Yellow tang being a jerk!!

[Jedi1199]

Today I took a run to the LFS and found a beautiful juvenile Hippo Tang. Score!!! Got him home, acclimated him and put him into my 55G mixed reef.. Thought he would be a fantastic addition of different color until he outgrows the 55. The Yellow Tang had a different opinion. He IMMEDIATELY went after the Hippo with death in his eyes! Flashing his tail spike and chasing the Hippo around relentlessly.

Now I have a bit of a dilemma. The only tank I have where I feel he will be safe is the 32. He is going to outgrow that tank quickly. Then what do I do with him? Obviously the 55 is a no go, and I fear that the 180 will be a problem too.. I have a lot of fairly aggressive fish in there now, including a Scopas Tang that is considerably larger than the Hippo (larger than the Yellow as well so I don't think moving that one would work either)

I am really surprised at the reaction. They are such dissimilar fish.. I would have expected them to pretty much ignore each other. The Yellow is a model citizen with the tankmates he has now (2 Wyoming White Clowns, 2 Pajama Cardinals, 1 Magenta Dottyback, 1 Blue-green Chromis, 1 Firefish Goby)

I really want that pop of blue in this tank. What else could I put in there to give me the color and not have the aggression? Maybe a Yellow Tail Blue Damsel?

Opinions?

 

[NashobaTek]

Put a mirror near the yellow tang to distract him. It might help with the aggression

 

[Jedi1199]

Put a mirror near the yellow tang to distract him. It might help with the aggression

Have you done this with success? Do you know from personal experience that it works?

 

[DeniableArc]

Have you done this with success? Do you know from personal experience that it works?

I recently put a 2.5” hippo with a mature yellow and the yellow did chase and flash for a week but no damage done. Now two months on they seem to get along for the most part with the yellow chasing it every now and then.

 

[NashobaTek]

Have you done this with success? Do you know from personal experience that it works?

No I haven't used the mirror trick, but I have read several threads on R2R of people who have.

 

[George81]

i had a similar experience when i added my copper band. My powder brown tang went nuts and continually harassed and chased the copper band around for weeks (if I remember correctly.) it got to the point where I considered Rehoming the powder brown cause he was a real you know what…I was worried the copper band would stop eating...after a few weeks he left the cbb alone and over a year later they seems like buds..the powder brown also at one point went after the yellow Tang however I wasn’t able,to determine who the aggressor was…they were both guilty in my opinion but the powder brown looked guilty most times.
just keep an eye on the situation. Most likely the aggression will die down.
I never used any mirrors so I can’t speak on how effective it is.

 

[BiggestE222]

Today I took a run to the LFS and found a beautiful juvenile Hippo Tang. Score!!! Got him home, acclimated him and put him into my 55G mixed reef.. Thought he would be a fantastic addition of different color until he outgrows the 55. The Yellow Tang had a different opinion. He IMMEDIATELY went after the Hippo with death in his eyes! Flashing his tail spike and chasing the Hippo around relentlessly.

Now I have a bit of a dilemma. The only tank I have where I feel he will be safe is the 32. He is going to outgrow that tank quickly. Then what do I do with him? Obviously the 55 is a no go, and I fear that the 180 will be a problem too.. I have a lot of fairly aggressive fish in there now, including a Scopas Tang that is considerably larger than the Hippo (larger than the Yellow as well so I don't think moving that one would work either)

I am really surprised at the reaction. They are such dissimilar fish.. I would have expected them to pretty much ignore each other. The Yellow is a model citizen with the tankmates he has now (2 Wyoming White Clowns, 2 Pajama Cardinals, 1 Magenta Dottyback, 1 Blue-green Chromis, 1 Firefish Goby)

I really want that pop of blue in this tank. What else could I put in there to give me the color and not have the aggression? Maybe a Yellow Tail Blue Damsel?

Opinions?

They both eat Algae. Should have quarantined

 

[Jedi1199]

They both eat Algae. Should have quarantined

This reply is completely useless. I am well aware of the dietary needs of every fish in my care. Further, how would QT aid with fish aggression?

I had already moved the Hippo to the 32 before I even posted this thread. I posted this as a combination rant and warning.

Most of the aggression threads I have read tend to validate the opinion that like shaped, colored, sized fish will fight and different fish are safe. Well, here is firsthand experience to the contrary. Will the aggression slow and stop over time? Quite possible.. but I am unwilling to take that risk.. These 2 particular fish have always been on my wish list, and to lose either of them from a preventable situation is absolutely unacceptable to me.

 

[Tamberav]

I would say they are similar enough in shape as they are flat bodied type fish. I was told this is why tangs can take so poorly to a butterfly fish roommate.

Maybe try a time out for the yellow and add the blue tang first or an acclimation box if you want to try the 180?

 

[Jedi1199]

I would say they are similar enough in shape as they are flat bodied type fish. I was told this is why tangs can take so poorly to a butterfly fish roommate.

If the blue tang is small, it should be ok for a bit since you said you were getting a larger tank. I have had Tangs in 25-30g QTs for many weeks/months before. I certainly wouldn’t leave one in there permanently though.

I put him in the 32 as there are no other tangs in that tank. It is the most lightly stocked tank I have with only a pair of clowns, a pajama cardinal and a skunk cleaner shrimp. This tank is planned to be a heavily coral loaded tank with currently a dozen or so frags in it. 'I fully realize this is NOT a long term solution.

My 180, which I hope to move both the Yellow and Hippo to later, is up and running and has a very nice collection of fish. This tanks is a FOWLR setup, intended to house more aggressive, non "reef safe" fish such as Triggers, Damsels, ect.

I have a Scopas Tang in that tank that is considerably larger than the Hippo, I could attempt to put the Hippo in there but fear that even though the size difference may curb some aggressiveness, the fact they are both tangs still be a problem. I have seen plenty of threads here that show ALL of these tangs living together happily. So I hold out hope that eventually I can get them to co-exist.

 

[Tamberav]

I am more or less giving ideas as you will have to figure it out at some point.

You can probably get it to work in the 180 eventually unless you got unlucky with a Tang that has a particular bad grudge/attitude. Then it may just be time to swap it for another if the same type.

Lucky for me.. I am a wrasse person

 

[Jedi1199]

I am more or less giving ideas as you will have to figure it out at some point.

You can probably get it to work in the 180 eventually unless you got unlucky with a Tang that has a particular bad grudge/attitude. Then it may just be time to swap it for another if the same type.

Lucky for me.. I am a wrasse person

My 180 currently houses 1 Picasso trigger, 1 6 line Wrasse, 1 Scopas tang, 1 Multispines angel, 2 Talbots Damsels, 2 Domino Damsels, 2 3 stripe Damsels, 2 Yellowtail Blue Damsels, 1 sunshine chromis. I plan to add a couple Dottybacks, a couple more wrasses and eventually the Yellow and Hippo Tangs.

Edit: and also a Clown Trigger, Bicolor Angel and Flame Angel.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Good morning Jedi. So, I too am familiar with Yellow Tang aggression or dominance in my tank. My YT banished my CBB to the rear right corner of my dt for over a month. Little by little the CBB would inch (literally) his way out of the corner, wearing down the constant attempts by the YT to control him. “Important” the Tang would never hurt, bite or rip a fin on the CBB. Yet aggressively push him into that corner.
For my own piece of mind and if I were you. I would (if no physical damage is being done to the BT) Two things: If possible move around or add some live rock or life rock temporarily, for a week or a month? Re introduced BT into the tank. And then observe. Throw your YT off it’s territorial game. Fish do wear down. There just needs to be a distraction. I guarantee you if both fish were in the tank and you would feed the tank there would be absolutely no aggression. Fish are simple creatures, play their game. You will win. Good luck Bud.

 

[burningmime]

If your 180 has many aggressive fish, the yellow might fit right in.

 

[Jedi1199]

I seriously think that ALL tangs are just jerks!! LOL

Today I found a beautiful bi-color angel (see dream list fish in earlier post) Put him into the 180 and the Scopas tang is NOT happy about it.. I have the tank in lights out mode now and also added about 50 lbs of rock I had in a bucket that was intended to go into the tank anyway. I even put a mirror onto one end of the tank to see if that trick actually helps or is just smoke in a whirlwind.

So far the tang is aggressively pushing the angel into the top corner of the tank. I guess only time will tell if they will get along or I will find a dead angel in my tank soon. I have no other tank to put him in as all of my tanks have a tang in them and the other 2 both house corals.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Do you happen to have an acclimation box large enough to house it for a few days? I made one out of egg crate for some I had issues with. It can help.

But, as you said, Tangs are jerks. So are damsels, clownfish (I know damsel family), some wrasses, some dottybacks, well, you get the point. Fish just guarding their territory. I think my YTs would be very angry if I put anything else in the tank at this point.