Damsel messing with Jawfish?

[Quantrill]

Hey y'all, I just recently added a Pearly Jawfish and I think he's finally settled on where he wants his burrow to be. I've got a Blue Damsel (yeah bad idea I know) left over from cycling the tank over a year ago. The Damsel will occasionally go over to the Jawfish's burrow and use it's tail to flick sand on him. Is this intentional or coincidence? I've seen the BD do this before with no fish around but now he only seems to do it in this one area! I have NO problem with getting rid over the BD but I figured I'd see what y'all thought first. I haven't seen any other forms of aggression, maybe the BD is just being passive aggressive? LOL

Thanks
David

 

[GlassMunky]

My BD does that to the other fish in my tank occasionally when she has a stick up her tail-fin. other times shes tottally fine. up to you though, if she really is messing w/ the jawfish to the point he's stressed you may want to move her

 

[BigAl07]

It's just being it's normal self and "Marking" it's territory and saying, "You know who's boss here... mind your manners Mr Jawfish... or I'll be forced to break your fins and let you sleep with the bristle worms . . . " :LOL:

 

[Quantrill]

Well, the Jawfish does look a little bummed. He's usually hovering in his burrow, and inch or two off the bottom, today he's laying on the bottom like he's trying to get as low as he can to avoid being seen. I've seen mama clown go right down into his burrow, which freaks the jawfish out tremendously, but I think that's more curiosity than anything as I haven't seen her nip. Maybe I'm being overly cautious since I've had a few deaths recently(blue tang stressed my yellow tang to death, and outright murdered my butterfly fish). I doubt I could get than damsel out of there without having to tear the tank apart! I'll keep an eye on things throughout the day, if the Jawfish continues to look bummed and the BD keeps kicking sand in his face, the BD will have to go!

 

[1Reefer]

Best way to remove a small fish from a tank without destroying your scape is to use a trap... I will post pics of the Acrylic one I made here later one today....

 

[courterbobby]

Haha I have had sooooo many problems with damsels wanting to run the whole tank lol. I got fed up and took them back to the store! I cought mine by trapping them in a corner and putting a net on each side of the corner. Then I chased the little ba$t@rds into the net..... done!

 

[1Reefer]

see, that would be a custom "net trap" lol good thinkin Bobby...

 

[Quantrill]

How about the pics of the trap Reefer? ;-)

 

[1Reefer]

Ha! I forgot... no suprise right lol I'll go take em right now, should be able to have them posted within the hour... and thanks for the reminder!

 

[1Reefer]

Ok, ready?

Here's the trap!

First is just a picture of how I keep it when its not in use...

Now a picture of the "parts" pulled out for a better veiw...

Now two pictures of how it would work (ignore the altoids tin I had to prop the door up and it was close at hand) and the door does slide all the way up the when your using it so they don't actully have to swim under that door...

And a different angle...

Now two pics of "proof" it works...
Blue Green Chromis

"Mow" the Lawnmower

"The trap" is 1/4" Acrylic on the top and bottom, 1/8" Acrylic on the sides and back, the "guillitine" door is 1/8" glass. The trap measures 8" long 6" high 5" deep. I had to make the door out of glass for it to drop fast enough, Acrylic was too light. The only hole other than the door is where the tubing goes into the top, this tubing is conected to a syringe that is used to inject food. The line attached to the door ( I used like 40# fishing line) is pulled up and over the rim of the tank and taped to something near by, when the fish swims in for food you strip the tape and bam, down comes the door.... the only downside to this trap is you have to be watching to trap the fish, I have had to leave it in the tank for two days to catch a wrasse, I just didn't feed out of anything other than that tube into the box and eventually it was "normal" for him to go there to get food....

Any questions are welcome. ... I almost wish I wrote this up on its own thread lol

 

[BigAl07]

Excellent trap

I saw a similar one that was "Triggered" via remote control because the fish was so leery any movement made it scatter back into the rock work LOL!


Excellent design

 

[1Reefer]

Thanks Allen! I do have to confess, I partially stole the design... my LFS let me borrow a trap once that was very similar, an I got to thinking... that wouldn't be very hard to make, and improve on it.... a remote one would be sweet! Then you wouldn't have to sit and watch... I guess I could use a reallllly long peice of tape lol

 

[Quantrill]

well so far, things seem to be going better. The jawfish must like having the lights on because that's when he really comes out of his lair. Thanks for all the info! Cool trap BTW!

 

[1Reefer]

Thank you..

 

[deehz]

1Reefer,
COOL TRAP!!! Now I have to build one! My wife is going to hate me when the next tank is done! LOL! Thanks!!!!!

 

[1Reefer]

Thank you deehz... and good luck on the build!