Foxface Rabbitfish and sailfin tang aggression

[Skippy The Meh]

So i rarely add fish to my tank for this reason but i decided id like to add a foxface rabbitfish to the tank and purchased one from WWC. I added him into the tank yesterday night with the lights off. And him and my sailfin tang have been going at it for the last 12 hours. Foxface looks exhausted and is hiding under coral to no avail. Is it time to call it and put him in a hospital tank and post him for sale? Or is there any hope? Im not as familiar to the fish side of business as the coral side so any recommendations welcome!

Tank is 100G display.
Other inhabitants are:
Copperband
Anthias
Pair of clowns
Royal gramma
Canarytop wrasse
PJ cardinal
Hawkfish

Foxface will be biggest fish of group, tang and butterfly are about the same size.

EDIT: forgot to make clear, the sailfin is the main aggressor. Foxface really doesn’t want anything to do with the battle.

 

[painter1982]

Add a couple mirrors to the outside of the tank. The handheld kind you can get at Walmart for $5. The tang will fight with its reflection instead.

 

[Skippy The Meh]

Add a couple mirrors to the outside of the tank. The handheld kind you can get at Walmart for $5. The tang will fight with its reflection instead.

Really? I have never heard that thats crazy, im headed to Walmart now. How long should i leave the mirrors up for?

 

[painter1982]

Add a couple mirrors to the outside of the tank. The handheld kind you can get at Walmart for $5. The tang will fight with its reflection instead.

Really? I have never heard that thats crazy, im headed to Walmart now. How long should i leave the mirrors up for?

It might take a week of the mirrors being up. I put them in a corner for my yellow tang. He stays there trying to intimidate his reflection. Leaves any new fish alone.

 

[Skippy The Meh]

Add a couple mirrors to the outside of the tank. The handheld kind you can get at Walmart for $5. The tang will fight with its reflection instead.

Really? I have never heard that thats crazy, im headed to Walmart now. How long should i leave the mirrors up for?

It might take a week of the mirrors being up. I put them in a corner for my yellow tang. He stays there trying to intimidate his reflection. Leaves any new fish alone.

I just got the mirrors up and sure enough my sailfin immediately went after himself lol looks like hes quickly losing interest but hes also crossing the foxface less too. Thanks a bunch for the help!

 

[painter1982]

Add a couple mirrors to the outside of the tank. The handheld kind you can get at Walmart for $5. The tang will fight with its reflection instead.

Really? I have never heard that thats crazy, im headed to Walmart now. How long should i leave the mirrors up for?

It might take a week of the mirrors being up. I put them in a corner for my yellow tang. He stays there trying to intimidate his reflection. Leaves any new fish alone.

I just got the mirrors up and sure enough my sailfin immediately went after himself lol looks like hes quickly losing interest but hes also crossing the foxface less too. Thanks a bunch for the help!

Great to hear!

 

[MikeReefs]

Future reference. Acclimation box for a week helps this from happening most of the time. Tangs are pretty territorial to new fish. Mirror trick should help. The foxface will hold his own being the biggest in the tank. Sailfin better avoid those spines lol

 

[Skippy The Meh]

Future reference. Acclimation box for a week helps this from happening most of the time. Tangs are pretty territorial to new fish. Mirror trick should help. The foxface will hold his own being the biggest in the tank. Sailfin better avoid those spines lol

Man i had seen those in a YT video and it crossed my mind to get one, then i forgot. I feel like theyd be super simple to make out of acrylic too. May build one just in case.

And ya those spines are wild, i typically just pit the fish in my palm and into the tank, as a fisherman i know nets can be tough on fish, however as soon as i went to wrap my palm around him he got me lol not doing that again, i think my sailfin should learn the same lesson eventually too.