Female Blue Devil Damselfish - Medium

Female Blue Devil Damselfish

The Female Blue Damselfish is completely blue in colour. Unlike the male which has an orange tail, which makes it easy to tell them apart.

These Damsels have the ability to change their colour to almost black when they feel threatened. This helps them to hide in holes and crevices between coral. Then once the threat has passed then they can quickly change their colour back to their natural bright blue colouration.

The Blue Devil Damsel is a very hardy fish and easy to care for. This makes this active fish very popular with both new and experienced aquarists.

They are only small fish being less than 9cm long but they are aggressive, but you can keep more than one of these fish together.

You can keep a pair in a tank or one male with many females. When doing this though you need to ensure that they are in a larger tank with lots of hiding places for them.

The Blue Devil Damselfish is found on reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Tank Recommendations for the Blue Devil Damselfish

You can keep Blue Devil Damselfish either on their own or as a mated pair in a 114-litre aquarium. If you are keeping a group of them or with other fish then you should keep them in a tank of 208 litres or larger.

These fish tend to spend most of their time close to the bottom of the tank guarding their algae gardens. They like to dart in and out of the corals and crevices between rocks and other tank features. This is especially true if you are keeping some larger aggressive fish with them or a larger group of them.

These fish are active and so ensure that there is space for them to swim too. They are reef safe and coral safe.

If your tank isn’t mature enough for algae growth for your Damsels to eat then you can supplement their vegetable intake with prepared foods.

Suitable Tank Buddies

These fish are aggressive fish and so you should be careful when selecting tank mates to keep with it. Generally, larger tank mates are recommended so long as they’re not too big and able to eat the Damselfish.

Usually Compatible

In a large enough tank these female Blue Devil Damselfish are fine to keep in a larger group. Often a group of 7-9 works well as then aggression will be dispersed throughout the group. You should only keep 1 male Blue Devil Damsel with them unless you have a very large tank where they can distance their territories.

You can also mix them in with Dottybacks, Tangs, Large Angelfish, Large Wrasses, 6 Line and 8 Line Wrasses. They are also fine with crabs, snails and live corals.

Sometime Compatible

You should monitor these Damselfish with Gobies, Dartfish, Fairy Wrasses, the more aggressive Clownfish. Dwarf Angelfish should be fine in tanks over 100 gallons as otherwise these Blue Devil’s may harass them.

Rarely Compatible

As with all of the smaller species of fish including these Blue Devil Damselfish they shouldn’t be kept with any predatory fish that can eat them, like Lionfish, Scorpionfish, Sharks or Groupers. Also, these guys are way too aggressive to keep with Seahorses, pipefish or Mandarinfish.

Feeding Your Blue Devil Damselfish

Blue Devil Damselfish are omnivores and will eat algae growing in the tank on live rock. They also like live foods like brine shrimps, cherry shrimp and copepods. They will also accept shredded fish, flake foods and pellet foods. Pellets should be soaked before feeding them to the fish to ensure they don’t have air trapped in them that can get trapped in their intestinal tract.

It’s best to feed these fish two times a day as this does tend to help to reduce their aggression levels if they don’t feel they have to guard their territories food resources.