Acanthurus japonicus..."unlikely to cause major problems"

[OrionN]

Did not see the entire tank but it does seem to be small for the Blue, Yellow, Powder Brown AND Powder Blue tang (plus that mother of all clowns)
All the fish are healthy and fat

 

[Mayerlyn A]

Wonder what happens if you move the decoy ?

That is one giant clown.

 

[Kmsutows]

They certainly wont get along right away. Both are notorious jerks on their own and together the new one is going to be beat to hell. Your best bet is to have the lights off for at least the first couple days and have multiple spots with nori available 24/7. With that said, it can be done.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Did not see the entire tank but it does seem to be small for the Blue, Yellow, Powder Brown AND Powder Blue tang (plus that mother of all clowns)
All the fish are healthy and fat

I’m curious how big the tank is too, either the powder brown is really small or there are a few pretty big fish in there! Perspective can be a tricky thing when viewing tanks online

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I think that was a genius idea! Good luck with your new addition. That clown is huge!

Did you move the print out to another area and see if anything happened?

I have moved it around a few times today, but there has been little action. Powder brown is either okay with it today or recognizes the decoy is not real.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I’m curious how big the tank is too, either the powder brown is really small or there are a few pretty big fish in there! Perspective can be a tricky thing when viewing tanks online

The tank is a 125 gallon. The powder brown us about 3-3.5" long.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

That clown is huge!

I've had that pearl eye bicinctus for about 3 1/2 years. You think it's big?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Definitely a unique way to test for compatibility... love it [emoji23] keep us posted with more video if you do create a school of these for the intro.

 

[jsvand5]

I wish you luck but I don’t think adding a powder blue with an established powder brown is going to end well.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Update...so, I've had the decoy in over the last few days. I've moved it around several times, and...nothing. Not one sign of aggression. So, tonight I decided to reintroduce powder blue in an acclimation cube. Here are the results:

I have seen zero acts of aggression from powder brown towards powder blue. In fact, I've seen more than one occasion of yellow tang and foxface keeping powder brown in check when he looked like he was going to get aggressive. Yellow tang seems to be placing himself in between the two, and foxface nips at powder brown when he moves too close to the box.

I've even gone as far as to put powder blue right in the middle of powder brown's territory since I knew powder blue would be safe. Still no reaction.

At some point, I'll reintroduce the decoy to see what happens. Of course, I need to go slowly and be careful because it could be the acclimation box that is providing the peace since it looks similar to a fish trap!

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Here's the blocking that's been going on since reintroduction:

 

[Txag96]

Here's the blocking that's been going on since reintroduction:

Whoop!

 

[Jesterrace]

Nice. I am considering trying some experiments with videos to see how the current residents respond to them.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

There was a little more activity today, but every time powder brown went after the decoy, my fox face checked his aggression. Pretty interesting behavior, actually.

 

[Frogger]

Good luck. It might just be the acclimation tank that is keeping the powder brown at bay.

Tangs can be horrible. About 6 months ago I added a foxface and 2 bangai cardinals to my tank. I put them in a large acclamation cage inside the tank for over 2 weeks. My kole tang for the most part kept away from the acclamation tank. When I finally released the foxface and the cardinals the kole tang was relentless I had to put a mirror up against the tank to take away the attack. The kole tang attacked that mirror for days, when he wasn't attacking the mirror he was terrorizing all the other tank mates especially the new foxface. The tang just about killed himself and was covered in cuts and bruises from his attacks on the foxface and his attacks on the glass. His face swelled up.

It took about a week for the kole tang to begin to settle down and another month for the cuts and bruises to go away.

They get along fine now.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Good luck. It might just be the acclimation tank that is keeping the powder brown at bay.

Tangs can be horrible. About 6 months ago I added a foxface and 2 bangai cardinals to my tank. I put them in a large acclamation cage inside the tank for over 2 weeks. My kole tang for the most part kept away from the acclamation tank. When I finally released the foxface and the cardinals the kole tang was relentless I had to put a mirror up against the tank to take away the attack. The kole tang attacked that mirror for days, when he wasn't attacking the mirror he was terrorizing all the other tank mates especially the new foxface. The tang just about killed himself and was covered in cuts and bruises from his attacks on the foxface and his attacks on the glass. His face swelled up.

It took about a week for the kole tang to begin to settle down and another month for the cuts and bruises to go away.

They get along fine now.

I have to say...I've got a new appreciation for how tough the fox face is! He's a bulldog .

 

[PhilT]

I have to say...I've got a new appreciation for how tough the fox face is! He's a bulldog .

With their dorsal fin spikes, foxface usually don’t have much to be afraid of.

 

[PhilT]

I have a powder blue who's in a tank with just a dwarf fuzzy lion and filefish currently (they were there first) I bought a small heniocus, thinking it would be a nice addition. As soon as I floated the bag in the tank, the powder blue circled the bag like a shark. He also must have slashed the bag since it was losing water when I lifted it out. Put the heniocus in an acclimation trap and the tang wasn’t too interested when he realized he couldn’t get to it. Also hung a mirror in front. The tang looked at the mirror and would flash at it but wasn’t too crazy. About a week later, I tried introducing the heniocus. Forget it! The tang attacked him immediate and ripped off his beautiful dorsal banner about halfway. Moved the heniocus to my reeftank. Was afraid that they weren’t reef safe but so far he’s been great in it. Funny he was even cleaning my foxface! I read juveniles might do this.

I was thinking of moving the powder blue once he got bigger to the reef but not sure how he’d behave even if he’s the new guy. All smaller peaceful fish. Only comparable size are my foxface and copperband.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

In my case, the powder blue was actually being bullied by a smaller powder brown tangs! That, I did not expect .

 

[Ridgeway]

This is a time bomb. No matter how well you introduce the PBT there will be some serious issue of aggression at some point, it's inevitable. I like your innovative approach to the introduction but i feel it will end in one of the fish having to be moved on.