Will yellowtail damsel back off my Gramma eventually?

[Nanodude]

My yellowtail damsel is healthy and gets along fine with a tomato clown, but when I added a royal gramma last night, he attacked it. The gramma was hiding in a hole this morning. Anyone think the gramma will eventually be able to defend itself and live a normal life? Lol

[Ninong]

Your biggest problem is that your tank is only a 24-gal nano tank. If your tank were larger, say at least 40 gallons, then you might not be seeing this much aggression.

I suspect that a 24-gal nano tank is adequate for either the yellowtail damsel or the royal gramma, but not both. The damsel may eventually back off but who knows how long this will take, assuming it actually does happen. When I say that a 24-gal tank might be adequate for a royal gramma, that's not the same as saying that I think it's a good size tank for a royal gramma because I don't. I think it's a little on the small side of a royal gramma.

As for your tomato clown, I assume this is a juvenile tomato clown at this point, right? This is a large species of anemonefish that really requires a minimum of a 40-gal aquarium. It too can be aggressive after it becomes larger.

The trick to avoiding conflicts in a 24-gal tank is to choose wisely when selecting appropriate fish. Any damsel in that size tank is going to consider the entire tank to be its exclusive territory.

[Nanodude]

Thanks Ninong. Well, I guess I'll find out the hard way. The tomato clown isn't a juvenile, but isn't full grown either. It is very mellow so far. If the Gramma dies, I'll just resign myself to the clown and damsel and concentrate on corals and an anenome.....

[kronos5]

The word Damsel should tell you the fish is a butt head