Tang Aggression

[StPatrick89]

Just got a Harlequin Tusk and my Sailfin tang is flashing and following his every move. The tusk is now in the corner. I covered the tank with towels to black it out. How long before I should remove one of them out?

 

[Jekyl]

Tank size?

 

[StPatrick89]

Tank size?

75

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yellows are notorious for this behavior and it subsides in 24 hrs and moreso in 72 hours.
Lower or turn off white lights and attach a sheet of nori seaweed to a rock to keep it occupied. If you have one, you can also place a mirror at the area the tang seems to favor and it will focus on the " New imaginary yellow tang".

 

[StPatrick89]

Yellows are notorious for this behavior and it subsides in 24 hrs and moreso in 72 hours.
Lower or turn off white lights and attach a sheet of nori seaweed to a rock to keep it occupied. If you have one, you can also place a mirror at the area the tang seems to favor and it will focus on the " New imaginary yellow tang".

I put the mirror up. He was occupied for about 25mins then he got bored. I’ll try the nori thing. I just covered the covered the tank with towels. No lights on

 

[StPatrick89]

Covered

 

[StPatrick89]

Yellows are notorious for this behavior and it subsides in 24 hrs and moreso in 72 hours.
Lower or turn off white lights and attach a sheet of nori seaweed to a rock to keep it occupied. If you have one, you can also place a mirror at the area the tang seems to favor and it will focus on the " New imaginary yellow tang".

I never heard that about Sailfins. That’s crazy. Well you learn something new everyday. I’ll get rid of him before I let him kill a fish

 

[BostonReefer300]

Can you put your sailfin into a QT tank for a couple weeks? In the meantime, re-arrange your aquascape if possible. When you then reintroduce your tang, he'll feel like the new guy in a new place

 

[StPatrick89]

Can you put your sailfin into a QT tank for a couple weeks? In the meantime, re-arrange your aquascape if possible. When you then reintroduce your tang, he'll feel like the new guy in a new place

I have a QT tank but it’s not cycled

 

[StPatrick89]

Can you put your sailfin into a QT tank for a couple weeks? In the meantime, re-arrange your aquascape if possible. When you then reintroduce your tang, he'll feel like the new guy in a new place

Any suggestions for me to use my QT?

 

[BostonReefer300]

How big is your QT and do you have any rocks, old sponges, ceramic media, etc. in your sump or DT that you can do without for a while?

 

[StPatrick89]

How big is your QT and do you have any rocks, old sponges, ceramic media, etc. in your sump or DT that you can do without for a while?

No sump, but I can probably open my filter and take something out. You think that will suffice? QT is 10G

 

[BostonReefer300]

What do you use for filtration on your QT? A hang-on-back filter with a biowheel? A canister filter?

 

[StPatrick89]

What do you use for filtration on your QT? A hang-on-back filter with a biowheel? A canister filter?

Hob, no biowheel. It was the 10G kit from Petco

 

[BostonReefer300]

OK. If you have biospira, microbacter7, or another bacteria product that is meant to start a tank or boost your biofilter, you are pretty much good enough to go for an emergency situation. If your sailfin is definitely being super aggressive with the new fish---not just bullying that may go away after a couple days, but flat out relentless attacking, then that's an emergency in my opinion. Make at least 10 gallons of new saltwater. Do a 10 Gallon water change on your DT. Use the old water from the DT in your QT. Pour in the recommended dose of the bacteria product into your QT. Your HOB biowheel will quickly get seeded with bacteria. If you have sponges or filter pads in your DT filter, put those in your QT as well and put fresh ones in your DT. (I'm assuming you have plenty of live rock in your DT so removing some seasoned pads/sponges won't reduce your DT biofilter too much.). This all should provide enough of a biofilter in your QT to hold your sail fin (but how big is he? If big, a 10G QT isn't going to be suitable for more than a couple days.). Buy a couple big PVC elbows at the hardware store as places the sailfin can hide in in the QT. Make sure you monitor the QT carefully for temp, salinity, pH, and ammonia. Assuming you don't take long doing the water change and setting up the QT (and the temperature between the two tanks is the same), then you can catch the sailfin in a net and just plop him into the QT---no acclimation needed because you're using the same water he was just in.
Setting up an emergency QT is easier if you have a sump that you an keep a fair amount of biofilter media in at all times and ready to transfer to QT when needed. I keep a big sponge and several bags of ceramic biospheres in my sump just for this purpose. You don't have that, so my suggestions above are utilizing the best of what I understand you can do. It's not great, but should be OK for QTing one fish quickly. If you don't have any seasoned pads/sponges you can add to the QT and are just relying on the HOB biowheel to start, you have to be very careful with monitoring ammonia until you can add more biofilter media (sponges, etc.). If you don't have any bacterial product on hand, do NOT try this until you do have some. You'll need strong boost of bacteria to seed the HOB filter.

 

[StPatrick89]

OK. If you have biospira, microbacter7, or another bacteria product that is meant to start a tank or boost your biofilter, you are pretty much good enough to go for an emergency situation. If your sailfin is definitely being super aggressive with the new fish---not just bullying that may go away after a couple days, but flat out relentless attacking, then that's an emergency in my opinion. Make at least 10 gallons of new saltwater. Do a 10 Gallon water change on your DT. Use the old water from the DT in your QT. Pour in the recommended dose of the bacteria product into your QT. Your HOB biowheel will quickly get seeded with bacteria. If you have sponges or filter pads in your DT filter, put those in your QT as well and put fresh ones in your DT. (I'm assuming you have plenty of live rock in your DT so removing some seasoned pads/sponges won't reduce your DT biofilter too much.). This all should provide enough of a biofilter in your QT to hold your sail fin (but how big is he? If big, a 10G QT isn't going to be suitable for more than a couple days.). Buy a couple big PVC elbows at the hardware store as places the sailfin can hide in in the QT. Make sure you monitor the QT carefully for temp, salinity, pH, and ammonia. Assuming you don't take long doing the water change and setting up the QT (and the temperature between the two tanks is the same), then you can catch the sailfin in a net and just plop him into the QT---no acclimation needed because you're using the same water he was just in.
Setting up an emergency QT is easier if you have a sump that you an keep a fair amount of biofilter media in at all times and ready to transfer to QT when needed. I keep a big sponge and several bags of ceramic biospheres in my sump just for this purpose. You don't have that, so my suggestions above are utilizing the best of what I understand you can do. It's not great, but should be OK for QTing one fish quickly. If you don't have any seasoned pads/sponges you can add to the QT and are just relying on the HOB biowheel to start, you have to be very careful with monitoring ammonia until you can add more biofilter media (sponges, etc.). If you don't have any bacterial product on hand, do NOT try this until you do have some. You'll need strong boost of bacteria to seed the HOB filter.

Appreciate this. I have Seachem stability right now. That’s all. I did a water change earlier so I can take what from the DT and put it in the QT. The Sailfin was in the QT with a Blue hippo a month ago. He’s about 3 1/2” maybe, a little less. I also have prime on hand too which “detoxifies” ammonia, so I couldn’t utilize both. I have plenty of rock, can I take a rock out of the DT or that doesn’t really work?

 

[BostonReefer300]

rock from DT would work great for this purpose. You're not using meds in the QT so no worries about contaminating the rock. If you can move 5 pounds of live rock over, then you should be OK for a couple days with that little fish. You'd still want to get some biospira or microbacter7 or Dr. Tim's One and Only or the like and dose the QT as soon as you can though. You need to get the biowheel on the HOB seeded with bacteria too and the bottled bacteria will do that very quickly. Having prime on had is a good idea in case you see an ammonia spike. Prime isn't a bacterial blend---it's just a chemical solution that will react with ammonia and some other bad things in your water.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I've got to hit the hay now, but will check your thread again tomorrow morning.

 

[StPatrick89]

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I've got to hit the hay now, but will check your thread again tomorrow morning.

Bet! I will go to the LFS tomorrow to grab some Dr. Tim’s

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Take an air pump and airline tubing and put the tubing in the intake of a big powerhead / wavemaker like an mp-40 or nero, etc. This will make thousands of micro bubbles and severely limit the visibility in the tank and give the tusk time to escape. use mirrors on each side of tank. rubber band nori to 2 or 3 rocks in the tank. had good luck w this when introducing a new yellow tang to an established one who wanted to kill the new guy. i would expect the aggression to gradually fade. I wouldn't move the fish to a clean QT unless you absolutely have to.