How long to separate tangs?

[Resilient]

My 200 gallon tank has 3 tangs along with like 8 other fish. A blue, yellow and sailfin. The three of them went in at the beginning and have shown zero aggression. I got a purple two weeks ago. I had to move him to an acclimation box (should have just started there) because the yellow was beating him up. The yellow is slightly larger.

I have been working the past week trying to catch the yellow, finally did today and so the yellow is in the sump while the purple gets freed from the acclimation box.

The blue is pestering him a little, but it doesn't seem to bad.

The question is what do I do with the yellow. The bullying was pretty bad and purples fins were beat up, he kept pacing outside the acclimation box the entire time.

I don't really want to have to catch him again if I can avoid it so I am trying to figure out how long to keep him in the sump. And then I assume the next step is that the yellow goes in the acclimation box for a bit then gets let loose. Just trying to figure out the best timing of it all and any advice would be apricated.

 

[bangbang]

I asked the same question couple of months back for my aggressive convict tang who was bullying all the yellow tangs in my tank.. I did actually add it back to the display from my sump after 2 weeks, but it didn’t take long for him to turn into a bully again.. eventually had to rehome the convict.. if you don’t want to go through the trouble of catching them again, I would suggest you rehome one of them (bully should ideally be rehomed, but I will leave that upto you to decide)

 

[fish_collector]

How long to separate 2 zebrasomas in the same tank? Well a yellow is pretty long lived, so perhaps 20 years

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Try taping. Mirrors up at each end of the tank. My powder brown preoccupied himself attacking his own reflection instead of the sailfin I introduced . Leave up for several days. I have a sailfin purple Scopas powder brown and hippo all living peacefully in a 210. My fish won’t eat in an acclimation box and just stressed them out further IMO. .

 

[cadefowlr]

I did the mirror trick to keep my foxface from beating up a new Tomini Tang. Kept it on there for a couple days and the foxface never paid the tang anymore attention.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I asked the same question couple of months back for my aggressive convict tang who was bullying all the yellow tangs in my tank.. I did actually add it back to the display from my sump after 2 weeks, but it didn’t take long for him to turn into a bully again.. eventually had to rehome the convict.. if you don’t want to go through the trouble of catching them again, I would suggest you rehome one of them (bully should ideally be rehomed, but I will leave that upto you to decide)

Was the convict added first?

 

[TheSaltyCPA]

Check out these guys!

Yellow Tang Decoy

My personal 3D printed yellow tang decoy. Types: Sand Base, Suctions Base, Suction Back 100% Reef Safe Color Yellow

fishofhex.com

This is a 3D printed yellow tang. I bought four and it worked like a hoot. I had Hippo tang, powder blue, powder brown, phillipene, naso, and a ton of other fish already very well established in my system.

I wanted to add a yellow tang. I bought these and put them in the tank for a few days before putting the yellow tang in. The powder blue absolutely went to WAR with the decoys.

After about two weeks I took the decoys out and the yellow has done amazingly. No issues whatsoever.

 

[exnisstech]

Toss a couple more yellows in to spread the aggression. I have 4 yellows and a purple with no aggression. It not uncommon to have aggression between 2 zebrasomas. I've have kept a single yellow and a purple before but the purple was in for a few years before i added a wild yellow. Adding a second yellow later failed due to aggression from the established yellow.

 

[ForumlyGuestUser]

I asked the same question couple of months back for my aggressive convict tang who was bullying all the yellow tangs in my tank.. I did actually add it back to the display from my sump after 2 weeks, but it didn’t take long for him to turn into a bully again.. eventually had to rehome the convict.. if you don’t want to go through the trouble of catching them again, I would suggest you rehome one of them (bully should ideally be rehomed, but I will leave that upto you to decide)

Was the convict added first?

All were added together until one day when convict decided to go rogue for no apparent reason! I have a thread with video of convict continuously chasing and harassing my yellow tang.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I asked the same question couple of months back for my aggressive convict tang who was bullying all the yellow tangs in my tank.. I did actually add it back to the display from my sump after 2 weeks, but it didn’t take long for him to turn into a bully again.. eventually had to rehome the convict.. if you don’t want to go through the trouble of catching them again, I would suggest you rehome one of them (bully should ideally be rehomed, but I will leave that upto you to decide)

Was the convict added first?

All were added together until one day when convict decided to go rogue for no apparent reason! I have a thread with video of convict continuously chasing and harassing my yellow tang.

Lots of factors play into tang aggression. Water change size and regularity, competition for a niche, flow patterns, breaks to line of sight, space for swimming, feeding routine, order and size at introduction. When you add new fish to the tank it can also start a cycle of territorial behavior from the other inhabitants, doesn't always have to be the same species.