Tang aggression mirror trick

[Gtinnel]

So last night I added a small foxface to my tank and immediately my fairly large purple tang started being aggressive to it. I then turned the lights off for the rest of the night and put a mirror in front of the tank. This morning the tang is staying at the mirror constantly attacking its reflection, so it is at least leaving the foxface alone.
For those who have used the mirror trick how long have you had to leave the mirror in front of the tank before the aggressive fish forgot about the new addition?

 

[Arego]

I don't think there is a defined answer here. Just try removing it for small periods of time and see what happens.. then repeat during a feeding and so forth until you are comfortable with what is happening to perhaps remove it altogether.

 

[Gtinnel]

Yea I'm sure it's a very case by case thing, I was just curious about others experiences. I almost feel bad for my fish (more than just the purple tang) that are constantly at the mirror unhappy about their new doppelganger.

 

[Utubereefer]

I’ve had it take 3-4 days

 

[A Young Reefer]

For some reason my purple just hates any yellow fish. Out of all my fish it only attacked my fox face and my yellow wrasse.

 

[Gtinnel]

I’ve had it take 3-4 days

I'm planning on leaving the mirror all day today and then tomorrow evening remove it and see how it goes. I'm honestly amazed that almost all of my current fish hate their reflection.

 

[Utubereefer]

 

[BrianAnthony]

That's funny! I love it! I put my 10" tablet up against the glass with a looping clownfish video. Didn't seem to stop my bully clown.. lol. I guess he thought he was at the movies.

 

[Gtinnel]

For some reason my purple just hates any yellow fish. Out of all my fish it only attacked my fox face and my yellow wrasse.

So are you still able to keep them together though right?

 

[A Young Reefer]

So are you still able to keep them together though right?

Unfortunately not, my yellow wrasse took a jump through the mesh and I had to revoke my fox face. But it is absolutely possible to keep them together I just did not try hard enough and discovered the aggression when it was too late.

 

[Gtinnel]

Well the foxface is now "attacking" the mirror along with most of my other fish.

 

[Utubereefer]

Well the foxface is now "attacking" the mirror along with most of my other fish.

Like a team building exercise

 

[JGT]

Fight Club…for fish…

 

[BrianAnthony]

I need a video!!! This is awesome!

 

[Gtinnel]

I need a video!!! This is awesome!

I'll try to get a pic next time I see the foxface over there. It's hard to see much because I have a big mirror in front of the tank, plus my tank glass is almost always dirty. I really need to start cleaning it regularly. I would've put the mirror on the side glass but they're covered in corraline algea to where you can see through them.

 

[Brittanyjo]

Mirrors:
I had a coral angelfish that was attacking a flame angelfish. I have a 500 gallon tank and thought there was enough room for both angelfish. I put up a mirror and the whole tank went crazy. I lost my flame angelfish within 2 hour of the mirror being placed. The mirror definitely caused many of my fish to be homicidal. The coral beauty is normally calm and peaceful, but the mirror made him crazy. The coral beauty started attacking the mirror and all the other fish in the tank. It was crazy to watch.

When adding a mirror make sure you are around to watch it, my experience was that it made things worse.

 

[Gtinnel]

Mirrors:
I had a coral angelfish that was attacking a flame angelfish. I have a 500 gallon tank and thought it would be OK. I put up a mirror and the whole tank went crazy. I lost my flame angelfish within 2 hour of the mirror going up. The mirror definitely increased the fishy "kill them" hormones. When adding a mirror make sure you are around to watch it, my experience was that it made things worse.

It worked great for me. I know it causes an aggressive fish to be more aggressive towards its reflection, but that’s the first I’ve heard of the fish harming itself from attacking the reflection in the glass.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

So last night I added a small foxface to my tank and immediately my fairly large purple tang started being aggressive to it. I then turned the lights off for the rest of the night and put a mirror in front of the tank. This morning the tang is staying at the mirror constantly attacking its reflection, so it is at least leaving the foxface alone.
For those who have used the mirror trick how long have you had to leave the mirror in front of the tank before the aggressive fish forgot about the new addition?

I’ve done it a few ways and the amount of time depends on the fish. I’ve had it for as little as a few hours and up to 2 days

 

[bruno3047]

Keep in mind that when you put up a mirror and you agitate the fish, that stresses them out and reduces their immunity to any diseases that might be present.