My tangs are schooling?

SurfTrack · Apr 23, 2020

Hello,

I recently purchased a 2-inch gem tang and introduced it to my 100g with my yellow tang. (I will upgrade when the time comes). There was aggression for about five minutes and now they seem to always be swimming next to each other. Is this an instinct of tangs? They even swim and turn at the same time? Im just interested in this behavior? Does anyone else see this?

P-Dub · Apr 23, 2020

Some school, some don't. My three prefer to have nothing to do with one another. Looks as though they are, in fact, exhibiting schooling behavior. Nice Gem, BTW! Continue to monitor as there is a slight possibility they are sizing each other up for a knock down, drag out fight. Rarely do I see anybody dying from this but battle woulds are a possibility. So long as your water quality is great and one is not being perpetually tormented, they will heal up fine. Till it happens again.

esther · Apr 23, 2020

Our Yellow Belly Blue Tang schools with our Dejardini Sailfin Tang. They tried to kill each other for the first day and then became the best of friends. I love it. I think it's so cute.

SurfTrack · Apr 23, 2020

P-Dub said:
Some school, some don't. My three prefer to have nothing to do with one another. Looks as though they are, in fact, exhibiting schooling behavior. Nice Gem, BTW! Continue to monitor as there is a slight possibility they are sizing each other up for a knock down, drag out fight. Rarely do I see anybody dying from this but battle woulds are a possibility. So long as your water quality is great and one is not being perpetually tormented, they will heal up fine. Till it happens again.

They do. Thanks! I just got him for a really good deal because he has a little blemish (lmk if you can even see it haha). The only time I notice aggression is when the gem tang takes up too much room while feeding off the algae clip. other than that they swim around and graze the rock together. Hopefully it stays that way!

Peach02 · Apr 23, 2020

I knew this happened in the same species of some tangs eg blues or purples but I didn’t know it happened between species, as for any problems they might pick at eachother every now and then but as @P-Dub said as long as they don’t dominate eachother all should be good

ca1ore · Apr 24, 2020

Probably swImming together looking for an opportunity to gouge each other .....

SurfTrack · Apr 24, 2020

ca1ore said:
Probably swImming together looking for an opportunity to gouge each other .....

I hope not haha! They passively swim and graze together though! Thats what I think is weird! Not even flaring!

ca1ore · Apr 24, 2020

Sorry, I’m a cynic lol. I have four zebrasoma in my tank and they spend a lot of their time going at each other. No major damage fortunately, but regular chunks of fins missing.

SurfTrack · Apr 24, 2020

ca1ore said:
Sorry, I’m a cynic lol. I have four zebrasoma in my tank and they spend a lot of their time going at each other. No major damage fortunately, but regular chunks of fins missing.

Haha! We always gotta look at the negatives just in case. What kind of tangs do you have?