What do you do when fish are aggressive??

[boboyo]

So I got a longnose butterfly yesterday which almost got killed by my yellow tang I got last Friday.... today I returned him for a fancy anthias and 2 smaller chromis (I never see small chromis at my LFSs. My anthias hasn’t been seen since I put him an hour ago. I will not be returning to that store after the owner said the longnose would be ok with a YT and even after calling him he said it’s normal, wait a week where my friend with lots of experience said to return the longnose

now, my orchid dottyback is really bullying the 2 chromis.... and ofc the chromis are not fighting back. Will the dottyback stop the bullying or should I do some arrangements? All 3 are horribly fast and it would be heck to catch them.

the orchid dottyback was never aggressive and usually hides ever since I put the blue tang...

Tank is a month and a half old and everything is 100%. No ammonia or trates for over a month, I still test daily.

 

[sp1187]

how big is the tank?
the chromis won't fight back. the only bullying they generally do is against their smaller brothers and sisters.

anthias may be hiding.

I also have a dottyback as well as a bicolor basslet.

the basslet is aggressive to all new adds that are smaller than it.
usually after a week things have settled down when everyone figures out who has what territory marked as theirs.

as to catching problem fish, feed them using a turkey baster at the same spot in the tank every day. they will become accustomed to this and will be easy to net. I've had to rehome two fish. netting was easy, even with my crazy aquascape.

 

[Thaxxx]

You can try the mirror treatment. Attach a mirror to one side of the tank.
That will preoccupied the trouble makers.
Also move some of your rocks around where the agreesive ones normally hang out. They will stay busy trying to find a new established area.

 

[boboyo]

You can try the mirror treatment. Attach a mirror to one side of the tank.
That will preoccupied the trouble makers.
Also move some of your rocks around where the agreesive ones normally hang out. They will stay busy trying to find a new established area.

Tried the mirror which only worked for an hour with the YT

Rearranging rocks won’t work with the orchid dottyback because she hangs out in the rocks while the chromis are at the top of the tank. The dottyback goes out of her way to bully the chromis. Never seen her higher than the bottom 1/4 of the tank even during feeding until now.

things seem to have calmed down in my tank except for the anthias still being unseen. I looked all around the tank inside and outside. A fish can’t just disappear like that

 

[boboyo]

how big is the tank?
the chromis won't fight back. the only bullying they generally do is against their smaller brothers and sisters.

anthias may be hiding.

I also have a dottyback as well as a bicolor basslet.

the basslet is aggressive to all new adds that are smaller than it.
usually after a week things have settled down when everyone figures out who has what territory marked as theirs.

as to catching problem fish, feed them using a turkey baster at the same spot in the tank every day. they will become accustomed to this and will be easy to net. I've had to rehome two fish. netting was easy, even with my crazy aquascape.

65 gallon tank

 

[Greg P]

Do you have some eggcrate?
Install it in the middle of the tank to separate the critters/keep them apart.
Try this for up to a week

 

[boboyo]

Do you have some eggcrate?
Install it in the middle of the tank to separate the critters/keep them apart.
Try this for up to a week

Thats some pretty solid advice but my rockwork is like taking up the whole lenght of the aquarium so its pretty tricky. I'm learning as we go for my upgrade... which is happening in the next month or 2

 

[ca1ore]

Longnose is mostly yellow and similar body shape so pretty much a certainty that the YT will give it a hard time. Most butterflyfish are meek. What kind of anthias? Fancy doesn’t mean much.

 

[boboyo]

Longnose is mostly yellow and similar body shape so pretty much a certainty that the YT will give it a hard time. Most butterflyfish are meek. What kind of anthias? Fancy doesn’t mean much.

Idk it could be a bartlets or something. It’s pink with a yellow top fin.

today I found it’s hiding spot and I spot fed that area. It barely even ate (it took maybe 1 bite).. then my nassarius snails came and ate the food and scared off the anthias into a new hiding place.

earlier this morning it briefly came out for a swim and kinda got chased off by pretty much everyone except my yellow T. It wasn’t an aggressive chase as I’ve seen before. Maybe they were just curious to say hi to the new fish

 

[ca1ore]

Bartlett’s are pretty tough. Could also be evansi .... they are not tough at all.

 

[boboyo]

Bartlett’s are pretty tough. Could also be evansi .... they are not tough at all.

Best pic I could snap. It was between the rocks in a very dark place and almost impossible to see. This is when it came out for about a minute during feeding and just stayed there without moving then went back into another hole and I haven’t seen it since.

should I take it out? I’d rather give away a fish than have it die in my tank.
After how long should I start to worry?

 

[ca1ore]

Probably Bartlett. They hide like that if intimidated. Give it a few days.

 

[boboyo]

Probably Bartlett. They hide like that if intimidated. Give it a few days.

Thank you very much!!!! I’ll update the situation in a few days since 90% of the posts I read when I have a problem end up as a dead end and it’s sometimes frustrating.

 

[ca1ore]

LOL .... I understand. Check out my build thread below. Got a few anthias.

 

[Damon Jensen]

Well like most of us, we get excited for new fish, but suggest you have a plan. Tangs can be very territorial.

I add at night when my fish are sleeping.
I QT and let the fish grow. Mature fish handle stress better, let your new guys settle.
Size, more aggressive fish I add when they are smaller, less aggressive when they are larger.

Sometimes the fish we want just doesn't fit in with the tank.....use compatability charts