Relentless Bellus Angel

Aparker2005 · Nov 29, 2022

Hey everyone. We've got a 125 mixed reef that we have had our favorite fish, our copperband butterfly in, since around June. In August we added a small female bellus angel.

For the last week or two, the copperband has begun to hide more than normal. Today, I noticed it looked pretty beat up, and see the bellus angel constantly going after the copperband.

Doesn't matter where it goes, it just bullies it and bites at it.

Will separating them for a while work? We don't want to lose this copperband at all, but it's gonna be nearly impossible to catch this bellus.

We've got a 20g Reed with 2 clowns and a purple dottyback, and a 20g hospital tank that was used for meds recently.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Timfish · Nov 30, 2022

You can try seperating them but it likely won't work. You do need to remove the bellus and not the copperband. Leaving the bellus in the tank only lets it get more established (if that's possible). And sorry to be a debbie downer but you likely are going to have issues adding other fish if the bellus is already this aggressive.

bnord · Nov 30, 2022

Timfish said:
You can try seperating them but it likely won't work. You do need to remove the bellus and not the copperband. Leaving the bellus in the tank only lets it get more established (if that's possible). And sorry to be a debbie downer but you likely are going to have issues adding other fish if the bellus is already this aggressive.

and soon, as the CB will feel this for some time to come before healing and returning to normal

access to a fish trap?

Aparker2005 · Nov 30, 2022

I ordered a trap. Hopefully it comes in soon

bnord · Nov 30, 2022

Aparker2005 said:
I ordered a trap. Hopefully it comes in soon

bon chance - and would not have figured a bellus would be behind this

Aparker2005 · Nov 30, 2022

bnord said:
bon chance - and would not have figured a bellus would be behind this

Me either. It's been just fine since we got it, but now terrorizing the poor copperband

Aparker2005 · Nov 30, 2022

So I came in today and the copperband was pinned in a rock. I had to get it out as it was beyond stressed. It crashed into another rock and I thought it died.

Got it to the qt and now it's up and swimming, but definitely has a little mouth, tail damage, and a scale or 2 it's side missing.

I'm so glad it wasn't dead. Now if I can just get it to eat in this qt tank while I try to get the bellus out, maybe I can save it. It's definitely become our favorite fish and we definitely don't want to lose it.