Royal Gramma vs. Yellow Tailed Damsel

[MOT]

Hi everyone, I have a 40 gallon tank which only had a tomatoe clown and a yellow tailed damsel for six months or so. I added a royal gramma to the tank a few days ago. The damsel immediately started harrassing him. the gramma's tail is a little torn up and he is hiding behind the power head all the time. He still eats the mysis shrimp when they pass within a few inches of his powerhead at feeding time. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any advice or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks, Tom

[jason the filter freak]

though it's one of the "calmer" damsels, by nature they're still rather agressive, about the olny suggestion would be back breaking is to rearrange all the rock work to break up territories, if you're insistant on keeping both fish, and even then it might not work

[trble81]

You could always get one of those containers that hang off the edge of your tank (into your tank) and put the yellow-tail in there and let your gramma swim around to pick his territory. Then, release the yellow-tail and they may square off, but your it may lay claim to a corner and show the yellow-tail who's boss.

 

What Jason said with the rock work also works well. It's a good trick with adding clowns that may fight.

 

 

[Rascal]

Both of those suggestions might work. Another idea, a little more extreme maybe, is to stick the YTD in the sump for a while. Once big enough, the gramma should be able to hold its own.