HELP! Tang being a big meany! to everyone.

sharpblade15 · #1 09/18/2007, 04:15 PM

We just bought a little Banggai Cardinal! I named him Shanghai.

our tank has a orange percula, black&white clownfish, yellow tang (about 2 1/2 inch) a yellow citrus clown goby, and now the new little cardinal.

everyone is fine (minus the loss of our coral beauty a few weeks ago) until we just put Shanghai in. Now the tang is on freak out mode, shoving his little white bone at everyone in the tank.

Parameters are good, corals look great, just fed everyone a few hours ago, any ideas? is this gonna be a problem? i see that tangs and cardinals are compatible, is ours just a little brat?

xxseawolf · #2 09/18/2007, 04:18 PM

what size is your tank?

deklin · #3 09/18/2007, 04:49 PM

Aggressiveness to new additions is common for tangs, especially if they feel their food supply or territory is threatened. Try taping a mirror to the side of your tank and leave it up for a day or two. The tang will unleash its aggression on it's own reflection and leave others alone. Moving rocks around to obscure its territory can also help.

deklin · #4 09/18/2007, 04:58 PM

Also, I hope that you now have a much larger tank than the one displayed in your gallery. That one looks 24 gallons tops. If not, I'd suggest returning your tang to the LFS. It won't survive longterm in a small tank and will probably get increasingly aggressive to all tank mates as it grows.

InLimbo87 · #5 09/18/2007, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by xxseawolf
what size is your tank?

Good question. Yellow tangs are known to be aggressive in any tank, especially small ones (less than a minimum of 75G)

coastalaqu · #6 09/18/2007, 07:41 PM

Tangs are agressive, my yellow and sailfin beat new fish for a few days after introduction. I recently added a foxface had to pull the poor guy and put him in another tank,. If you have them in a small tank it will never work. Mine are in a 135

jnc914 · #7 09/18/2007, 08:38 PM

I agree with deklin, you need to break down established territories until your new addition is settled in. I have a 290 with several tangs, and they are constantly battling for supremacy. However there has not been any significant damage to any of them. I also tend to agree that Tangs should be considered aggressive species in general.

oceancowboy · #8 09/18/2007, 10:48 PM

Agree with changing the "fishscape".....here is another suggestion.....

You can put a mirror next to the tank for a day or two. The aggressive fish sees a competitor of its own type and focuses more on this. It lets the other new fish get more comfortable. I used this with a majestic angel that was cornering a new scribbled angel. This idea came from my LFS and it worked....after two days took the mirror away (I used a big one out of our powder bath after negotiating with the wife)....no problems since.

I did not have a problem adding a purple tang later along with a couple of other fish. More for the more dominate fish to focus on at one time.

AquaReeferMan · #9 09/18/2007, 11:21 PM

Tank size is key here.

tmz · #10 09/19/2007, 12:14 AM

delkin,oceancowboy, Thanks for the tip about the mirror.Sounds like a very good idea. I had not heard of it.

sharpblade15 · #11 09/19/2007, 12:20 AM

oh, yeah, this is a different tank than pictured in the profile, we've upgraded since that one to one much larger. the lights are off now and the tang isn't being as aggressive, so were gonna try the mirror thing tonight, hope it works

))

BangkokMatt · #12 09/19/2007, 05:43 AM

How big is much larger

thor32766 · #13 09/19/2007, 09:46 AM

as all mentioned before tangs become territorial and will show new additions to a tank whose boss.

BMW///M3 · #14 09/19/2007, 12:04 PM

Yeah,how big is your tank?

shrinky · #15 09/19/2007, 01:11 PM

Just another thought, in addition to the fact that its been established in this thread that tangs can have aggresiveness issues, based on the sizes of your other fish, it would appear that the tang (if mature) is probably disproportionally larger than all the other smaller, like-sized fish. Could be an issue...

But again, tank size is key... put enough of any creature/fish/person in too small of a space, and there are going to be problems.

Leeroy · #16 09/19/2007, 11:23 PM

Is the tang getting enough food?
I recently had a tang act like this for days, after giving him more nori, he has settled down again.

Good Luck

tmz · #17 09/19/2007, 11:56 PM

My Tangs get a nori clip evryday and it keeps agression down. They really enjoy tearing at the clip.

BMW///M3 · #18 09/20/2007, 07:01 PM

So....HOW BIG IS YOUR TANK......it's a really simple question

tmz · #19 09/20/2007, 08:03 PM

BMW///M3. I think he gets it that tank size is important . If he doesn't choose to answer your question it's up to him.

BMW///M3 · #20 09/20/2007, 10:01 PM

So....HOW BIG IS YOUR TANK......it's a really simple question

BMW///M3 · #21 09/20/2007, 10:02 PM

Whoops....didn't mean to post it 2 times.