Blonde Naso Tang Recent Agression

joro · Oct 29, 2017

Hey R2R! I have a ~340g DT and about 3 weeks ago introduced a pair of adult crosshatch triggers and a PBT into the DT. Our Male blonde naso has been an absolute angel ever since we’ve had him but for some reason, he has been very aggressive towards the male crosshatch trigger in the past week or so. I’ve been letting them “work it out” but it doesn’t seem to be subsiding like it has with other tangs in the past - any recommendations? I’ve read a few threads on putting mirrors on the side to distract them although that’s been primarily for yellow/purple tangs more so than Nasos. I’d hate to lose any of the fish as they are all beautiful but obviouslyly want to make sure long term they are all happy/peaceful.

Daniel@R2R · Nov 1, 2017

@4FordFamily has a great article on tang aggression that might help. Maybe he can also give some thoughts here.

4FordFamily · Nov 1, 2017

joro said:
Hey R2R! I have a ~340g DT and about 3 weeks ago introduced a pair of adult crosshatch triggers and a PBT into the DT. Our Male blonde naso has been an absolute angel ever since we’ve had him but for some reason, he has been very aggressive towards the male crosshatch trigger in the past week or so. I’ve been letting them “work it out” but it doesn’t seem to be subsiding like it has with other tangs in the past - any recommendations? I’ve read a few threads on putting mirrors on the side to distract them although that’s been primarily for yellow/purple tangs more so than Nasos. I’d hate to lose any of the fish as they are all beautiful but obviouslyly want to make sure long term they are all happy/peaceful.

Oh that’s nuts! I’ve never seen an ounce of aggression from a Naso towards anything other than another naso — rarely even other tangs. They’re pretty laid back. This lends me to suggest a sump visit for a week or so and re-introduction.

Do you leave enough Nori for it to feed for 3/4 of the day? A hungry tang is a crazy tang!

Mirrors may help but this aggression sounds very targeted and unusual. I’m guessing a temporary separation will do the trick.

joro · Nov 2, 2017

4FordFamily said:
Oh that’s nuts! I’ve never seen an ounce of aggression from a Naso towards anything other than another naso — rarely even other tangs. They’re pretty laid back. This lends me to suggest a sump visit for a week or so and re-introduction.

Do you leave enough Nori for it to feed for 3/4 of the day? A hungry tang is a crazy tang!

Mirrors may help but this aggression sounds very targeted and unusual. I’m guessing a temporary separation will do the trick.

Thanks for the tips and maybe I'll try to put out even more Nori to see if that solves the issue, I never really considered that honestly. They are already getting 2 sheets a day (1 green, 1 purple) which I split between 2 of the veggie clips but usually that is gone by mid-day so I've started putting another sheet (half green, half purple) in at night so that have more. That overnight clip seems to be about halfway eaten in the morning when I replenish again with another 2 sheets. Part of the nori's quick consumption is that the triggers also eat it (who would have thought it?) and they take big portions down in single bites. To your point though, that may be part of it - maybe the triggers are eating half of it and leaving the others to fend for themselves which is causing the aggression which would make sense especially since the Naso has a crazy big appetite it seems for the nori. I'll make some adjustments and update you in a few days, thanks for the suggestion