Fish Referees?

[ReefLife_Guy]

Thanks to @Biota_Marine I just acclimated and add 5 new captive-bred fish to my reef! A group (3) of Court Jester Gobies (Koumansetta rainfordi), a Lyretail Damselfish (Neopomacentrus azysron), and a Blue Mandarin Dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus). I haven't seen much aggression between fish in my tank except between my yellow tang and yellow watchman goby but I'm always prepared for some territorial aggression. What I did not expect this time around was for my yellow tang to be a fish referee. Has anyone else experienced this before? My royal gramma has been the only aggressor since I added these group of newbies and to my surprise as soon as my tang noticed this she immediately began putting herself in between my gramma and the new fish. She doesn't seem to be asserting her dominance on the gramma but literally seems like she is trying to mediate the aggression. I will post a video of it if I can catch them interacting like this again.

 

[blaxsun]

In all honesty, most of my fish don't give a rip. As long as no one takes their designated sleeping spot it's generally "live and let live". The closest I have to referees are the four damselfish that have divided up the tank into quadrants and take turns "shepherding" the rest of the fish.

 

[ZoWhat]

Not sure... but I do have a fish that talks during Movies. Annoying

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

Of course when you go by the tank, they want to act differently but you can kind of see in this video what I am talking about. The yellow tang picks up on the aggressive body language of the gramma and either puts herself in between them or she kind of herds the gramma away. It has been interesting watching this interaction especially because she is usually the bully in the tank. I wonder how much we change fish behavior by captive breeding and keeping them in reef tanks. At least in my tank there is definitely an interesting dynamic between each of my fish.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

Maybe I'm also just crazy and anthropomorphizing my fish

 

[Biota_Marine]

Thanks to @Biota_Marine I just acclimated and add 5 new captive-bred fish to my reef! A group (3) of Court Jester Gobies (Koumansetta rainfordi), a Lyretail Damselfish (Neopomacentrus azysron), and a Blue Mandarin Dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus). I haven't seen much aggression between fish in my tank except between my yellow tang and yellow watchman goby but I'm always prepared for some territorial aggression. What I did not expect this time around was for my yellow tang to be a fish referee. Has anyone else experienced this before? My royal gramma has been the only aggressor since I added these group of newbies and to my surprise as soon as my tang noticed this she immediately began putting herself in between my gramma and the new fish. She doesn't seem to be asserting her dominance on the gramma but literally seems like she is trying to mediate the aggression. I will post a video of it if I can catch them interacting like this again.

May I share some of your pictures on our socials with credit to you? - Felicia

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

May I share some of your pictures on our socials with credit to you? - Felicia

Yes of course!

 

[Biota_Marine]

Maybe I'm also just crazy and anthropomorphizing my fish

It's hard not to. They have so much personality!

 

[BigSkyRich]

Thanks to @Biota_Marine I just acclimated and add 5 new captive-bred fish to my reef! A group (3) of Court Jester Gobies (Koumansetta rainfordi), a Lyretail Damselfish (Neopomacentrus azysron), and a Blue Mandarin Dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus). I haven't seen much aggression between fish in my tank except between my yellow tang and yellow watchman goby but I'm always prepared for some territorial aggression. What I did not expect this time around was for my yellow tang to be a fish referee. Has anyone else experienced this before? My royal gramma has been the only aggressor since I added these group of newbies and to my surprise as soon as my tang noticed this she immediately began putting herself in between my gramma and the new fish. She doesn't seem to be asserting her dominance on the gramma but literally seems like she is trying to mediate the aggression. I will post a video of it if I can catch them interacting like this again.

Timely discussion. I am about 4 months into my fowlr tank. Wanted some aggressive fish, just because. So when I added a pearlscale bf, yes not the aggressive one, my coral beauty decided to test his limits. Well, both my niger trigger and harlequin tusk decided to protect that little guy. After about 3 days, everyone is happy.

 

[Dodger]

My gamma is so shy. I see what you are though. I like your aqua scape. Gonna use it as inspiration for my new tank.

 

[wes84]

I transferred my desjardini and blue tang to my DT that already has a gem and a yellow tang in it. The desjardini and gem started to “show their colors” to one another and each time the blue tang would swim between the two and kind of separate them. This went on for a couple hours (until lights out). They are all getting along well now.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

So far everything is working out for me as well. Every once in a while the gramma chases the new damselfish but that is really only when he goes near the gramma's "territory". Even this behavior seems to be dwindling. I think it definitely helps when you have some additional dominant fish to mediate the aggression. In general, I allow my fish to display dominant (aggressive) behaviors as long as they are not severely injuring other fish or being so persistent that it is stressing the fish out. I also think that my aquascape helps out a lot, with lots of hidey areas and enough rockwork that breaks that field of vision of the aggressor.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

My gamma is so shy. I see what you are though. I like your aqua scape. Gonna use it as inspiration for my new tank.

Thanks! Check out my build thread for the full tank shot and what it looked like before I added the caribsea arches. I started out with the visually appeasing rule of thirds people talk about. So I built 2 large rock structures to go 1/3 the way in from the side of the tank. I made sure that both of these rock structures allowed for burrowing, with an entrance facing the front glass but no other entry points. I have only 1 swimthrough but after having the tank setup like this for several months, I think I would like to have a swimthrough on the other rock structure as well. I love the arches and look it gives it, the only thing I would change with the arches is cutting off some of the knobs or providing a way that light can reach underneath of the arch so that I could put some softies or other corals who require little light below the arch. I originally wanted a zoanthid garden in the center but the arch does not allow enough light for them to live.