Hippo Tang Aggression Research Survey

[Lago]

Please note: I would like to hear what your hippo tang in specific has done and would like to avoid what any other tangs have done in your tank, thank you for your participation.

Hello all, I'm currently an undergrad student trying to conduct independent research on tang aggression. More specifically on Hippo Tangs vs different colored images and I would like ask you all if you have experienced your Hippo Tang exhibit any sort of abnormal behavior (I.E. attacking the tang, staying more distant. etc.) when introducing a fellow tang of a specific color. I would prefer as much detail as possible (I.E. has it been housed with other tangs before, pattern, species, size of the tang, size of the fish it reacted with, and any other outstanding characteristics if possible) but just submitting the color is the minimal that is needed for this thank you.

Also, if you know of any peer-reviewed sources to read up on tang aggression or have had extensive experience with tang aggression I would like to hear it. Additionally, if you have any questions please ask.

 

[i cant think]

Please note: I would like to hear what your hippo tang in specific has done and would like to avoid what any other tangs have done in your tank, thank you for your participation.

Hello all, I'm currently an undergrad student trying to conduct independent research on tang aggression. More specifically on Hippo Tangs vs different colored images and I would like ask you all if you have experienced your Hippo Tang exhibit any sort of abnormal behavior (I.E. attacking the tang, staying more distant. etc.) when introducing a fellow tang of a specific color. I would prefer as much detail as possible (I.E. has it been housed with other tangs before, pattern, species, size of the tang, size of the fish it reacted with, and any other outstanding characteristics if possible) but just submitting the color is the minimal that is needed for this thank you.

Also, if you know of any peer-reviewed sources to read up on tang aggression or have had extensive experience with tang aggression I would like to hear it. Additionally, if you have any questions please ask.

Hippo tangs like many other tangs do not discriminate. I’ve had hippos go for Ctenochaetus species, Acanthurus species, Zebrasoma species ect…
The only pattern really is that they’re all close relatives from the family Acanthuridae.

 

[Mr Fishface]

I marked other, but long ago my wild caught hippo went after my grey tomini often.
A captive bred hippo and yellow are together and have no issues. However, they are both captive bred and, seemingly, were raised together before buying. They are also very well fed (3-4 times each day).

 

[ryanjohn1]

Other, hippo and scopus together. Zero aggression. They pal around together. However they are both young.

 

[Lago]

Hippo tangs like many other tangs do not discriminate. I’ve had hippos go for Ctenochaetus species, Acanthurus species, Zebrasoma species ect…
The only pattern really is that they’re all close relatives from the family Acanthuridae.

See I initially thought similar that they would be indiscriminate. However, I'm 4 weeks into testing colors (I used a video editor to change the color of a hippo tang this way I won't get any discrepancies between body shape and color.) and compared to the control (which was how it would normally spend its time in the tank) there was a notable change in time spent in sections of the tank when shown a similar colored blue tang on the first day however, it seemed to drop off back to control levels by the second and third day. I've done a black and white image to see if high contrast can trigger any sort of response. I'm still sifting through the video footage as we speak but so far it looks to be in line with the control. Surprisingly, I did do a red test earlier this week and it spent a far greater amount of time in 1 quarter of the tank (roughly +40% more on a particular side than the control). Of course, nothing is concrete yet as there is much more data that I have to go through. In the future I'll share what I've done in greater detail when I am done with this semester and have gone through all of my results so far. Thank you for your response!

 

[Lago]

Other, hippo and scopus together. Zero aggression. They pal around together. However they are both young.

Thank you for noting that they are young. The one I was able to get for testing is also on the younger side (~4 inches) and that of course may play a role into its behavior (I wouldn't doubt it). I would've liked a larger subject but my university won't shell out money for live specimens sadly. So funds for specimens come out of pocket for us.

 

[Lago]

I marked other, but long ago my wild caught hippo went after my grey tomini often.
A captive bred hippo and yellow are together and have no issues. However, they are both captive bred and, seemingly, were raised together before buying. They are also very well fed (3-4 times each day).

I didn't take into account of wild caught vs captive bred tangs, thank you for the reply!

 

[Nelly11]

Please note: I would like to hear what your hippo tang in specific has done and would like to avoid what any other tangs have done in your tank, thank you for your participation.

Hello all, I'm currently an undergrad student trying to conduct independent research on tang aggression. More specifically on Hippo Tangs vs different colored images and I would like ask you all if you have experienced your Hippo Tang exhibit any sort of abnormal behavior (I.E. attacking the tang, staying more distant. etc.) when introducing a fellow tang of a specific color. I would prefer as much detail as possible (I.E. has it been housed with other tangs before, pattern, species, size of the tang, size of the fish it reacted with, and any other outstanding characteristics if possible) but just submitting the color is the minimal that is needed for this thank you.

Also, if you know of any peer-reviewed sources to read up on tang aggression or have had extensive experience with tang aggression I would like to hear it. Additionally, if you have any questions please ask. I was thinking a lot about the theme of research and decided to write about fish. It's biology, so I think the professor will be satisfied. The only problem is with data gathering because I've not found a lot of related info online. I'm also working on other research, science one, and there is much more info. I even found some free essay samples on https://studydriver.com/, which helped me a lot with ideas. And there is even more information online, but at least it's great that I found this site and have a chance to find some useful information here.

Hello. I hope I'm not answering too late. I've never faced anything like this. I bought two new yellow tangs some time ago, but there were no problems. There is one year difference between them, but no aggression.

 

[Lago]

Update: I'm repeating the same project with 3D-Printed tangs this time instead of video footage. However, video footage seemed to have an impression of where the Tang spent its time among the 4 marked quarters of the tank when it came down to Contrasting, Red, and Yellow color morphs the natural coloration did not seem to yield as strong of an effect.

I believe after I finish this semester I'll begin drafting up a publication for this project and I'll update this thread once that's done so you all can see in more detail the procedures I made.