New fish saves old fish. Weird.

[Darren in Tacoma]

So. We have a Yellow Tang that we bought back in 2020. We call him The Dude. Everything was great with The Dude until he stopped eating, no explanation why. He would graze on the little algae that we have, eat nori rather aggressively, and eat brine shrimp and mysis at feeding time.
Then one day he just stopped eating. We tried every brand and type of food we could think of, including live brine shrimp and live macro algae. He started feeding again, for 2 days. That was it. He has gotten thinner and thinner over the last couple of months, sometimes not coming out of the rocks for a day or two at a time. I pretty much just expected to find him gone one morning.
We have made several additions to the tank since he stopped eating, but yesterday was different. We came home with a small Melanarus Wrasse. After acclimation he entered his new home and guess what? The Dude came out of the rocks and started swimming alongside the new wrasse! My wife commented that they looked like long lost friends. Then guess what? The Dude started eating. We fed the fish Mysis this morning before maintenance and The Dude joined all the other fish in the feast!
Obviously we are super happy about this and hoping it continues. They are swimming around together as I type this. Weird.

 

[CanuckReefer]

So. We have a Yellow Tang that we bought back in 2020. We call him The Dude. Everything was great with The Dude until he stopped eating, no explanation why. He would graze on the little algae that we have, eat nori rather aggressively, and eat brine shrimp and mysis at feeding time.
Then one day he just stopped eating. We tried every brand and type of food we could think of, including live brine shrimp and live macro algae. He started feeding again, for 2 days. That was it. He has gotten thinner and thinner over the last couple of months, sometimes not coming out of the rocks for a day or two at a time. I pretty much just expected to find him gone one morning.
We have made several additions to the tank since he stopped eating, but yesterday was different. We came home with a small Melanarus Wrasse. After acclimation he entered his new home and guess what? The Dude came out of the rocks and started swimming alongside the new wrasse! My wife commented that they looked like long lost friends. Then guess what? The Dude started eating. We fed the fish Mysis this morning before maintenance and The Dude joined all the other fish in the feast!
Obviously we are super happy about this and hoping it continues. They are swimming around together as I type this. Weird.

These are the stories we LOVE to read! Godspeed to The Dude, and your ( effectively ) nurse wrasse!

 

[pbrown]

Thank you for sharing. Shows what a good new friend can do!

 

[NowGlazeIT]

So cool! what a pal!

 

[ZoWhat]

I experienced the same exact thing with a Blue Hippo that was fully grown. It became reclusive and seemed shy and depressed actually....after years of happiness

Put in a 2nd tang, a Yellow, hoping they wouldn't fight. And actually the Yellow brought the Hippo out to where it's swimming and playing in the flow of the tank again.

Chalking it up to fish need some buddies around to feel active or re-energized

 

[Anthony Scholfield]

I recently had a similar experience......

I had a tomini tang and a lemon meringue wrasse together and all was well. The tang mysteriously disappeared while i was on vacation (still have no idea where it went) so the wrasse was all alone. I noticed over the coarse of several months it was not acting as usual, scanning and hunting. It was being more reclusive which i thought was odd.

After a series of events which is a story for another time, i decided to move the wrasse into a tank with other fish so it wasnt alone. It has now made friends with my clowns and is back to scanning and hunting. Very interesting to say the least.

 

[RedReefer]

I have a Chevron Tang and a Melanurus that think they are a mated pair. I know crazy! If something was to happen to either one the other would be upset! Relationships between fish are so similar to other life. My tang and wrasse are like two dogs, that are best friends. I'm glad your tang is back to normal...