Melanurus Aggression

[dduby]

I have a male melanurus that i really enjoy in my tank and recently added a McCosker's. The Melanurus didn't pay any attention to the McCosker's while it was in the acclimation box, but as soon as I released it into the tank the Melanurus was on it. Torments the McCosker's into hiding. I taped a mirror to the tank and the Melanurus was keeping itself busy with his reflection and the McClosker's came out as was getting on just fine. All of the sudden the Melanurus got aggressive again and i would say is even more aggressive now. I managed to catch the Melanurus in my acclimation box and he is currently still in there.

I'm not sure what my next steps should be. Do i need to re-home one of the wrasses? Also, is there anything i can add to the acclimation box to make it a little more "comfortable" for the Melanurus.

Thank you for reading

 

[nereefpat]

How big is the tank?
How long did you keep the flasher wrasse in the acclimation box?

 

[dduby]

120G. The flasher was in the acc box 5 days

 

[Flippers4pups]

@evolved?

 

[dduby]

@evolved?

I was going to page the wrasse master but you beat me to it.

Thanks

 

[BuBBly FiSh]

I have a male melanurus that i really enjoy in my tank and recently added a McCosker's. The Melanurus didn't pay any attention to the McCosker's while it was in the acclimation box, but as soon as I released it into the tank the Melanurus was on it. Torments the McCosker's into hiding. I taped a mirror to the tank and the Melanurus was keeping itself busy with his reflection and the McClosker's came out as was getting on just fine. All of the sudden the Melanurus got aggressive again and i would say is even more aggressive now. I managed to catch the Melanurus in my acclimation box and he is currently still in there.

I'm not sure what my next steps should be. Do i need to re-home one of the wrasses? Also, is there anything i can add to the acclimation box to make it a little more "comfortable" for the Melanurus.

Thank you for reading

There are a few things to try. I have a coral beauty who would pick on everything new I put in. I also had this issue with a damsel. The 2 things I found that worked for me and that will hopefully work for you is this. If the bully fish is an established fish in other words been in the tank and bullying new fish take him out and isolate him for 3-4 days so your new fish can get established and also add some rock or change your scape a bit. The 2nd thing adding more fish. A few damsels or something cheap even. See if you have a couple of new fish the bully won't pick on just 1 and get boring quick. I have a successful cichlid tank with every (EVERY) kind of cichlid in it. I have enough that they all get along. Sure they may take a nip here and there but no deaths and no damage and it has been this way for 2 1/2 years now. They are even breeding and hatching in the 120 gallons. My coral tank has 6 damsels, a coral beauty, a Rabbit fox face, Falco hawkfish, 6 lined wrasse and a flame angel. I got the 2 angels to get along by pulling out the coral beauty and adding the flame and 6 damsels while changing the rock work and adding some rock. This is in a 55 gallon with a 40-gallon sump.

 

[foxt]

I have the exact same situation. A male melanurus, about 4.5 inches long. He's in there with a bipartitus and a christmas wrasse, also males about the same size, maybe a little smaller. All three get along fine, with about 20 other various fish (220g).

Whenever I add anything to the DT, the melanurus is usually aggressive. I have tried acclimation boxes, leaving the newcomer in the box for as long as a week. The melanurus never pays any attention. When I would first release the newcomer, the melanurus would then be all over it - like it had never seen it before. It did this with butterflies, wrasses, gobies, even jawfish. It didn't do it to a tang or a bellus angel - never paid any attention after release from the acclimation box.

After a few tries at this, I decided to try letting the fish out of acclimation at night, after the melanurus had gone to sleep. No surprise, at first light when the wrasse emerged, it would go right after the new fish.

Then I started trapping and removing the melanurus. It is hard to trap - I have to leave the trap in the tank for days, feeding the tank from the trap, until the melanurus is comfortable enough with going in the trap. And it's fast, so I have to be quick with releasing the door. Once trapped, the melanurus goes into the observation tank that the newcomer just came out of. I usually QT fish for more than a month, and if they were treated in QT, I leave them in observation for another month after that, so I seem to always have an empty disease/parasite free setup running to serve as jail for the melanurus.

I leave him in there for as long as it takes for the new fish to get settled in the DT. Usually at least a week. So far, fingers crossed, that has been long enough of a break that when I return him to the DT, he ignores all of the other fish. In fact, the bipartitus and christmas wrasse sometimes welcome him by chasing him around for a day or so.

 

[dduby]

I have the exact same situation. A male melanurus, about 4.5 inches long. He's in there with a bipartitus and a christmas wrasse, also males about the same size, maybe a little smaller. All three get along fine, with about 20 other various fish (220g).

Whenever I add anything to the DT, the melanurus is usually aggressive. I have tried acclimation boxes, leaving the newcomer in the box for as long as a week. The melanurus never pays any attention. When I would first release the newcomer, the melanurus would then be all over it - like it had never seen it before. It did this with butterflies, wrasses, gobies, even jawfish. It didn't do it to a tang or a bellus angel - never paid any attention after release from the acclimation box.

After a few tries at this, I decided to try letting the fish out of acclimation at night, after the melanurus had gone to sleep. No surprise, at first light when the wrasse emerged, it would go right after the new fish.

Then I started trapping and removing the melanurus. It is hard to trap - I have to leave the trap in the tank for days, feeding the tank from the trap, until the melanurus is comfortable enough with going in the trap. And it's fast, so I have to be quick with releasing the door. Once trapped, the melanurus goes into the observation tank that the newcomer just came out of. I usually QT fish for more than a month, and if they were treated in QT, I leave them in observation for another month after that, so I seem to always have an empty disease/parasite free setup running to serve as jail for the melanurus.

I leave him in there for as long as it takes for the new fish to get settled in the DT. Usually at least a week. So far, fingers crossed, that has been long enough of a break that when I return him to the DT, he ignores all of the other fish. In fact, the bipartitus and christmas wrasse sometimes welcome him by chasing him around for a day or so.

Sounds like good advice. I'll give this a shot. Thank you for the reply.