

Wow that is a lot of fish right off the bat. Hope everything is okay with that. Watch your paramiters. But damsels are mean. I have one blue devil damsel who chases everyone in my tank. My clowns finally have grown enough to body slam him back (the one I think is the girl often hangs with him more then her hopefully mate) but he chases the three PJs fish (3 of them) that are larger then him. They just arn't nice.

I hope everything works.

[dakar]

Damsels are extremely territorial by nature. If this is the typical advice given out by your LFS I'd not ask for any more advice from them at all.... the quick 'sale' and out the door obviously bears more importance to them.

There are far more humane methods of starting the nitrogen cycle than subjecting fish to the toxic environment of a cycle. If you take it to mind to return the fish (maybe for store credit?) you can use a raw peeled cocktail shrimp instead, giving you some time to research fish temperment.