can i throw in a damsel in my new cycling tank?

[Guest Maynard]

hey guys...its been two weeks during my cycling tank....i was wondering if i can throw in a damsel just to help out during the nitrogen cycle.

[Gatortailale]

and what happens to the damsel after your cycle?

 

While many people and old school books suggest this, the new line of thinking is to be more responsible with tank additions and think long term on your entire fish list and plan out how tank additions will get along.

 

If your still on the path to cycle with a damsel, I would suggest getting a yellow tail blue damsel. I got one as my first salt fish back in Oct. 2000 and I still have that fish today. Mine hasn't been a problem at all with other fish - rather peaceful to other fish, but it does try to attack tongs if I put them near its turf in the tank.

 

my .02

[Steve G]

You can cycle a tank with fish food, table shrimp, and a variety of other things that are already dead.

 

Many years ago I listened to an LFS salesman and cycled a tank with multiple damsels. I learned the hard way that they will just bully each other to death and leave you with one super-aggressive hard-to-catch fish that terrorizes your tank and makes it difficult to add tankmates.

[lanman]

hey guys...its been two weeks during my cycling tank....i was wondering if i can throw in a damsel just to help out during the nitrogen cycle.

Don't do it - unless you want the damsel to be THE fish in the tank. How do I know? I STILL can't catch that little bugger! I had intended to put clowns and small shrimp and stuff in that nano - but now it's owned by a damselfish. Unfortunately, I have really nice rockwork - with LOTS of big hiding places...

 

bob

[treesprite]

the only way to get it out of the tank is to remove the rock.

 

To demonstrate how aggressive they are:

I just have a damsel and a pair of mated clowns. Mated female clowns are often very aggressive - mine killed everything years ago, except this damsel which is only 1/3rd the clown's size. The damsel freely swims back and forth through clown territory without getting chased.

[lanman]

the only way to get it out of the tank is to remove the rock.

Not the ONLY way to get him out of the tank... I've considered making a miniature spear-gun....

 

Or borrowing one of those 'slurp' guns used for collecting tropical fish in the wild.

 

Of course, one of these days, I'll probably just decide I want to put some little clowns and gobies and pistol shrimp in there badly enough to take the whole thing apart and catch him.

 

bob