The fish I always wanted...

[Kyuss414]

... now resides in my sump. :squigglemouth:

Moved the kole tang from QT into my 150G DT last night, and well my "prized" harlequin tusk wasn't having anything of it. He's been a bully from the moment he's hit the DT so I spent more time than I care to count this evening essentially tearing the rock work in my tank completely apart and got him outta there.. not the most fun I had on a Friday evening for sure.

Always wanted a harlequin tusk since I got into SW, and was happy when I found a great looking and relatively young aussie HT locally. For all I read about how shy and timid they are, this one apparently never read the books - I'm convinced if he had lungs and opposable thumbs he would have killed me in my sleep in the year I've had him. So now the fish I always wanted, and the fish I paid way more for than any other fish by quite a large margin, resides in my sump. Thank you, Murphy. :mmph:

Here's a pic of the perpetrator - note the lack of actual tusks, because he's always busy trying to chew my face off through the glass.

 

[Humblefish]

That really sucks. Just goes to show you each & every fish has their own unique personality. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.

 

[TurboReef]

They're sort of hit or miss. One of the LFS around me has one in their 300g display tank and they have no issues out of it. I too would LOVEEEE to have one in a reef tank one day!

 

[Kyuss414]

Yeah this one would probably have been great in the more aggressive trigger FOWLR setups I had in the past, go figure. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with him yet, but he seems content alone in his troll cave for the time being.

On the plus side, the kole tang seems no worse for the wear today and has been picking at the algae that's accumulated on the rocks since I never could have much for a CUC. Pals around with the niger trigger and even was following the chainlink moray around a bit earlier when I was watching. Downside is since I had the rock work all ripped up, with it rearranged there's quite a few clean spots that stick out like a sore thumb. I used almost all dry rock, but I'm still kind of surprised how white some of the pieces still are after a year.

 

[trido]

I feel your pain. I recently "reaquascaped" so I could remove a beautiful flame angel which was a monti and smallSPS eating machine.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

haha, sorry if it's rude to laugh. but your post just made me smile that sucks it turns out a totally different personality than you expect. It's like you been betrayed.

 

[Mike in CT]

Maybe after a while in the sump he will behave better!!

 

[Kyuss414]

haha, sorry if it's rude to laugh. but your post just made me smile that sucks it turns out a totally different personality than you expect. It's like you been betrayed.

Lol yup. Only have a few other fish and they're all a bit out of character. The niger trigger is rather skittish for a trigger, but that may be due to spending a year with the HT. The tusk didn't bully him nowhere near as bad as the kole - they were both pretty small/young when introduced to each other - although the HT definitely ran the show the whole time despite the niger being the first one in the tank. Then I have a chainlink moray that's out of character in a good way, as he's extremely active and always out, evening doing quite a bit of open water swimming. I had a snowflake moray in a past setup which is in the same family of morays and you'd see his head sticking out at most. The kole tang is as expected though, all over the tank picking at the rocks, and follows the trigger around the little he moves from his spot, and follows the eel around as well.

Maybe after a while in the sump he will behave better!!

Yeah I been thinking of maybe making or buying an acclimation box and giving him another try after a couple month time out. He's getting pretty big at this point though so I'd need a decent size box. I dread having to rip the rock work all up again if I just dropped him back in and it didn't work out. The kole is relatively small yet so it'll give him some time to catch up as well. He's been an eating and pooping machine as tangs tend to be.

I really would hate to have to re-home the tusk as like I said I've always wanted one, and despite being a PITA he definitely has a lot of character and is very active. He's in the fuge part of my sump for now and seems content, has made a home in the gravel & rocks. I had to ditch the chaeto in there, but otherwise he should be fine for the duration of his sentence and I figure out what I'm going to do.

 

[saltyhog]

I've had the same issue twice. Once with a flameback angel that took a liking after 6 months to duncans and acans. Fortunately he was such a hog he was simple to trap.

The second time was not so easy. I managed to get the worst black combtooth blenny ever. He started eating SPS right and left. He killed a milli, a montipora digitata and mamed several other montis and acros..even a pavona. He wouldn't go near the trap and I couldn't find him at night. For 10 days I had to slowly watch months of SPS growth go bye bye. Fortunately I finally saw him go in a hole in a piece of live rock that was removeable and got his sorry self out.

Thanks for the laugh, your account is hilarious. Made my day.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Lol yup. Only have a few other fish and they're all a bit out of character. The niger trigger is rather skittish for a trigger, but that may be due to spending a year with the HT. The tusk didn't bully him nowhere near as bad as the kole - they were both pretty small/young when introduced to each other - although the HT definitely ran the show the whole time despite the niger being the first one in the tank. Then I have a chainlink moray that's out of character in a good way, as he's extremely active and always out, evening doing quite a bit of open water swimming. I had a snowflake moray in a past setup which is in the same family of morays and you'd see his head sticking out at most. The kole tang is as expected though, all over the tank picking at the rocks, and follows the trigger around the little he moves from his spot, and follows the eel around as well.

Yeah, morays are more dark-places attracted. I see them as the shadow men that are curious about the outside world sometimes. Getting fishes and hoping they get alone it's like a gamble tho, you never know who will actually be they way they suppose to be. Haha, they are like us and other animals too have individuality.