Tang behaviour - acting like a spoiled brat

ACBlinky · #1 12/18/2007, 08:14 PM

I'm completely anthropomorphizing, but have no other way to describe this behaviour. My yellow tang is acting like a jealous, spoiled child.

After a year and a half our occelaris has finally chosen a potential host, a patch of zoas at one end of the tank. I'm thrilled, she seems content, the zoas don't mind at all, but the tang is having none of it. The minute the clown settles into her zoas, the tang will zip over and present her side to the clown, moving slowly sideways until the occy has no choice but to move off the zoas. Then the tang will leave, pick at her nori or something else, seemingly unaware of the frustrated clown at the other end of the tank.

The clown will settle back down, rub her zoas a bit, and whammo! there's the tang again, pushing the clown away until she leaves her patch of zoas behind, and then swimming away. She's completely non-violent, but being about 5x the size of the clown she always wins and the clown puts up very little fight.

Anyone else have an insane tang that exhibits this type of weird behaviour? It's like she's a child who only wants a toy because another child is playing with it, and loses interest as soon as she has it in her hands.

McTeague · #2 12/18/2007, 08:33 PM

That is why I took my Yellow Tang back to the pet store. Anytime it saw another animal in the tank in a "happy place" it would literally force itself in there. Spoiled brat is absolutely the way I would describe the behavior.

bpoore89 · #3 12/18/2007, 08:57 PM

Im sorry to hear that guys. My clowns love to nest on my pump for my skimmer and the tang loves her area on the other side of the tank. Ive never seen any problems. Maybe the zoas are in the tangs territory?

usmc121581 · #4 12/18/2007, 09:01 PM

I second why I dumped my yellow years ago and will never get another.

ACBlinky · #5 12/21/2007, 02:15 AM

Thank you guys for the replies. I'm so flabbergasted by this behaviour, it makes no sense! Tonight we had our living room lights on after the tank lights went off, and I looked over to see Lucy the ocellaris hovering in midwater about 10" away from her host zoas, and who was sitting there right on top of the coral? The YT

It looked like she was just hanging out there like a bully on the playground guarding a spot so the other kids couldn't play there. Silly fish.

r0bin · #6 12/21/2007, 10:55 AM

It might settle down. My yellow started some erractic rude behavior towards my clown a few months ago and now it has stopped. I breifly entertained getting rid of it, but just did not want to. I certianly would give it every opportunity to work out before I would considered getting rid of it. Yellow tangs are beautiful fish! I would have to think long and hard about getting rid of the prettiest fish in my tank.

gary faulkner · #7 12/21/2007, 07:26 PM

Mirror attached to front glass, tang will probably fight with itself while the clown settles in. It's worth a try. I always keep a large mirror just for this reason.

HTH

ACBlinky · #8 12/22/2007, 02:05 AM

rObin - getting rid of her never even entered my mind

she's a rescue (as is the clown), and I promised her that if she healed she'd be with me as long as she wanted to be. If she ever looks cramped or stressed, I'll find her a larger home with someone I trust but until then, she and her quirky personality are staying put

gary - thanks, interesting suggestion! She does hate 'that other tang' (the reflection she sees on occasion) with a passion, I never thought of bringing out a mirror to distract her!

steve1963 · #9 12/22/2007, 07:03 AM

Have you had both fish for a year and a half?

If the tang is non violent just defending it's territory,I wouldn't worry about it.

If the tang was chasing the clown all arround your 90 that could be a problem.

It seems that you clown picked your tangs area to host.

jeffbrig · #10 12/22/2007, 09:01 AM

You know, it's interesting, but I've found that in a larger tank, tang behavior actually improves once you have a mix of multiple tangs. I had more issues with an established achilles as the only tang in the tank. Today, I have blonde naso, two yellows, one purple, a tomini, and the achilles, and they have achieved harmony. It's almost as if they shift into the group/shoal mentality and actually becomes less territorial.