Tang Aggression - Understanding and Combating

[jaxteller007]

Here's the test strip. Spoiler is the dead fish.

Spoiler

[\spoiler]

 

[4FordFamily]

Here's the test strip. Spoiler is the dead fish.

Spoiler

[\spoiler]

Nitrates are high but honestly I don’t see many established PBT dying from nitrates like that. I can’t see the PH well. How long have you had it?

Did you QT it?

 

[jaxteller007]

Nitrates are high but honestly I don’t see many established PBT dying from nitrates like that. I can’t see the PH well. How long have you had it?

Did you QT it?

PH is in between the ok and ideal colors. We've had it I guess about a week or so and it went through 30 days of QT before we got it. Might have just been one of those things that happen.

 

[4FordFamily]

Did it eat well? They have high caloric needs. Nori daily, a good amount of it.

What was the QT regimen?

What symptoms the days leading up to death?

Sorry for the loss BTW

 

[Noob_reefer]

@4FordFamily
I have a 90 gal sps barebottomtank cycling right now I was thinking of getting a tomini and convict tang will this work out?

 

[4FordFamily]

@4FordFamily
I have a 90 gal sps barebottomtank cycling right now I was thinking of getting a tomini and convict tang will this work out?

It’s possible, it’s hard to know for sure but if added at the same time you may be OK. A 4 foot tank isn’t ideal but for some time it should be sufficient for those two.

 

[Noob_reefer]

It’s possible, it’s hard to know for sure but if added at the same time you may be OK. A 4 foot tank isn’t ideal but for some time it should be sufficient for those two.

What would you recommend for a 90 gal?

 

[jaxteller007]

We've recently caught our desjardini sailfin nipping at the tail or top fins of our magnificent foxface. The foxface doesn't show any damage so I'm not sure if the sailfin is actually nipping and missing or just doing some kind of tough guy act. He doesn't do it long and they both wind up eating together and half time hanging out together. Not sure what's going on there.

Any thoughts @4FordFamily ?

 

[4FordFamily]

What would you recommend for a 90 gal?

The Tomini is a good addition. You can probably house the two together, convict are slow growing. They're not particularly hardly at smaller size but if you get them both through quarantine they can likely be housed together for years before possible need to rehome one.

 

[4FordFamily]

We've recently caught our desjardini sailfin nipping at the tail or top fins of our magnificent foxface. The foxface doesn't show any damage so I'm not sure if the sailfin is actually nipping and missing or just doing some kind of tough guy act. He doesn't do it long and they both wind up eating together and half time hanging out together. Not sure what's going on there.

Any thoughts @4FordFamily ?

My Sohal chases my maggie and foxface lo in my 500 gallon, even nips their venemous top fins. Oddly, he hasn't been injured doing so. It only seems to happen around feeding time, and no damage has been done. I am actually more worried about the sohal than I am the foxfaces, other than the stress of being bullied. The tank is so busy and stuffed with other fish that they get left alone most of the time other than when the Sohal wants to push everyone around during eating time. He's about 4.5 inches and since I added a 9 inch Dussumeiri tang, he's been far less surly as he is no longer king of the vegetarians!

 

[Noob_reefer]

The Tomini is a good addition. You can probably house the two together, convict are slow growing. They're not particularly hardly at smaller size but if you get them both through quarantine they can likely be housed together for years before possible need to rehome one.

Cool thanx man!

 

[jaxteller007]

My Sohal chases my maggie and foxface lo in my 500 gallon, even nips their venemous top fins. Oddly, he hasn't been injured doing so. It only seems to happen around feeding time, and no damage has been done. I am actually more worried about the sohal than I am the foxfaces, other than the stress of being bullied. The tank is so busy and stuffed with other fish that they get left alone most of the time other than when the Sohal wants to push everyone around during eating time. He's about 4.5 inches and since I added a 9 inch Dussumeiri tang, he's been far less surly as he is no longer king of the vegetarians!

Yea I'm not real worried about the foxface. He's actually a little bigger than the sailfin right now. It was just weird seeing him do that and like 5 seconds later they are both eating off the same sheet of algae or swimming around together.

 

[Luis1992]

I have seen some strange things when mixing tangs. I attempted to add a powder brown and blonde naso to a tank with an established koi and sailfin. The koi immediately attacked the powder brown to the point where I had to pull the powder brown out and ended up giving it away. It took to the blonde naso fine within a short amount of time. Several months later I added a small blue hippo tang and experienced no aggression why so ever. This leads me to believe if the size of the new tang is very different and of a different genus your chances of success are much higher. I also do feed heavy a mixed diet of mysis shrimp, rods food, algae, flakes, garlic xtreme, zoecon and reefroids. Soak it for 30 mins prior to feeding. Also a sheet of nori a day.

 

[jaxteller007]

@4FordFamily here's a couple pics I snapped real quick of them so you can see the size of them. Don't laugh at their names lol (Dale and Brennan). Bonus you get to see Frank the Tank the horseshoe crab.

 

[jaxteller007]

I think Dale (the sailfin) actually picks on our melanarus wrasse more than anyone else. But again, no damage on anyone. Kinda seems like he just flexes to act like he's the boss and doesn't actually hit or bite anyone.

 

[4FordFamily]

I have seen some strange things when mixing tangs. I attempted to add a powder brown and blonde naso to a tank with an established koi and sailfin. The koi immediately attacked the powder brown to the point where I had to pull the powder brown out and ended up giving it away. It took to the blonde naso fine within a short amount of time. Several months later I added a small blue hippo tang and experienced no aggression why so ever. This leads me to believe if the size of the new tang is very different and of a different genus your chances of success are much higher. I also do feed heavy a mixed diet of mysis shrimp, rods food, algae, flakes, garlic xtreme, zoecon and reefroids. Soak it for 30 mins prior to feeding. Also a sheet of nori a day.

For some reason, hippo tangs seem to be largely ignored by other tangs --- I have had few issues with this with them, especially when smaller.

 

[4FordFamily]

I think Dale (the sailfin) actually picks on our melanarus wrasse more than anyone else. But again, no damage on anyone. Kinda seems like he just flexes to act like he's the boss and doesn't actually hit or bite anyone.

Yes, this is often a dominance thing. If the chasing continues for long periods of time it can be more.

 

[PhantomHalo]

So I just put my desjardini tang in my 300 gal with a kole tang. Now my powder brown tang is constantly attacking the desjardini. I read the first post, but moving the rock work isn’t an option. I am thinking of removing the powder brown if I can catch him. However, will the roles just flop after a week or two when I put him back in? They aren’t even the same family. He is leaving the kole tang alone for the most part. He will chase him here and there but it’s mostly between the desi and powder brown.

 

[Luis1992]

I got lucky enough that the wife ok’d a gem tang from my lfs. I already have a koi tang so this will be interesting. I’ve started over feeding a bit and will first have him in a hang in breeder box. Then he will be in a large breeder box in the tank until I’m sure I see no signs of aggression. He is significantly smaller than my koi tang which typically makes this easier. (I’ve done this before with up to 5 tangs in a tank). Wish me luck!!

 

[4FordFamily]

So I just put my desjardini tang in my 300 gal with a kole tang. Now my powder brown tang is constantly attacking the desjardini. I read the first post, but moving the rock work isn’t an option. I am thinking of removing the powder brown if I can catch him. However, will the roles just flop after a week or two when I put him back in? They aren’t even the same family. He is leaving the kole tang alone for the most part. He will chase him here and there but it’s mostly between the desi and powder brown.

That’s a small number is tangs in a tank that size, is it lightly stocked otherwise? Other fish provide a nice distraction for aggressive tangs. With large tanks and few tangs it’s easier to “defend territory” and so they’re more likely to do so.

Removal is unlikely to solve the problem, try mirrors. Is any damage being done? How long has this been going on? What is the size of the three tangs?

Adding one tang at a time can end this well especially with those other risk factors. :(

I got lucky enough that the wife ok’d a gem tang from my lfs. I already have a koi tang so this will be interesting. I’ve started over feeding a bit and will first have him in a hang in breeder box. Then he will be in a large breeder box in the tank until I’m sure I see no signs of aggression. He is significantly smaller than my koi tang which typically makes this easier. (I’ve done this before with up to 5 tangs in a tank). Wish me luck!!

Good luck!! :)