Mirror Trick is magical :)

amnesiac · Jun 28, 2017

Hey, everybody. As my first thread on R2R I wanted to give my 2 cents on the mirror trick. So I have a 125 with 3 tangs (purple, lavender and yellow eye kole) that were all added as juveniles. They get along swimmingly (heh heh) and figured so long as I didn't put in another tang the peace would remain. So an opportunity arose for me to get 2 female Watanabe angels for a very attractive price and I picked them up without giving it a second thought. Sure enough once they were acclimated and intro'd the drama began. The purple and lavender tang and strangely enough my red velvet wrasse descended upon the angels right away. The lavender showed colors that I had never seen before (I'm guessing those are his angry clothes) and this went on and on for a few hours so I didn't think it was going to stop until they were dead so I decided to act. Coincidently, just the other day I had run across a post about how another reefer used a mirror on the side of the tank to diffuse a situation between two tangs............................I have a mirror

Wow, I really couldn't believe how effective this was!!! Immediately, after I taped my little shaving mirror to the side, the tangs and wrasse flew over to that side of the tank and busied themselves with trying to destroy they're evil versions. The only break they took was at feeding and at night (which I'm guessing is because the reflection wasn't visible then). The lavender did go back to harassing the angels the first night, but by the end of the second day he and the wrasse stopped messing around with the mirror and lost all interest in the angels. The purple tang was still angrily attacking the mirror so I left it out there for another day.
Finally, when I took the mirror down I was VERY scared that they'd go back to it with the angels, but it never happened. They've been in there a week since I took the mirror down and not so much as sideways look

Hope you guys found this interesting. I don't think that having the mirror trick is blanket permission to throw any two tangs into the same tank, but I'm glad I had this trick in this situation. -Anthony

Brew12 · Jun 29, 2017

amnesiac said:
Hey, everybody. As my first thread on R2R I wanted to give my 2 cents on the mirror trick. So I have a 125 with 3 tangs (purple, lavender and yellow eye kole) that were all added as juveniles. They get along swimmingly (heh heh) and figured so long as I didn't put in another tang the peace would remain. So an opportunity arose for me to get 2 female Watanabe angels for a very attractive price and I picked them up without giving it a second thought. Sure enough once they were acclimated and intro'd the drama began. The purple and lavender tang and strangely enough my red velvet wrasse descended upon the angels right away. The lavender showed colors that I had never seen before (I'm guessing those are his angry clothes) and this went on and on for a few hours so I didn't think it was going to stop until they were dead so I decided to act. Coincidently, just the other day I had run across a post about how another reefer used a mirror on the side of the tank to diffuse a situation between two tangs............................I have a mirror
Wow, I really couldn't believe how effective this was!!! Immediately, after I taped my little shaving mirror to the side, the tangs and wrasse flew over to that side of the tank and busied themselves with trying to destroy they're evil versions. The only break they took was at feeding and at night (which I'm guessing is because the reflection wasn't visible then). The lavender did go back to harassing the angels the first night, but by the end of the second day he and the wrasse stopped messing around with the mirror and lost all interest in the angels. The purple tang was still angrily attacking the mirror so I left it out there for another day.
Finally, when I took the mirror down I was VERY scared that they'd go back to it with the angels, but it never happened. They've been in there a week since I took the mirror down and not so much as sideways look
Hope you guys found this interesting. I don't think that having the mirror trick is blanket permission to throw any two tangs into the same tank, but I'm glad I had this trick in this situation. -Anthony

Fantastic!

I know the mirror trick worked very well for me, also.

Sonam · Jan 8, 2018

We used a mirror to distract a blue powder tang who was being aggressive towards a newly introduced firefish

ca1ore · Jan 8, 2018

OH yeah, it works really well. I actually use a 12x12 mirror tile - keeps all the ******s in my tank busy.

ncaldwell · Jan 8, 2018

Glad it worked for you, my Achilles is a sucker for it. Except now he knows his reflection lives under the sanded in the bottom glass, so naturally he moves all the sand away so he can fight

Adele · Jan 9, 2018

amnesiac said:
Hey, everybody. As my first thread on R2R I wanted to give my 2 cents on the mirror trick. So I have a 125 with 3 tangs (purple, lavender and yellow eye kole) that were all added as juveniles. They get along swimmingly (heh heh) and figured so long as I didn't put in another tang the peace would remain. So an opportunity arose for me to get 2 female Watanabe angels for a very attractive price and I picked them up without giving it a second thought. Sure enough once they were acclimated and intro'd the drama began. The purple and lavender tang and strangely enough my red velvet wrasse descended upon the angels right away. The lavender showed colors that I had never seen before (I'm guessing those are his angry clothes) and this went on and on for a few hours so I didn't think it was going to stop until they were dead so I decided to act. Coincidently, just the other day I had run across a post about how another reefer used a mirror on the side of the tank to diffuse a situation between two tangs............................I have a mirror
Wow, I really couldn't believe how effective this was!!! Immediately, after I taped my little shaving mirror to the side, the tangs and wrasse flew over to that side of the tank and busied themselves with trying to destroy they're evil versions. The only break they took was at feeding and at night (which I'm guessing is because the reflection wasn't visible then). The lavender did go back to harassing the angels the first night, but by the end of the second day he and the wrasse stopped messing around with the mirror and lost all interest in the angels. The purple tang was still angrily attacking the mirror so I left it out there for another day.
Finally, when I took the mirror down I was VERY scared that they'd go back to it with the angels, but it never happened. They've been in there a week since I took the mirror down and not so much as sideways look
Hope you guys found this interesting. I don't think that having the mirror trick is blanket permission to throw any two tangs into the same tank, but I'm glad I had this trick in this situation. -Anthony

Lol “angry clothes”. A well documented account. Thanks for the info and the laugh.

joekool · Jan 9, 2018

That's pretty cool. Have to remember that one.

Welcome to R2R. Great first post!

BZOFIQ · Jan 9, 2018

That is great to hear! I'm planning to introduce 5-6 tangs in my next build, this knowledge will definitely be handy.

Flexin · Jan 9, 2018

Glad to hear that worked. I've also printed out a picture of the same species but larger, that settled my tang down from pummeling hawk fish and there was peace in my valley

It really does work.

dansreef · Jan 9, 2018

This is a great idea. I wish I had tried it a couple months ago when I introduced a couple of new fish. The resident ******s were in rare form. Fortunately after a few days a pecking order formed and no one got beaten up too badly.

neltel_7 · Apr 15, 2020

Flexin said:
Glad to hear that worked. I've also printed out a picture of the same species but larger, that settled my tang down from pummeling hawk fish and there was peace in my valley It really does work.

Did you put a picture of the new species or the one that was already in the tank?