Tang attacking clowns

Willbiker · May 23, 2020

Hi all

My vampire tang has all of a sudden turned aggressive and attacked my 2 small clowns killing 1 of them. To protect it I have netted the clown at the surface but what do I do now. I could put the clown in my refugium for a week or so and then try to introduce it again :S

Any ideas?

Webslinger · May 23, 2020

get a bigger tank or rehome him ( the tang that is)

Fishy212 · May 23, 2020

put your fish in time out.. rework the rock scape to establish new territories. Sorry about the clown

Dom · May 23, 2020

Clowns can get nasty. They haven't any objection to picking on fish bigger than them. And yes, you could put the clown in the sump, if it has a refugium chamber. If not, you can get an acrylic isolation box in which to keep him safe until he recovers from any injuries.

If the Tang is a recent addition, it may be a territorial issue. And as @Fishy212 has mentioned, reworking your rockscape can be an effective way to correct the problem as visual land marks marking territory are removed and new land marks will be established by both fish at the same time.

ecexotics · May 23, 2020

my purple tang used to try to murder my clownfish and chased my exquisite wrasse out of the tank when i was working with the lid off. i think when they get put in a small tank they can become very aggressive. mine was in a 75 gallon. traded him for some acro frags at lfs and ever since my clownfish run the tank

Willbiker · May 23, 2020

Thanks for the replies. The tang has been in there bout 2 weeks with no problems and the tank is 650 litres with only 5 fish so lots of space. Its only the very small clowns which it has shown aggression to. The other fish have been ignored.