Adding A Fish With A Damsel Already In Tank

[dixaisy930]

Right now I have a blue spotted puffer and yellow tail damsel in my 29 gallon tank. I've been thinking about getting another fish for the tank, but not sure what to get. My concern is my damsel. It's been a pretty shy fish for the most part, although when I had a sixline wrasse in the tank, the damsel did seem to harass it a bit. There are no problems with the blue spotted puffer - they seem to ignore each other. If I did get another fish, I'm not sure what would be the best option, as far as temperment, etc. Since it seems to do fine with the puffer, maybe something similar to a puffer's temperment etc? And if I remember correctly, adding anything like a pair of clownfish wouldn't work, right? Would trying to rearrange the tank help? Create new territories? And getting rid of the damsel isn't an option. I don't know of anyone that could take it, and I don't want it to go to a lfs. If need be, I'll settle for just having those two, the puffer and damsel. And just so I know, two puffers (or tobies) shouldn't be in a tank that size together, right? (I saw a leopard puffer, only about 2 inches long if that....sooooo beautiful)

 

[ben1987]

Its hit and miss with damsels. You could re-scape the tank to create new terratories. Do you have a sump? you could put the damsel in there for a few days whiole the newbie settles in.

 

[dixaisy930]

Well, I made a purchase...although I'm not sure if my line of thinking will work. I got two baby maroon clowns yesterday. One is about an inch long, and the other is slightly bigger. Now my thinking was that they would be aggressive enough to be in with the damsel, and being two of them, the chasing would be spread out more. I'm going to re-arrange the tank tonight...add a few more rocks and some more macro. Now being a 29 gallon tank, I'm wondering if the two maroons will be too much once they get bigger. I know mixing clowns/damsels is frowned upon, but my lfs guy thought my thinking was doable. The bigger maroon is harassing the little one some, but it seems like normal establishing territory behavior to me. So far my established damsel has been hiding for the most part...once she chased the little maroon from her cave, but that's been about it. That's my other concern...I don't want the little maroon to be bullied by both of these fish.

 

[Buddyboy67]

Things will settle soon. I added a pair of percs into my son's nano this weekend with a fijian blue devil already in residece. After about 20 mins the damsel learned his place and they've been fine since. The larger maroon is stating dominance to the smaller one and will become the female of the pair. This is typical in alll clowns. This will continue between the clowns, even when paired off and is totally normal. Your yellow tail is one of the softest damsels so I wouldn't be too concerned..