Hawkfish being bullied

[dsinsocal]

The wife had to have a Flame Hawkfish. I was reluctant, but mostly because I was worried he might hassle my Yasha Goby. Turns out, he's the one being bullied by the Starry Blenny (3") and the White Tail Bristletooth Tang (3.5"). The Hawkfish is about 2.5".

The aggression with the Blenny seems to be normal territorial stuff, but the tang seems to really hate him. The screwed up part is that I have the Hawkfish in an acclimation box inside the tank for a few days and the Tang *never* looked twice at him. As soon as he was swimming loose in the tank though, he went after him. Right now the Hawkfish is pretty much pinned behind the overflow box, coming out just far enough to grab some food when it floats by.

I just put him in the tank yesterday. Will things calm down after a few days, or do I need to start making plans to try and catch one of them?

 

[Bayareareefer18]

How big is the tank ?

I have lawnmower and a blue eye bristletooth with my flame hawk with no issue. Flame hawk was in the tank prior to those guys though

 

[dsinsocal]

75G

The White tail was supposed to be the last fish, but I recently had a jumper that opened up some capacity, and the wife was really pushing for a Hawkfish. Given that they are supposed to be semi-aggressive in their own right -- and potentially dangerous to smaller shrimp and gobies -- I didn't really consider the possibility that he might get bullied.

 

[TheGreatWave]

Give it a few days if things dont work out that stupid tang and goby are outta there.
Hawkfish are awesome.

 

[lion king]

In theory you have enough room and the hawkfish generally will stand his own ground. With that being said if you aren't seeing any relentless brutal type attacks and the hawk is still coming out to eat. I would give it a couple of days.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

75G

The White tail was supposed to be the last fish, but I recently had a jumper that opened up some capacity, and the wife was really pushing for a Hawkfish. Given that they are supposed to be semi-aggressive in their own right -- and potentially dangerous to smaller shrimp and gobies -- I didn't really consider the possibility that he might get bullied.

I have a 75 as well.

The hawk is really an enjoyable fish to have in the tank. Hope it works out.

 

[puffy127]

I have a 75g with a pair of longnose hawkfish, white bristletooth Tang, and starry blenny (among many, probably too many other fish), added in that order. No issues at all between them. The hawks bullied a royal gramma to death over the course of several months. I also suspect they killed a lone Bartlett's anthias since they were always harassing it and one day it just disappeared. I now have a harem of 5 Bartlett's and they leave them alone. I'm surprised that it is being harassed as flame hawkfish are supposed to be more aggresssive than longnose hawkfish.

 

[Eva Rose]

I see more & more posts of certain individual bristletooth tangs that can turn very aggressive. Not to say that yours is such a case. I had a whitetail tang that was well behaved as a juvenile and fine as an adult for awhile.

Then one day it was like it “snapped”. It tried to attack every fish in the tank except my Blonde Naso & 1 other tang. It went after fish that had been established in the tank years before the whitetail. The whitetail tried to attack my pixy hawk, dwarf angels, filefish, Midas blenny, etc. Caught & rehomed whitetail before it could hurt any fish.

I know other people who have whitetails that have been model citizens for years. Mine turned very aggressive. Just be very observant. As @lion king mentioned, if the hawk can come out & eat etc. it is a good sign that it will work out. I would get a fish trap ready just in case. In my tank the whitetail’s aggression escalated quickly. Hope yours settles down & things work out. They are beautiful tangs.

 

[dsinsocal]

Thanks all. This is the first I've seen of any real aggression from the Whitetail. I also added a small female Melanarus at the same time and it seems to have upset the balance of the tank and the Tang is pretty upset about it, it seems. I'm hopeful that after the initial agitation everything will calm down.

 

[Lucky013]

My Starry Blenny has been trying to kill my new Flame Hawk from the moment he went in the tank. Relentless. Hawk was just laying sideways on the MP10 from an attack so I took him out and put him in my 32 Biocube. Smaller but safer for now.