Aggressive fab fox

[Mrs Woo]

Hi. We have a fab foxface about 7in who is like our yellow tangs shadow and best mate. We introduced a 3in hippo (blue) tang and 3in blonde naso some time ago. Our yellow is the boss but is quite mellow for his type and won’t do more than he has to to keep control. The fox went nuts When the two other tangs went in. So much that the naso didn’t make it. The hippo wasn’t too bothered and has since eaten so much he’s now 5in. We decided to try naso again with a 5in and for the first 2 days it wasn’t so bad. But then the fox was relentless and we had to take him out as the naso was near death. Couple days later he is now yellows shadow. Anyone had this before? The fox is really bad tempered and even tried bullying the yellow for a few days til yellow gave him a beating. Yellow is about same size as fox. Fox also had all the fish jumpy cos he would dart about for no reason

 

[Reefer40b]

A lot of the time as fish get bigger the more aggressive they can get... although it just depends on the fish. Sometimes separating them and reintroducing them can help

I think with tang there always an initiation

 

[Mrs Woo]

A lot of the time as fish get bigger the more aggressive they can get... although it just depends on the fish. Sometimes separating them and reintroducing them can help

I think with tang there always an initiation

I agree with the initiation of new fish into an established tank but as naso are so peaceful they can’t handle the stress. No way the new naso would have made it if we had left fox in any longer. Naso was lying on his side in sand in shock and fox was still biting him relentlessly. That’s the way the last naso was before he died.
Just haven’t heard stories about foxfaces being aggressive. We want so much to keep him as when yellow had a bad reaction and almost died in urgent quarantine a while back, fox never left his side and we believe he helped yellow recover. But this behaviour is killing new fish and upsets the whole tank.
I’m not convinced that his behaviour will change if we put him back in and as naso is now getting on with yellow and following him about (despite the odd tail flick towards him by yellow), I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk. Took a long time and much stress to catch fox to get him out.
Tank is a Red Sea reefer 625 so space shouldn’t be an issue. And only 2 easy going 2 and 4in breeding clowns (female Picasso perc and common male), 5 in hippo, 6-7in yellow, 3-4in leopard wrasse, 7in fox, 4in Copperband and 5in naso. So tank is not by any means overstocked. Loads of swimming room, live rock with caves and algae to eat. Fed twice a day with frozen and nori. Parameters all good.
Why is our magnificent foxface such a miserable and evil fish!