Clown Surgeon- 2 problems

[MCzar]

First, I have a 5 ft long 120 gallon tank.
1st problem

I recently purchased a Clown Surgeon. When I did, the the guy at the LFS told me I shouldn't have any problems with him getting along with my yellow tang. If I did, the clown would be the aggressor. To my surprise, the Clown is the timid one and my yellow is aggressive. The fish are about equal size, and the yellow tang was only in the tank for a few days before the clown. I didn't think that was long enough for the yellow tang to become so territorial. Is there any way to calm the yellow down? Do I need to remove him for a while to let the clown get acclimated? The LFS told me when I was originally looking at a Powder blue that If I had problems, adding a third tang would help. Is this true? I decided against the Powder because I didn't really want to add a third tang, but if I must to save the clown, I can look at getting a small one. I would prefer to not get rid of the yellow tang as he adds a lot of color to the tank

2nd problem

I can't get the Clown Surgeon to eat any food that I try to give him. I have tried using flake food , pellet food, and dried Green Algae. He never touches any of it, but he does pick at the live rock constantly. Any suggestion on food? Or is he okay just picking at the rock? On a side note, the yellow eats all of it.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.


Thanks
Mike

[Julio]

The best way to calm the tang down is to give the fish more frequent feedings for a few days, it thinks the clown is a food threat, however keep an yee for the clown as they are highly aggressive and are only recomended for larger tanks. Try some nori attached to a rock to see if he eats or a clam on a half shell, the other thing they didnt tell you is that they are really hard to take care of, very difficult fish to get to feed, although alot more people are reporting success with them lately.

[tahoe98]

Clown tangs are known to be highly aggressive and difficult to care for. I would not remove the yellow tang because if the clown tang lives, when you put the yellow tang back in the clown tang will probably start pounding on the yellow. As Julio said, try some Nori on a seaweed clip, that is a very good way to get them to eat. The LFS did not give you good advice IMO. Adding another tang is definitely not the solution, especially a Powder Blue as they are highly aggressive as well, not to mention the additional bio-load it would place on your tank. Clown tangs are sort of known as one tang to stay away from unless you have a very large tank (300+ gallons) and even then they can be difficult. In the future, I would recommend turning the lights out for at least 24-48 hours after adding the new fish. This lessens the stress on the new guy and lets them get acclimated to the tank much easier.

[Wolverine]

Clown tangs often don't eat well, which is why they are considered difficult to keep.
As for the aggression, as he gets more settled into living in the tank, he'll become more aggressive.

Dave

[Julio]

so do you have an update on the situation?

[MCzar]

The tangs appear to be tolerant of each other now. They aren't exactly best friends who swim together, but the Yellow isn't attacking the Clown anymore. If they've become accustomed to each other or the increase in feeding has calmed the Yellow down, I don't know, but I'm not complaining.

I finally witnessed the Clown eating some dried seaweed. Not a whole lot, but it's an improvement. I've also tried adding frozen Formula Two. He doesn't appear interested in it though. It's only been a week so I'll see how the clown does over the next couple more. Hopefully there are a couple more.

On a side note, the rest of the fish love the variety of food.

Mike