As the title states my purple tang is being an butt. I noticed that I am starting to have some flat worms on my glass. So I looked in to possible predators that would eat them try to keep there numbers low before they get out of hand. My LFS had a 3" Ornate Leopard wrasse. I did some research and pretty much everyone says that those fish shouldn't have a problem together. My purple tang is small around 2"-3". The wrasse is about the same size. He swam around the tank for about 2 hours when introduced and then darted into the sand. That was 3 days ago. Today he comes out for the first time and the purple tang is chasing him around the tank beating the crap out of him and he goes right back under the sand. Is there anything that I can do or try to stop the aggression? I would like to keep both fish. Buy I guess if I had to I could get rid of the wrasse to avoid stressing both to death. Any advice would be a great help. Thanks in advance!
Purple Tang being a jerk and attacking leopard wrasse.
- Thread starter IMegaSquirt
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Not trying to be a jerk but giving honest advice-
I would look at re-homing that purple tang as it has no business being in a tank of that size. That’s part of the reason why you have aggression. My purple tang is a jerk in a 120 protecting her ground. Moving her to a 180 6’. Having owned a purple tang for the last 8 months I wouldn’t put one in less than a 6’ tank again
I would look at re-homing that purple tang as it has no business being in a tank of that size. That’s part of the reason why you have aggression. My purple tang is a jerk in a 120 protecting her ground. Moving her to a 180 6’. Having owned a purple tang for the last 8 months I wouldn’t put one in less than a 6’ tank again
Soulpher
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That purple tang will outgrow that tank. tangs especially purples can be aggressive to newcomers once they are established. you could try placing a mirror close to the tank to see if that distracts him or re-introduce if possible. In general, tangs should be the last fish to go in.
IMegaSquirt
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It is really small. I figured it would be an excuse to get a bigger tank when he got bigger.
Mine will attack a mirror but soon as she gets enough residual light she still will attack new fish before the lights come on and she can see herself. I watched her murder a Cardinal in seconds, I love the fish but it’s honestly one fish that really gives me grief.
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I had luck with the mirror technique in the past. Worked well for some individuals and not as well for others. Sometimes the fish would be distracted well by the mirror only to revert to the same aggression as soon as the mirror was removed several days later. I've had purple tangs be absolute jerks in a 6ft tank so a 50 gal tank might be a tough task to temper aggression
ryan265
Community Member
My purple rules my 265 and he is smaller than all the other tangs. You can try to distract it with a mirror but you’re only prolonging the issue. It will only get worse...probably best to re-home the lil guy.
IMegaSquirt
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I just wanted to update you guys on the situation with the purple tang. The guy at the LFS suggested that I add a small semi aggressive fish, such as a damsel. So I tried it and bought a Talbots damsel. He said it would spread the aggression out away from just the wrasse. Which it actually did. The second day after adding the damsel the wrasse was out the whole day and was being bothered by the tang very little. And now today they are all out, swimming near eachother with no signs of aggression at all. So I guess I got lucky and this happened to work. Only downfall is that the damsel was not something that I ever planned on getting, but if he is found to be a good tank mate then I guess he can stay.
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