New Copper-banded Being Bullied

[CpeshalElimpix]

Greetings,

I have a 200 gallon mixed reef and picked up a new copper-banded butterfly fish along with a couple others (Blue throat trigger and file fish) last night. the trigger and file fish are doing fine but the CBB was being endlessly harassed by my desjardini (also have a blonde nasso that doesn't appear to care). It seemed normal in the beginning but when the desjardini took a little bit of the CBB's fin I got uncomfortable. We tried several things:

Kept nori clips full the entire times
Showered them with food before, during, and after introduction, desjardini showed very little interest in the food
Put a mirror in the corner of the tank
Tried lights out (worked for about 30 minutes until everybody adjusted to the lights and he found the CBB in the corner)

Eventually was able to catch the desjardini in a fish trap (wanted to catch the CBB but was happy to catch either of them)

I also read about people rearranging liverock but it is all epoxied and would be near impossible to re-situate due to the canopy.

Any advice would be helpful, maybe I just didn't give them long enough together and they would have worked it out eventually? Should I just leave the desjardini in trap in the display? I could move him to the sump for a day or two if that may help but was worried that the nasso may then turn on the desjardini when he returns. Has anybody had any success with trapping the aggressor for a couple days, It's sorta like an opposite acclimation box.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Zack K]

I would keep your desjardini either in the trap or sump for a few day. Your Copperband needs time to find his territory. then when you reintroduce back into the main display the CBB already has a spot he can call his.

 

[CpeshalElimpix]

I will do just that, thanks for helping out! Just wanted to make sure what I was doing made some sense lol.

 

[EmdeReef]

Agree, one or the other needs to go either permanently or, if lucky, temporary. You can also try rearranging rock work, keeping lights off for half a day or so. But there are no guarantees.

 

[Punchanello]

I'm not a fan of rearranging the rock.

In my experience the CBB is smarter and quicker than a tang. It will learn to stay out of the tang's way. The first 24 hrs will be touch and go but the real danger is the CBB getting bullied out of food or too timid to compete for it over time.

 

[CpeshalElimpix]

I'm not a fan of rearranging the rock.

In my experience the CBB is smarter and quicker than a tang. It will learn to stay out of the tang's way. The first 24 hrs will be touch and go but the real danger is the CBB getting bullied out of food or too timid to compete for it over time.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I agree he was outmaneuvering the tang pretty easily but we were worried that he would get worn down over time.

You bring up a good point about the food, we will keep an eye on him and we have plenty a buffer with our current nutrients, so we will be sure to feed extra and make sure he is eating enough. The tang is still in time out and the CBB appears to be eating fine without anybody chasing him.

 

[Punchanello]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I agree he was outmaneuvering the tang pretty easily but we were worried that he would get worn down over time.

You bring up a good point about the food, we will keep an eye on him and we have plenty a buffer with our current nutrients, so we will be sure to feed extra and make sure he is eating enough. The tang is still in time out and the CBB appears to be eating fine without anybody chasing him.

If you do find the CBB is struggling to get it's fair share a feeder device has worked well for me. Basically a pvc pipe with holes in it that he can stick his snout in and get food where the others can't.

 

[CpeshalElimpix]

If you do find the CBB is struggling to get it's fair share a feeder device has worked well for me. Basically a pvc pipe with holes in it that he can stick his snout in and get food where the others can't.

That is genius, thanks for the idea! I would not have thought about that.

 

[najer]

I give fish a time out if they won't settle and if that doesn't work I remove them.
Hope they settle for you.

 

[LiamPM]

I had the same issue with my Desjardini when I added my Moorish Idol a few years back. I put the Desjardini in a fish trap to allow the moorish to settle too. Took over a week for him to finally stop caring about the Moorish free swimming around.

I think you have done the right thing in trapping the Desjardini and not the copperband. The only thing I will say is keep an eye on the others, I found the longer I kept the Desjardini in lock up the more some of my other boystrous fish would try to take the bully leadership.

They all live peacefully with the Moorish currently 2 years later so it all worked out. As above though, the biggest issue with the copperband, much like the Moorish will be fattening her up enough to withstand any short bully bursts to begin with.

 

[CpeshalElimpix]

I had the same issue with my Desjardini when I added my Moorish Idol a few years back. I put the Desjardini in a fish trap to allow the moorish to settle too. Took over a week for him to finally stop caring about the Moorish free swimming around.

I think you have done the right thing in trapping the Desjardini and not the copperband. The only thing I will say is keep an eye on the others, I found the longer I kept the Desjardini in lock up the more some of my other boystrous fish would try to take the bully leadership.

They all live peacefully with the Moorish currently 2 years later so it all worked out. As above though, the biggest issue with the copperband, much like the Moorish will be fattening her up enough to withstand any short bully bursts to begin with.

That is great news, today will be the third day that he is trapped and yesterday was the first day that he seemed to lose interest in the CBB when he came close. Still debating whether or not to put him in a bucket and fake-acclimate him again for an hour or two.

 

[CpeshalElimpix]

Quick update, thanks for all of your guy's assistance with this! Hopefully I am not counting my chickens but after being in the fish trap for 6 days inside the tank, we did a fake acclimation in a bucket for 2 hours, released him and doesn't seem to have any interest in the CBB anymore.

CBB is eating frozen food like it's nobody's business and the naso seemed to have a moment of "I am alpha here" against the tang but no other aggression in the tank. I will update if anything else happens but thanks so much for the help =]