DAMsels

[hobogato]

finally rid of them!!!

turns out they tuned into sps eaters and were systematically eating small sps colonies in my tank. i didnt know if they were just cleaning up corals that were dieing or eating healthy corals until yesterday. i caught two of em in the act on a VERY healthy tulip mille.

12 hours of toil yesterday took my tank to this
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/240/DSC02760.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/240/DSC02761.jpg
and then back to this.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/240/DSC02765.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/240/DSC02762.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/240/DSC02763.jpg
evicted fish include:

6 three stripe damsels
gsm clown
lunare wrasse
3 pj cardinals
harlequin tusk (really hated to get rid of this one but would like some small wrasses)

my current fish lis:
marine beta
royal gramma
algae blennie
spotted hawk
vlamingi
zebra eel
two yellow tangs
two blue hippos
sailfin tang
chocolate tang

now the hunt begins - if anyone has fish ideas - throw em at me :D

[ACE]

Was the PJ Cardinal eating SPS also? Jeremy has a couple of cool looking Chevrons.

[Mr Cob]

I have witnessed 4 stripe damsels eating small polyps before.

Nice job on the capture....LOTS of work!

[AdamZC]

did you use any kind of trap or just netted them out?

[lhoy]

Ace (HIGHLY Recommended Fish)

Genicanthus Angels (I would probably only buy off Live Aquaria or one I could see eat in a fish store). Plankton eaters and NEVER eat coral.

Radiant Wrasse (beautiful)

Leopard Wrasse (but only if you see it eating)

Pinkbar Goby (very pretty fish and occasionally Live Aquaria has a pair from Africa)

Pink-tailed Trigger (use two different colored nets - one for food and one for introducing new shrimp, and non-eatables). Put the color for the non-eatables in the tank and just bomp it on the nose when it gets close and it will learn to not even come close to that net. I would just guide my shrimp and other inverts to the bottom of the tank and let them get in the rocks. Mine slept in the same hole as a peppermint shrimp and it cleaned it while the fish "slept".

Lee

[RayAllen]

Wow the tear apart and catch method is always stressful. Goodjob.

As for fish Id do a group of flame angels 5 or so. Ive seen it on reefcentral and multiple dwarfs in person and if the aquarium is large enough and provide ample hiding it works and makes a striking display. Flames IMO have some of the best colors in the SW fish.

[justahobby]

There's been some great suggestions so far. I'd like to make a great addition to the list:

:thumbs_up: Longnose Hawkfish :thumbs_up:

[LoneStar]

Dam! That was a lot of work. I think you need to invent a siphon device with a large pump or motor to suck those annoying fish out with the flick of a switch!

[fjr_wertheimber]

I see *someone* didn't read the recently posted thread by Calfo on catching fish in reef aquaria... ;-) LOL Seriously, though, Ace that was obviously a ton of work, and I don't envy you one bit. And I thought getting a zebra blenny out of a Biocube was hard! LOL

[Rychek]

I remember what a pain is was to catch one tang in a 55 gal. I can't imagine trying to remove damsels out of a tank that size.

[mdavis735]

thats funny aj.i saw this post this morning and thought what a coincidence. . . . . i had just read the calflo post last night.

[Andrew v.s wild]

what does the eel eat

[clone]

what was up with your lunare wrasses,i had put in a anthias a week befor adding that wrasses and yesterday she went bottem up.
do you think the wrasse had anything to do with it?

[Texreefer]

get some schooling fish Ace

[profntbtr]

i feel you completely. i had to remove 13 damsels from a 150 gallon, and it required pulling every bit of rock out, and then it still took 2 hours.

[princer7]

Were the PJ Cardinals destructive? I've got 4 in my tank. If your tank was covered, I would suggest some flasher wrasse.