Desjardini sailfin attacking foxface

cww81

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My desjardini sailfin has been attacking my new foxface for around 2 hours now. The sailfin keeps smacking him with his barb near his tail and it seems to have knicked the foxface 4-5 small spots. The foxface has stabbed the sailfin back a lot too and the sailfin even has a red spot on his face from the sting but will not stop attacking. It seems the foxface's venom is not effecting the sailfin and he just keeps coming. Sailfin is around 6-6.5 inches and foxface is smaller at around 5 inches in a 125G tank. Sailfin has been in the tank for almost a year. Will this aggression die down? It seems pretty brutal right now and don’t want to have the foxface die or get really hurt.

One weird thing I noticed is the foxface just keeps swimming back over to the sailfin after he gets attacked, it's like he's asking for it?
 

btackerman

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My desjardini sailfin has been attacking my new foxface for around 2 hours now. The sailfin keeps smacking him with his barb near his tail and it seems to have knicked the foxface 4-5 small spots. The foxface has stabbed the sailfin back a lot too and the sailfin even has a red spot on his face from the sting but will not stop attacking. It seems the foxface's venom is not effecting the sailfin and he just keeps coming. Sailfin is around 6-6.5 inches and foxface is smaller at around 5 inches in a 125G tank. Sailfin has been in the tank for almost a year. Will this aggression die down? It seems pretty brutal right now and don’t want to have the foxface die or get really hurt.

One weird thing I noticed is the foxface just keeps swimming back over to the sailfin after he gets attacked, it's like he's asking for it?
How much algea do you feed?
 
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cww81

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Should I remove one of them? Acclimation box? My lfs told me the foxface would easily fend for itself and fighting wouldn't even happen due to his spines. Well that didn't go to plan the sailfin has been hitting and attacking him everytime he sees him
 

youcallmenny1

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I'd try to keep at least a 1/4" sheet of nori in there for them, maybe even on separate clips. Zebrosoma can be some of the meanest fish I've encountered.
 
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cww81

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I'd try to keep at least a 1/4" sheet of nori in there for them, maybe even on separate clips. Zebrosoma can be some of the meanest fish I've encountered.
I'm going to keep 3 clips when the 3rd comes in the mail. Lights are off now but checking the foxface he has around 5-10 small scratches on his sides.
 

youcallmenny1

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I'm going to keep 3 clips when the 3rd comes in the mail. Lights are off now but checking the foxface he has around 5-10 small scratches on his sides.
I wish you the best with the conflict. With tangs, the aggression is often about food ime. Or territory. Or because they saw another fish. I dunno, they can be really tough to deal with. Foxfaces are pretty tough fish for what it's worth. They have a thick mucous coat on them so hopefully he figures it out.

When my purple tang was going after my new foxface, the latter would just take it and get beat up. After a few days, he seemed to remember he had venomous spines all over him and any time the tang would come around, he'd just flare up and keep the spines pointed towards his nemesis. Fast forward to now, maybe 8 months later, they get along great and eat off the same clip every day! A real case of mutually assured destruction perhaps.
 
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cww81

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I wish you the best with the conflict. With tangs, the aggression is often about food ime. Or territory. Or because they saw another fish. I dunno, they can be really tough to deal with. Foxfaces are pretty tough fish for what it's worth. They have a thick mucous coat on them so hopefully he figures it out.

When my purple tang was going after my new foxface, the latter would just take it and get beat up. After a few days, he seemed to remember he had venomous spines all over him and any time the tang would come around, he'd just flare up and keep the spines pointed towards his nemesis. Fast forward to now, maybe 8 months later, they get along great and eat off the same clip every day! A real case of mutually assured destruction perhaps.
Thanks so much. Gonna give them a day tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm guessing if the sailfin is relentless again for more than like half the day tomorrow that I should probably just return the foxface to save him from big injuries or death.
 

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You can try an acclimation box. It might help.

I bet the sailfin will own the entire 125 though. They get big.
 

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Why have you let it go for 2 hours of attacking each other? I have both in my tank i would get him in an acclamation box immediately before he kills him! Not to mention he is hurt and both really stressed out. then move some rocks around or add a rock to change the surroundings .it helps with territory when its switched around. After a week try to set him free .they should be used to each other by then.
 
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Why have you let it go for 2 hours of attacking each other? I have both in my tank i would get him in an acclamation box immediately before he kills him! Not to mention he is hurt and both really stressed out. then move some rocks around or add a rock to change the surroundings .it helps with territory when its switched around. After a week try to set him free .they should be used to each other by then.
It wasn’t a constant two hours, just fighting every so often for a span of two hours. I researched a lot of threads and read that they just have to go through a pecking order and establish territories and that this is pretty normal when adding fish to tanks with tangs. Also apparently unless it’s like visible damage like cuts/wounds/ripped fins, not tiny small spots/scratches in my case, that it would be ok. Not at all saying you’re wrong I just though that was what I was supposed to do. I will catch and put whichever I can get in a acclimation box tomorrow and rearrange the rockwork. Thank you for correcting my knowledge.
 

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It wasn’t a constant two hours, just fighting every so often for a span of two hours. I researched a lot of threads and read that they just have to go through a pecking order and establish territories and that this is pretty normal when adding fish to tanks with tangs. Also apparently unless it’s like visible damage like cuts/wounds/ripped fins, not tiny small spots/scratches in my case, that it would be ok. Not at all saying you’re wrong I just though that was what I was supposed to do. I will catch and put whichever I can get in a acclimation box tomorrow and rearrange the rockwork. Thank you for correcting my knowledge.
That was my experience as well. I had an angel going after a new foxface. They worked it out after a couple days.
 

austibella

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It wasn’t a constant two hours, just fighting every so often for a span of two hours. I researched a lot of threads and read that they just have to go through a pecking order and establish territories and that this is pretty normal when adding fish to tanks with tangs. Also apparently unless it’s like visible damage like cuts/wounds/ripped fins, not tiny small spots/scratches in my case, that it would be ok. Not at all saying you’re wrong I just though that was what I was supposed to do. I will catch and put whichever I can get in a acclimation box tomorrow and rearrange the rockwork. Thank you for correcting my knowledge.
If you can just move a few rocks around now or just change something in the tank it does help. I had that problem with my tomato clown bulldozing into a new fish I was horrified I got the fish back in the acclamation box then moved some rocks around, waited a week .moved rocks again and it worked. Good luck.hope it works for you.
 

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You could also try wrapping some seaweed on small rocks and put them at either end of the tank. I have a quoy parrotfish and sailfin that both crave seaweed and having separate "dinner bowls" seems to keep everyone happy (sailfin is 4.5" and parrotfish is 6+").
 

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You could also try wrapping some seaweed on small rocks and put them at either end of the tank. I have a quoy parrotfish and sailfin that both crave seaweed and having separate "dinner bowls" seems to keep everyone happy (sailfin is 4.5" and parrotfish is 6+").
Lucky you Quoy parrot fish!!! They are beautiful !!!
 
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Hey guys update today. My gf has been home all day and said the fighting overall is about halved. The sailfin still is following him but not hitting him as much anymore, he’s now picking at him but the fox face seems to have learned how to fend for himself much better with his spines. When I get home tonight at around 6-6:30 I’m going to try and catch one of them and put into an acclimation box. At this point we’re discussing giving up the sailfin we’ve had for a year bc we feel bad putting any more fish through the bullying and it seems like our sailfin is a real big bully. Sad days tomorrow if we return him
 

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So my sailfin and foxface do fight a lot
Hey guys update today. My gf has been home all day and said the fighting overall is about halved. The sailfin still is following him but not hitting him as much anymore, he’s now picking at him but the fox face seems to have learned how to fend for himself much better with his spines. When I get home tonight at around 6-6:30 I’m going to try and catch one of them and put into an acclimation box. At this point we’re discussing giving up the sailfin we’ve had for a year bc we feel bad putting any more fish through the bullying and it seems like our sailfin is a real big bully. Sad days tomorrow if we return him
so I have had a sailfin and a foxface for about 2-3 months now, I have observed it is because of food . Do you have any other fish that eat nori. In my experience they act like tangs and continue a pecking order the more you have the better the dispersion of aggression. I have 1 foxface 7 tangs, princess parrot fish and my niger trigger all eat nori in my 400 gallon. Once the pecking order is established it will balance out but the tang from time to time will show it is incharge. If anyone else has different experiences please let me know what you did. Can you send a pic of both fish. I think removing the foxface to add it back could be detrimental.
 

DrMMI

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You can always try the mirror trick. The tang will spend all its time fighting it's reflection instead of the foxface. I've successfully added multiple tangs this way to my tank with established tangs.
 

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