Powder brown bulling

[Tab28]

I have powder brown tang which runs my 120 gallon. I bought a bi-color angel hoping to control majono. The powder brown chases the angel relentlessly. Had to place angel in a in-tank breeder cage. Moving around my live rock is not an option. I am afraid of putting tang in time out. In my experience powder browns are probably one on the most delicate tangs.

Is there any possibility of the tang allowing the angel to co-exist? I have had the angel in the breeder for a week hoping. Yesterday the angel jumped out of cage into tank and tang went into alpha male mode.

 

[Z06-Hec]

I just got rid of my Powder blue because he wouldnt stop fighting with the purple who was bigger than him. he would also abuse my blenny whenever he got the chance but he never fought with any of my angels. Is the angel bigger or smaller? might not be the right answer but another large fish may do the trick... distract him from 1 fish to chase and let him think about 2 large fish in the tank.

Before i got my Powder and my Purple the Majestic angel was the boss and when i added the Blue face angel she would chase him all the time and make sure he stood hiding... When i added the powder and the purple all of that stopped and Majestic is back to being calm.

 

[Marshall O]

Put up a mirror on one side of the tank. It should keep it occupied for most of the day

 

[Tab28]

The bi-angel is actually large for a dwarf angel, about 3-4". I have a fox face, much bigger and in tank before the tang. The tang was not welcomed originally but now the two graze on the same rocks. The fox face just chased the tang. This tang has nipped the angels fins. Has chased him so much it lost scales swimming between rocks to escape.

 

[Humblefish]

A Powder Brown is an Acanthurus tang, and those are known for their aggression. And even though I realize Browns tend to stay smaller than, say, a Powder Blue; having him in just a 4' 120 gallon is probably exacerbating the problem. In this case, it's not the gallons so much as the lack of swimming space. Acanthurus really need a good a 6' run to do their laps around the tank. Some, like Clown or Sohal, need even more than that.

 

[MounteeFrag]

+1 on the picture.

 

[Tab28]

Put up a mirror on one side of the tank. It should keep it occupied for most of the day

It sounded like a joke. But it worked. When i placed a mirror on opposite end of tank. He went nuts. A day later i lowered the breeder tank. The angel still got chased but the tang would loose interest when it remembered there was another powder brown on the other end of tank. Each day spends less time chasing the angel.

Now if the bi color feels froggy enough to start nipping at any corals other than majono I will need the tang back to it's alpha male mode. Chase the angel into corner for easy catching.