Purple Tang only going for Blenny

[reginasd]

Hi all,

We’ve recently added a Purple Tang to our reef tank which generally went well except it started harassing our Scooter Blenny.

Fish in the tank is currently: pair of clowns (One just out of juvenile stage so very small), foxface, scarlet hawkfish and the Blenny of course.
In terms of who looks like should be bottom of the hierarchy, it’s the juvenile clown, but the Tang only went for the Blenny.

We unfortunately found the Blenny upside down today. The assumption is it’s the Tang but then again we’ve only had the Blenny for a couple of weeks so is this a case of the Tang picking on a “sickly” fish who might not have gotten on as well as we thought (it was eating) or has the Tang just been a mean bully?

The Tang had generally been peaceful so I’d like to know if this is a one of or if it’s likely to pick a new victim.

Thank you!

 

[KrisReef]

No way to know from here or from your description what the root issue(s) were between the Tang and the Blenny? Was it primarily an algae eating Blenny? If it was eating in the tangs garden then I could see why the Tang gave it the business. I agree it also may have been sickly and the Tang was just trying to keep the house clean? Purple Tangs have a reputation for being bullies and it could be that the Tang felt there were too many fishes swimming on it's habitat. IF that is the case, as the fishes grow the aggression between the remaining fish may increase over time?

When I added a Harlequin Tusk to our main tank our Purple Tang immediately began attacking the Tusk. I shut the lights out but the Tusk still jumped out during the night. I've lost my love for that Tang but we have had it a few years and so it's now solidly one of my spouses' fishes and not available for adoption. The relationships between fishes and family are unpredictable and routinely challenging.

 

[reginasd]

No way to know from here or from your description what the root issue(s) were between the Tang and the Blenny? Was it primarily an algae eating Blenny? If it was eating in the tangs garden then I could see why the Tang gave it the business. I agree it also may have been sickly and the Tang was just trying to keep the house clean? Purple Tangs have a reputation for being bullies and it could be that the Tang felt there were too many fishes swimming on it's habitat. IF that is the case, as the fishes grow the aggression between the remaining fish may increase over time?

When I added a Harlequin Tusk to our main tank our Purple Tang immediately began attacking the Tusk. I shut the lights out but the Tusk still jumped out during the night. I've lost my love for that Tang but we have had it a few years and so it's now solidly one of my spouses' fishes and not available for adoption. The relationships between fishes and family are unpredictable and routinely challenging.

Thanks for the reply!
The Blenny mainly stayed at the bottom of the tank so I would have thought well out of the way if the Tang.

The rest of the fish seem to be getting on well - no aggression at all even during feeding time and the Foxface and Tang seem to basically live on top of each other.

Like so many others, I suspect, it would be nice to know for certain what happened with the Blenny to prevent it happening again, but I suppose that’s one of the “fun” part of the hobby