Tang and blenny worries

jpontier212 · Dec 14, 2016

I have a kole yellow eyed tang that is bein extremely aggressive towards a starry blenny that I have. They have been tankmates for about 2 months now and the blenny can't even come out to feed without the tang chasing him all over the place. Today I fed them and the tang chased after the blenny so bad that he scraped his face and body on the rocks in my tank. It doesn't look real bad but you can tell he scraped off his scales in those particular areas. How long do you guys think this will last? The other tankmates are a Magnificent foxface, Flame angel,2 extreme misbar black clownfishes, 3emerald crabs and a coral banded shrimp. No aggression towards no one else.

stevo01 · Dec 14, 2016

@eatbreakfast @melypr1985 @Brew12 @Diesel

Try to catch the starry and put him in QT if really injured. Otherwise, I would catch it and use an acclimation box. Hopefully the kole accepts him.

Brew12 · Dec 14, 2016

jpontier212 said:
I have a kole yellow eyed tang that is bein extremely aggressive towards a starry blenny that I have. They have been tankmates for about 2 months now and the blenny can't even come out to feed without the tang chasing him all over the place. Today I fed them and the tang chased after the blenny so bad that he scraped his face and body on the rocks in my tank. It doesn't look real bad but you can tell he scraped off his scales in those particular areas. How long do you guys think this will last? The other tankmates are a Magnificent foxface, Flame angel,2 extreme misbar black clownfishes, 3emerald crabs and a coral banded shrimp. No aggression towards no one else.

If it's been going on this long I'm not sure I would expect it to stop. You need to work at separating them at this point imo.

RyanSweet · Dec 14, 2016

I've had horrible luck with Kole's and Starry's. I tried multiple different Kole's in a 75 (at different times) because of aggression towards my Starry. Even in my 150gal, I had a Chocolate and a Kole in with my Starry. The Chocolate never looked at the Starry, but the Kole would chase him into a rock every single time he would try to come out. Would even leave food to chase him and eventually the Starry disappeared. I'm guessing he was killed due to the aggression but I couldn't get either the Kole or the Starry out.

I have a buddy with a 265gal that his Kole killed 2 Starry's and a Lawnmower so he stopped trying to do that body type blenny.

I'll say good luck with it, but I don't know anyone personally or in our local club that has had success with those two fish.

melypr1985 · Dec 14, 2016

I would try to catch him. If you have a way to separate him from the tang, that would be best. An acclimation box or something similar would work well. that way he can get some rest, and time to heal up without being attacked. If the tang is going to continue chasing him, you'll have to consider removing one of them permanently. While the blenny is separated, keep a watch on his wounds, if they get infected you'll have to treat in the QT.