Fish Anger - Goby vs Tang

[Fishtastrophy]

Hello!

I have a wonderful Diamond Goby who loves cleaning my sand, and is one of the friendliest fish we have. Kids love him, sand is clean. Awesome fish. He's been in the tank for maybe six months now. Got nice and plump.

We recently (a few months ago) added a Bristletooth Tang. Tank is 95 gallons, and he seemed on paper like a good fit. He actually got along great with everyone at first, and was a great cleaner of my rocks.

Then he slowly started to threaten my goby. Chased him under the rocks into his cave.. he'd move on, the goby would come out when the tang was on the other side of the tank. Things ramped up. Goby tried to look big by opening his mouth and scaring off the tang. Tang would swim past him when the goby would display, but he'd come back around and chase the poor guy under the rock eventually. Soon he'd start swishing his tail around the cave opening after the goby would retreat - i guess trying to hit or threaten him.

Now I only see my goby when the pumps are off for maintenance and the tang hides. It's weird. The goby is back out in seconds and having a good time like he used to. Pumps come back on, tang comes out, we don't see the goby for days and days anymore. I'm worried he's wasting away under there.

So the ask here is what can I do? I do have a small 20 gallon tank in my office for isolation.. hasn't been used in a long time now, but it's up and running and the heater is on and lights go on and off every day. Filter is filting. It's a glass bottom with nothing in it currently. I ALSO have a little isolation box I can put together to put into the DT. It's not very big. Maybe 6" x 4" or so. I could put him in there for a bit, but I imagine that'd be like torture. I also have a sump, but no refugium in it, so no lights down there except whatever gets in through the back of the stand. Also not a great place as the only real spot he'd fit would be around the skimmer.

I wobble back and forth about getting rid of him, but he's great with the other fish and very pretty. I just hate that he bullies the goby to badly.

Anyone have thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[wculver]

I can say that a diamond goby is a pretty hardy fish and can chill for a long time. Actually lost one for about six weeks in the overflow before finding him and mounting a rescue. He was near death by that point but he was still going and I have since revived him and doing great. There may be more to eat than you think in his den so it may not be terrible like you think.

Of course if he's losing weight and/or actually getting hurt that may not be great so you'd have to find an alternative. Taking him out of the tank is certainly an option. One thing I did once is fill the tank with micro-bubbles which scared all the fish. I did this at the time with chemiclean to manage a cyano outbreak early on with my tank. The Chemiclean makes the skimmer bubble like crazy so you just take the top off and let it overflow and recirculate. After 48 hours of solid bubbles the aggression toward my Goby and a Yellow Tang stopped.

The suggestion may not be for everyone depending on your tank setup but if you can stomach it may be worth a try.

 

[sc50964]

Either take the tang out or add more fish in there. My vote is to remove the tang

 

[Tamberav]

Remove the tang. You can try a different one. I tried two bristletooths and both were jerks… I then tried a big yellow and that one has been fine. Just luck if the draw as some yellows are jerks as well…

Biota has captive little yellows who surely can’t be much match for anything at their size tho.

 

[Fishtastrophy]

Thanks guys. I think I'll be trying to pull the tang out over the weekend... Wish me luck!

 

[nereefpat]

Ctenochaetus spp tangs hate diamond gobies, as crazy as that sounds. They also hate lawnmower blennies.