Mild Tang Aggression - at what point should I be concerned?

[Stevorino]

I just introduced a QTd Gem Tang and Purple Tang to my main display today that houses a large 10year old Yellow Tang and ~8 year old Hippo Blue.

Hippo Blue is cool, no problems.

Yellow is generally non-aggressive, but obviously concerned about the Gem and Purple going into this. Yellow is much larger than Gem & Purple.

I put the Gem & Purple into a large acclimation box that has served me well, and the gem starts freaking out and doesn't calm down after ~10 minutes. I make the decision to drop him into the display and just roll the dice.

Purple goes and hides is doing what I expected.

The Gem, however, is doing some kind of submission dance with the Yellow that I'm not sure if I should be concerned about or not.

The yellow will come up to the Gem, and the gem will like swim on it's side in open water... the Yellow will inspect and they do like a weird dance like they want to kiss and hit each other at the same time.... and then the Yellow will go away.... BUT THEN the Gem will FOLLOW the yellow. If these two were dogs I would think they were playing, but there is definitely a sense of dominance going on.

I don't understand why the Gem doesn't just go chill somewhere and keeps engaging with the Yellow.

Haven't seen a nip or a tail swing. Gem hasn't shown the barcode white marks that he had when he was first shipped and stressed.

 

[Tripod1404]

I wouldn't worry. They are probably establishing hierarchy, combined that that gem is new and small it may instinctively want to school with the yellow. If yellow was going to be aggressive, you would have already knew that as tang aggression is mistakenly violent and persistent, especially early on.

 

[Stevorino]

This jives exactly with what I'm seeing - thank you!

~30 minutes in and it's dying down quite a bit already - appreciate it!

 

[Stevorino]

I wouldn't worry. They are probably establishing hierarchy, combined that that gem is new and small it may instinctively want to school with the yellow. If yellow was going to be aggressive, you would have already knew that as tang aggression is mistakenly violent and persistent, especially early on.

Just wanted to say thanks again on the calming advice!

Here we are ~36 hours later and everyone is getting along just fine. The gem follows the yellow around like a puppy dog, and the purple behind the gem

 

[crazyfishmom]

I have a pair of bonded yellows and a gem. Hoping to add a purple and scopas at some point. Great to see success stories like this!

 

[Stevorino]

I have a pair of bonded yellows and a gem. Hoping to add a purple and scopas at some point. Great to see success stories like this!

It really is fun having the tang gang all swimming around together. They are without a doubt the stars of the show

 

[Jcampise51]

I have a pair of bonded yellows and a gem. Hoping to add a purple and scopas at some point. Great to see success stories like this!

I just added two baby yellows to a tank with Naso, purple, and yellow eye kole. Yellow eye and naso are very chill but purple is out for blood. Won’t stop harassing the two yellows. I’ve had the mirror up on and of and it works when I have it up. Then when I take it down abo it a day later the purple goes back at it with the yellow. We’ll see what happens…

 

[vetteguy53081]

Certain tangs will challenge new ones, be down right nasty and raise havoc.
I have 25 total and the yellows squabbled for months but became friends. Some of the wore are:
sohal
powder blue
clown
sailfin
lavender

 

[KrisReef]

Just wanted to say thanks again on the calming advice!

Here we are ~36 hours later and everyone is getting along just fine. The gem follows the yellow around like a puppy dog, and the purple behind the gem

And everyone said “It will never work!”

Glad you posted this as I have not seen or heard of this behavior amongst tang friends.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I recently added a two spot bristletooth to my gem, two yellows, and blue hippo and they did not even look at her. My keyhole angel and chromis harem paid more attention. They’re all happy now. Still looking for a purple. Will add purple and powder blue who’s been sitting in a different tank in a few weeks. Love my tang gang. Super happy I decided to be cautious but still go for it.

 

[dschuffert]

I have had the same experience. I added a Yellow-eyed Kole tang to my 900L last week. I already have Yellow, Scopus, and Powder Brown Tangs along with a dozen other fish. The other Tangs harassed the new Kole Tang for about 4 days and then got used to it. They are now swimming together without any issues. This is the pattern I see any time I introduce a new fish.