After years of wanting an AT I got an AT for my wife for Valentine's day for her 270 gallon tank. The tank is 6 years old and is peaceful with a 5"ish yellow and Blue Tang ruling ruling and a 7"ish Fox Face Rabbit Fish that we call grumpy and just does what he wants but doesn't seam to care about tank politics. There are other wrasses, gobies, clowns, and other assorted fish but they are not germane to this discussion. The AT is about 7 inches and would be the boss. The advice from the LFS (a very very good lfs) was the yellow tang would fight it, the blue tang would not fight it, and the AT would hide in the rocks for a week+ before emerging and resolve the situation. This is not what is happening:
Day 1:
AT goes straight to a tight channel area in the tank. YT slowly backs in the channel and starts slapping the AT with its tail. After a few minutes of this the larger AT starts fighting back with back slaps. The fight ends in a draw when the BT enters the arena and starts fighting the AT from the front. This goes on for 5-10 minutes before I panic and walk away. I didn't want to lose a tang we had owned for 5 years or one I just bought for my wife for $225. After 30 minutes of close combat it didn't appear any damage was done. I knew something like this would happen but couldn't watch. I come back a couple of hours and the AT has retreated to the to the top back corner, left alone by the tank mates and the light going down.
Stay tuned for day 2.
Day 1:
AT goes straight to a tight channel area in the tank. YT slowly backs in the channel and starts slapping the AT with its tail. After a few minutes of this the larger AT starts fighting back with back slaps. The fight ends in a draw when the BT enters the arena and starts fighting the AT from the front. This goes on for 5-10 minutes before I panic and walk away. I didn't want to lose a tang we had owned for 5 years or one I just bought for my wife for $225. After 30 minutes of close combat it didn't appear any damage was done. I knew something like this would happen but couldn't watch. I come back a couple of hours and the AT has retreated to the to the top back corner, left alone by the tank mates and the light going down.
Stay tuned for day 2.
