aggressive yellow tang.. what should i do?

[markietan]

i recently took over a yellow tang (3") and 2 false clowns from my friend. they were living happily in a 3 feet tank for a month or so and yesterday night i decided to get 2 more fish (2" sailfin and 3" moorish idol).

upon introduction of the new inhabitants, the yellow tang started chasing them all around... the yellow tang was chasing the MI all around the tank yesterday night and left the sailfin alone. I thought this morning most prob the MI will up lorry... but this morning when i woke up the yellow tang changed target to the sailfin. both MI and sailfin have tears in their fins now... but they are all still feeding well. fed formula 2 pellets and nori soaked with garlic this morning and both ate quite a bit...

so what should i do with the yellow tang? will its aggressive behavior subside? am quite pissed with it man..

also the yellow tang turns pale at night... and even in the day, you can see that the main body is quite pale. it was like that since i inherited it from my friend and my friend said its normal. its also quite a picky eater... seldom eat the pellets, mostly just the garlic nori. any idea how to nurse it so that it'll get its coloration back?

[Gouldian]

i recently took over a yellow tang (3") and 2 false clowns from my friend. they were living happily in a 3 feet tank for a month or so and yesterday night i decided to get 2 more fish (2" sailfin and 3" moorish idol).

upon introduction of the new inhabitants, the yellow tang started chasing them all around... the yellow tang was chasing the MI all around the tank yesterday night and left the sailfin alone. I thought this morning most prob the MI will up lorry... but this morning when i woke up the yellow tang changed target to the sailfin. both MI and sailfin have tears in their fins now... but they are all still feeding well. fed formula 2 pellets and nori soaked with garlic this morning and both ate quite a bit...

so what should i do with the yellow tang? will its aggressive behavior subside? am quite pissed with it man..

also the yellow tang turns pale at night... and even in the day, you can see that the main body is quite pale. it was like that since i inherited it from my friend and my friend said its normal. its also quite a picky eater... seldom eat the pellets, mostly just the garlic nori. any idea how to nurse it so that it'll get its coloration back?

Hi Markietan,

Most marine fishes are territorial to a certain extent thus we usually selectively add new stocks with caution. If you have already a established Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), it will normally wants to show newer additions from the Zebrasoma genera (in your case Sailfin Tang aka Zebrasoma veliferum) or similiar looking fish (Moorish Idol), who's the boss.

In order to lessen the stress, you may like to do the following steps:

1) Remove the aggressive fish and re-introduce into your main tank after a couple of days when the new additions have settled

2) Add mirror to divert the attention of the YT to a more similiar fish - its reflection

3) Re-arrange your rockworks so that all fishes start from ground zero in terms of territory

As for the coloration, water quality and food will improves its colorations.

HTH

[Bubber]

Agree..the mirror trick always works for me - the more aggressive the fish the better this method works!

[wilsontantw]

i recently took over a yellow tang (3") and 2 false clowns from my friend. they were living happily in a 3 feet tank for a month or so and yesterday night i decided to get 2 more fish (2" sailfin and 3" moorish idol).

upon introduction of the new inhabitants, the yellow tang started chasing them all around... the yellow tang was chasing the MI all around the tank yesterday night and left the sailfin alone. I thought this morning most prob the MI will up lorry... but this morning when i woke up the yellow tang changed target to the sailfin. both MI and sailfin have tears in their fins now... but they are all still feeding well. fed formula 2 pellets and nori soaked with garlic this morning and both ate quite a bit...

so what should i do with the yellow tang? will its aggressive behavior subside? am quite pissed with it man..

also the yellow tang turns pale at night... and even in the day, you can see that the main body is quite pale. it was like that since i inherited it from my friend and my friend said its normal. its also quite a picky eater... seldom eat the pellets, mostly just the garlic nori. any idea how to nurse it so that it'll get its coloration back?

Hi, I went through the same experience as you.

Got a YT very well established. Then i wanted to add a Sailfin Desjardini, brought it home, and put it in a beta box in the main tank. This is so both YT and Sailfin get to see each other. During this period, i can see both of them "eyeing" each other all the time. But before i release the new Sailfin, i rearranged my rockscape to ensure that both tangs "think" they're both in a brand new environment. Btw, both YT and sailfin are both adult size.

The result... Beautiful... both tangs now like brothers... dun ask me how... but they do. They do almost everything together.

My tank thread: here

[markietan]

Agree..the mirror trick always works for me - the more aggressive the fish the better this method works!

cool. I'm gonna try the mirror trick and see if that rascal stops acting big bully. if that doesn't work i'll rearrange the rockscape... i dun have another tank that i can throw the yellow tang in now so that's not feasible now.

after introducing the mirror, how long will the aggressive behavior continue until the yellow tang start to live in peace with the other fishes? it is possible right? since the yellow tang doesn't really disturb the clowns at all.

thanks for replying btw!

[Bubber]

cool. I'm gonna try the mirror trick and see if that rascal stops acting big bully. if that doesn't work i'll rearrange the rockscape... i dun have another tank that i can throw the yellow tang in now so that's not feasible now.

after introducing the mirror, how long will the aggressive behavior continue until the yellow tang start to live in peace with the other fishes? it is possible right? since the yellow tang doesn't really disturb the clowns at all.

thanks for replying btw!

It should take immediate effect..The YT will be too occupied flashing at it's own reflection and that will buy some time for the rest to settle down..as for the how long the aggression will continue really depends on the individual..u'll need to monitor their behaviour..

Try not to leave the mirror there for more than 3 or 4 days..IMO so long as the aggression is not too violent or persistant it should be ok to remove it..don't expect them to become good friends immediately though..