Hippo Tang

[dR3ws3r]

Hello,

I have a blue hippo tang that is about 5-6" long. I have had her for about a year. She is usually very active, and it a gluten for food. Today, she has not exited her sleeping place, and she is normally up and about at 9 am or so. it is 3:20 pm. No other fish in the tank is showing any signs of distress, and as of yesterday, she hadn't either.

The only changes that i have seen in the tank lately is that when I feed the fish, the female clown will try and bite her whenever she gets near her and her mate when food is around. This has started happening about 1-2 weeks ago. The behavior doesn't seem to deter her from dashing around and eating all the food.

I did change the activated carbon yesterday. I always flush it out pretty thoroughly before I connect it in the sump, and I even try to run the discharge through a filter sock. No other fish in the tank seem to be showing any distress. As a matter of fact, most of the other fish seem to be more out and about, because the Hippo tang is usually dashing around the tank and startling them.

Any suggestions on what to do? I can't see her in full because she is in a cave that she typically sleeps in sideways. I can see her fins waving, but she has yet to exit.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hello,

I have a blue hippo tang that is about 5-6" long. I have had her for about a year. She is usually very active, and it a gluten for food. Today, she has not exited her sleeping place, and she is normally up and about at 9 am or so. it is 3:20 pm. No other fish in the tank is showing any signs of distress, and as of yesterday, she hadn't either.

The only changes that i have seen in the tank lately is that when I feed the fish, the female clown will try and bite her whenever she gets near her and her mate when food is around. This has started happening about 1-2 weeks ago. The behavior doesn't seem to deter her from dashing around and eating all the food.

I did change the activated carbon yesterday. I always flush it out pretty thoroughly before I connect it in the sump, and I even try to run the discharge through a filter sock. No other fish in the tank seem to be showing any distress. As a matter of fact, most of the other fish seem to be more out and about, because the Hippo tang is usually dashing around the tank and startling them.

Any suggestions on what to do? I can't see her in full because she is in a cave that she typically sleeps in sideways. I can see her fins waving, but she has yet to exit.

Do you have some tank pictures? What other fish do you have, besides the clowns? How big is the tank? Just curious about the room available if the clowns are nipping at her. I assume she was smaller when you got her.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,

I have a blue hippo tang that is about 5-6" long. I have had her for about a year. She is usually very active, and it a gluten for food. Today, she has not exited her sleeping place, and she is normally up and about at 9 am or so. it is 3:20 pm. No other fish in the tank is showing any signs of distress, and as of yesterday, she hadn't either.

The only changes that i have seen in the tank lately is that when I feed the fish, the female clown will try and bite her whenever she gets near her and her mate when food is around. This has started happening about 1-2 weeks ago. The behavior doesn't seem to deter her from dashing around and eating all the food.

I did change the activated carbon yesterday. I always flush it out pretty thoroughly before I connect it in the sump, and I even try to run the discharge through a filter sock. No other fish in the tank seem to be showing any distress. As a matter of fact, most of the other fish seem to be more out and about, because the Hippo tang is usually dashing around the tank and startling them.

Any suggestions on what to do? I can't see her in full because she is in a cave that she typically sleeps in sideways. I can see her fins waving, but she has yet to exit.

Any change in lighting recently?
If you can catch the clown, isolate it for a few hours and see if the behavior changes. Clowns do bad things in your absence and on their best behavior in your presence.
A video would be best under bright white intensity which I realize may pose a challenge with fish hiding.
Is fish breathing normal or labored?

 

[dR3ws3r]

Do you have some tank pictures? What other fish do you have, besides the clowns? How big is the tank? Just curious about the room available if the clowns are nipping at her. I assume she was smaller when you got her.

It is a 5 ft 155 gallon. I have a royal Gramma, 2 fire fish, a diamond goby, a fairy wrasse, 2 clowns, a skunk shrimp, a pistol shrimp.

The 2 clowns have been in the tank the whole time with her. They seem to hang out to the right of the return chamber. She sleeps not too far from them in the cave. She outgrew her original cave and has moved to this other one. This picture is a few months old, but you get the idea.

 

[dR3ws3r]

No changes to lighting in months

 

[dR3ws3r]

Video

 

[mcarroll]

IMO that's neither a lot of swimming room for a 6" Hippo, nor is that much hiding/sleeping/escaping room in the available rock.

I think removing the clown, if possible without adding a ton of stress to the tank, is not a bad idea. If he's really being a d*** then it might even be worth causing a *little* stress of your own on the tank to catch him.

 

[dR3ws3r]

The clown in question doesn't bother any of the other fish. And only seems to care during feeding. The Tang also zips away when nipped at but comes right back to eat more food. To humanize the situation, the Tang is too stupid to care. She's never hidden from the Clown before fwiw. Like I said this seems to have happened out of the blue.

I have a 25 gallon QT tank, but I have a yellow tang in there currently. The main display has been going through Dinos but they seem to be gone. At least as much as I can see.

And I am not disputing that the aggression is an issue, but like I said, it isn't a constant thing at all. Just seems to happen during feeding.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The clown in question doesn't bother any of the other fish. And only seems to care during feeding. The Tang also zips away when nipped at but comes right back to eat more food. To humanize the situation, the Tang is too stupid to care. She's never hidden from the Clown before fwiw. Like I said this seems to have happened out of the blue.

I have a 25 gallon QT tank, but I have a yellow tang in there currently. The main display has been going through Dinos but they seem to be gone. At least as much as I can see.

And I am not disputing that the aggression is an issue, but like I said, it isn't a constant thing at all. Just seems to happen during feeding.

Aggression or intimidation may play a role here. One way to tell is next time you go to feed, set your cell phone on video mode for about 30 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a bully at feeding time.
Review the video and see who it may be

 

[ga2040]

Did you restructure the rock formation?
Whenever they are in a new place they tend to be shy for first few days so any new structuring could have caused this hiding behaviour.

 

[dR3ws3r]

No, no changes. The tang had a favorite sleeping spot, but she might have outgrown it because she switched to the cave a month or so ago.

 

[ga2040]

I would just watch for a few days for any nipped fins or else wouldnt worry much.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello,

I have a blue hippo tang that is about 5-6" long. I have had her for about a year. She is usually very active, and it a gluten for food. Today, she has not exited her sleeping place, and she is normally up and about at 9 am or so. it is 3:20 pm. No other fish in the tank is showing any signs of distress, and as of yesterday, she hadn't either.

The only changes that i have seen in the tank lately is that when I feed the fish, the female clown will try and bite her whenever she gets near her and her mate when food is around. This has started happening about 1-2 weeks ago. The behavior doesn't seem to deter her from dashing around and eating all the food.

I did change the activated carbon yesterday. I always flush it out pretty thoroughly before I connect it in the sump, and I even try to run the discharge through a filter sock. No other fish in the tank seem to be showing any distress. As a matter of fact, most of the other fish seem to be more out and about, because the Hippo tang is usually dashing around the tank and startling them.

Any suggestions on what to do? I can't see her in full because she is in a cave that she typically sleeps in sideways. I can see her fins waving, but she has yet to exit.

I couldn’t see much of anything in the video.

Since this came on suddenly, you can rule out a huge number of things; tank size, decoration, the clownfish, etc. Those are all things that would cause chronic problems, not suddenly show up overnight.
If you can’t identify a change in the past 24 hours, I’d just wait to see what develops tomorrow.

 

[winxp_man]

If you can catch the clown, isolate it for a few hours and see if the behavior changes. Clowns do bad things in your absence and on their best behavior in your presence.

So true! Seems like most fish do this! Haha. But clowns are sus next level!