Get a "bully" to bully a bully - good idea ?

[D3DPrintedThingz]

90g with a ton of rock work and hiding places

First inhabitants - two clown
Then added blue eye kole tang
Fast forward 3 months added melanarus wrasse
First signs of aggression between wrasse and tang - eventually subsides
Then 1 month added leopard wrasse (about a week ago)

Now I am here typing this post. The kole tang is quite the bully. She chased around the melanarus for a week or two, and after adding the leopard she does the chasing around again. Luckily the wrasse I have are definitely do-de-do wrasse and have no idea they're being bullied. Personal space is completely out of the question for these two, I think they think they're just clownfish.

What are the possibilities when having a resident bully of introducing new fishes ? I don't want to have the kole tang put the fear of God into any new fish I introduce. It is also becoming annoying to get the fish out of the overflows...

Is there a fish I could introduce that would 'bully' only other bully fish, and keep her temper relatively at bay?

Please be nice I am not going to do anything that is bad for the fish, I am only at this time putting feelers out there to see what others have done for success.

 

[Dan_P]

90g with a ton of rock work and hiding places

First inhabitants - two clown
Then added blue eye kole tang
Fast forward 3 months added melanarus wrasse
First signs of aggression between wrasse and tang - eventually subsides
Then 1 month added leopard wrasse (about a week ago)

Now I am here typing this post. The kole tang is quite the bully. She chased around the melanarus for a week or two, and after adding the leopard she does the chasing around again. Luckily the wrasse I have are definitely do-de-do wrasse and have no idea they're being bullied. Personal space is completely out of the question for these two, I think they think they're just clownfish.

What are the possibilities when having a resident bully of introducing new fishes ? I don't want to have the kole tang put the fear of God into any new fish I introduce. It is also becoming annoying to get the fish out of the overflows...

Is there a fish I could introduce that would 'bully' only other bully fish, and keep her temper relatively at bay?

Please be nice I am not going to do anything that is bad for the fish, I am only at this time putting feelers out there to see what others have done for success.

Won’t work. Animal and even human behavior don’t work that way. Sell or donate the bully fish.

 

[davidcalgary29]

We create these conflicts by forcing fish with similar living environments into a direct competition for food and territory; it's not their fault.

Before you rehome your fish, make sure that you can't ameliorate the issue by rearranging aquascape. I have a huge rock in my work tank that toppled over overnight (no damage). I noticed that my juv yellow tang and the two lyretail damsels were nasty and aggressive with each other. When I put the rock back up, aggression ceased.

 

[doubleshot00]

Should have added the tang last. Like every says to. Rearrange the rocks or take him out for a month or two.

Your tang

 

[czoolander]

That simpsons episode where they have a rodent problem . So they bring in snakes......... Then they have a snake problem and have to bring in Gorillas..... Then the Gorillas become a problem

You see where this is going ...... haha

 

[Bucs20fan]

Yeah this ends one of two ways, a dead fish, or a rehomed fish. Both of these fish can do more damage than you would think with their mouths, my clown tang breaks skin when it bites me.

 

[AKL1950]

Give the tang a mirror to play with for a while. Rearrange a few rocks. I’ve made other “little” changes as well, like moving the algae clip to a different location or change where I put the food in. Keeps the tang a little confused and may help settle things down.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Should have added the tang last. Like every says to. Rearrange the rocks or take him out for a month or two.

Your tang

Lolol well done

Give the tang a mirror to play with for a while. Rearrange a few rocks. I’ve made other “little” changes as well, like moving the algae clip to a different location or change where I put the food in. Keeps the tang a little confused and may help settle things down.

i just threw a bunch of rocks from the sump into the DT and they all almost instantly the aggression subsided.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Go to Walgreens or Walmart and buy some cheap hand mirrors. I used painters tape and taped them around the tank, has worked for me 100% of the time with all my aggressive fish. The bully will see their reflection and focus on that, it will eventually realize it's not the only tough guy in the tank. The only time this wont work is if you're trying to add a timid fish to a tank where it can get picked on.

I had a powder blue that I thought was going to kill my entire tank (had 3 yt, 1 sailfin and 1 hippo) and he was relentless to the point I didn't think I was going to keep him. This fish had some major roid rage, the mirrors made him a model citizen after 2 weeks. I did this in previous tanks too and when I moved them to a larger tank.

 

[Tamberav]

I tried two kole tangs, both were jerks... harassing random fish. I have had a yellow tang for a year and a half? or so and no issues with this one. I have added new fish since.

I say ditch that tang... find one that has a more mild personality. They are individuals so sometimes it takes a few.

I would not want to re-arrange or deal with BS every time I want to add a fish but that is me. Generally fish may act out but if they don't calm down in a few days or are actually ripping fins and a real theat... then they can go find a home with some other big baddies like them

 

[FIN&BONEZ]

Foxface Lo might be a good addition for that size tank. Our's seems to play more of a referee when the tang's get ***** with each other. It's pretty funny to watch just gets in between tussle and flairs up tang's go on their way. Also great color and will keep nuisance algae away?

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Foxface Lo might be a good addition for that size tank. Our's seems to play more of a referee when the tang's get ***** with each other. It's pretty funny to watch just gets in between tussle and flairs up tang's go on their way. Also great color and will keep nuisance algae away?

Foxface scare me with those spines…

I am considering Rehoming the tang. Is there a good way to go about this? I ordered it online, doubt they want me to mail it back. But I also am attached to the fish species. Would be cool to rehome this one and try again with a smaller fish of the same type or possibly a tomini. The fish arrived as a full grown 7” mammoth, the plan was for it to not to instantly be largest fish in tank, lol. Guess that is risk of ordering online

 

[AKL1950]

If you have a good size QT, you might try to just and put it there for a month or so. When you reintroduce it to the DT, it is the new guy and it might be enough to calm it down and get along. A new hierarchy will have been established in the DT And it won’t be the tang on top any more.

 

[Mackey]

There once was an old lady who swallowed a fly..........

 

[brandon429]

it seems like a massive disease risk/entire fish wipeout chance of roughly 60% based on disease forum data, to do this plan? asking bc no mention of qt sourced fish

it was neat to read from David about orderly nature of rock stack impacting fish aggression, that's fascinating/a reflection on a change in their environment/fascinating.

 

[Mackey]

One thing that I did with my cichilds in my freshwater days to ease aggression was to increase flow. I guess it gave them something to be busy with other than murder other fish.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

it seems like a massive disease risk/entire fish wipeout chance of roughly 60% based on disease forum data, to do this plan? asking bc no mention of qt sourced fish

it was neat to read from David about orderly nature of rock stack impacting fish aggression, that's fascinating/a reflection on a change in their environment/fascinating.

my fishes are from order online they get a 7 day QT when they arrive and again before they ship . this has helped me sleep at night a bit . of course inspected visually before they enter the DT and make sure they get a good drip and temp acclimation .

rearranging the rockwork worked wonders. I simply moved about 10 golfball - baseball sized rocks from sump to DT and fortified the left side of the tank with a huge cave system. The mirror was helping but almost instantly after rearranging the rocks the aggression subsided . I remember I did this also when introducing the tang , it worked then as well. My memory is not the best .

I am hoping that with a UV going 8 hr/day and then feeding with sea chem and keeping very stable parameters the immune systems of my fish would keep them from picking up diseases . quarantining fish just sounds very difficult, and while I know the people who do no do it are considered risky , I will have to take my chances at becoming a statistic .

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

One thing that I did with my cichilds in my freshwater days to ease aggression was to increase flow. I guess it gave them something to be busy with other than murder other fish.

weirdly enough after about 2 months of running two jcp-80 gyres in the 90 gallon, I turned them both down from 50% to 10% and moved them to alternate sides of tank instead of both on same side, the anemones look way happier. I think i was pushing around too much water and stressing out the inhabitants, they are more free to swim in the open water now with less restrictive flow

 

[brandon429]

I was meaning the 30 day qt with the matched meds to the species/the in-depth stuff

wasn't trying to rain on parade/it's just a shocking loss rate in the disease forum from skipping qt preps/true qt. Jay's biosecurity article warns so starkly against adding fish to control factors in the tank. it's true most skip the preps, 7 days qt is 7 days better than just adding in the fish agreed.

 

[SlugSnorter]

90g with a ton of rock work and hiding places

First inhabitants - two clown
Then added blue eye kole tang
Fast forward 3 months added melanarus wrasse
First signs of aggression between wrasse and tang - eventually subsides
Then 1 month added leopard wrasse (about a week ago)

Now I am here typing this post. The kole tang is quite the bully. She chased around the melanarus for a week or two, and after adding the leopard she does the chasing around again. Luckily the wrasse I have are definitely do-de-do wrasse and have no idea they're being bullied. Personal space is completely out of the question for these two, I think they think they're just clownfish.

What are the possibilities when having a resident bully of introducing new fishes ? I don't want to have the kole tang put the fear of God into any new fish I introduce. It is also becoming annoying to get the fish out of the overflows...

Is there a fish I could introduce that would 'bully' only other bully fish, and keep her temper relatively at bay?

Please be nice I am not going to do anything that is bad for the fish, I am only at this time putting feelers out there to see what others have done for success.

more aggression more problems