best way to get out the damsel?

[Yellowrose]

i have 2 damsels from my previous Fish only tank before i convert it to all reef now. They start to harrass some of the coral. What is the best way to get them out?:confused:

[speccialj922]

the best way to get rid of a damsel is to not put one there in the first place.:)


try a fish trap - alot of lfs' sell them, or do a search for a diy trap.

[tanker]

Cyanide--:mad2: . JK, but the only way that really works is to dismantle all the rock work and lower the water level. This sounds heavy-handed but other ways are all hit or miss.

DAMN-sels :mad2: . Some are really beautiful and almost all are very hardy, but they are soooo mean and territorial.

[Yellowrose]

they are small and damn smart. The moment they see my net touch the water, they are gone under the rock.

:(

[polskp]

Barbless fish hook+Fishing line+Shrimp bit = evicted demon

[Yellowrose]

sound good polskp. :)

[baeksu]

I got rid of two of mine a few weeks ago (gave them to another home), and I ended up having to almost completely disassemble my rock work. The whole process took close to an hour.


I've got one damsel that I'm attached to (was the very first fish I bought a few years back when I got started), and past that I'll never own a damsel again.



Anyone know how long these things live? :p

[staticfishmonger]

if damsels grew as big as sharks..i wouldnt go in the water..

[zrograviti]

I had one of those artificial rock with a cave that they sell in petcos (mostly used for freshwater tank decor). Put one of those into the tank and waited until the damsel went into the cave and just took the whole thing out.

[scrappy125]

Do a search for a 2 liter bottle trap. Works wonders...

[SHOmuchFUN]

I waited until they hid in holes in the rock, then physically pulled that rock out and then extracted them.

[Neowind]

I had to totally destruct my rockwork to catch my 3.

[Neowind]

Oh yea and I had to drain the tank half way also lol.

[bait]

Yellowrose,
Just caught 4 in my 240gal, taking out the rocks was not an option. I used a one liter coke bottle trap (cut the bottle where it starts to taper at the top, flip that part over an insert back into the bottom part of the bottle) I had two bigger ones that wouldn't go into the small coke bottle so I used a 32oz Cranapple juice bottle with the wide mouth. You can tie a string to the bottle to remove or place it in an area that you can get to quickly. I caught all four of mine within 1.5 hours, I actually caught a couple of other fish and crabs too. I used mysid shrimp as bait. Good luck

[Eryl Flynn]

Just add a mantis shrimp, the damsel will be gone in due time.

May I suggest that you start a post once you put in a mantis on how to get a mantis out of your tank.









Note: Do not do this unless you enjoy seeing your tank eaten alive!

[CeCe803]

Check out the trap on this site:
http://trap-eze.net/
I have heard nothing but good about this trap, if you do a search you will find some threads about it. Even though it comes from the UK, people say it gets here pretty quick. Sure a lot better than taking your tank apart!
Good Luck

[jnb]

Just Monday was the day to get the three blue devils out of my tank - just got them to cycle and probably won't ever again - they are not pleasant.

Anyway, I hung a net in there (bent arm over the side) for several days and feed dried flake food into the net such that they either did not eat or got used to going in the net to get food. Then Monday became the big surprise - got two of them immeditaetly and had to wait till morning feeding to get the last one. The neat thing is that I got the ballsy/aggreesive one on first try because he was fearless.

[Yellowrose]

problem solve. Cant' stand the damn fish, i took down the whole thing yesterday and got all of those suckers out. Got my chance to rearrange the lr too. hehehe.. everythign is back to normal today. Phewww..

[HillbillyScott]

I was thinking an M-80 would do it without blowing the tank :)

[damick11]

Are all damsels bad? I have a blue I intend on removing in a few months, but I also have a yellowtail that I'm kinda fond of. Also- are chromis a damselfish or somthing entirely different?

[nanocat]

It's not that they're "bad", it's that they are bullies. They make it extremely difficult to keep other fish, since they harass them for hours on end.

[speccialj922]

damsels, chromis, and clownfish are all in the damsel family. chromis' and clowns TEND to be less snippy than true damsels. but anything is possible.
just because a damsel is well behaved now, doesnt mean that things will stay this way. some people will tell you that they have YT blue damsels that are well behaved, but im not fond of them. even for $5, no damsel will ever enter any of my tanks. not worth the risk IMO.