blue hippo nipping porc

[ctreefer]

I have a porc puffer (5") I've had for about 9 months since the startup of my 5' 120 tank. He/she has been getting nipped in the tale by a blue hippo (now about 3 inches long) just recently and its bugging me about as much as the poor puffer. Is this fairly common? I'm seriously considering removing that said tang. The only other inhabitants that don't bother anyone are 1 yellow tang, 1 juv emperor angel and 1 niger trigger. They've all been together for about 6-8 months with the hippo being the most recent addition maybe 4 months ago. I was pretty much done fish stocking, but it might be time for a replacement.

 

[ccampbell57]

My hippo did this to my Porcupine relentlessly. She nipped it so bad that it almose went to the flesh.

I think that she was part of the reason that my porcupine died after 3 years together.

 

[LisaD]

Do you have a lot of rockwork in the tank to provide cover? Can you put the hippo in "time out" and do some rearranging to make the tank look different? Sometimes by messing with the aggressive fish's mind a bit, you can stop this kind of behavior. If those two suggestions (time out and rearranging) don't work, I think you'll need to remove it. I thought hippos were more peaceful than that...

 

[ctreefer]

Hmmmm. I'm thinking I'm just going to get rid of it. The whole reason for the tank was because my wife wanted a porc. She's already telling me to get that hippo out of there.

In regards to live rock, I've got a good 1/3 of the tank with live rock and lots of hideouts. The tangs hideout isn't even near the puffers.

 

[redhdmedic]

thanks for the heads up about this possible issue...Our porc lives happily in our 215 with the following:

foxface
powder brown tang
djardini tang
juv. emporer angel
bi-color angel
leopard wrasse
racoon butterfly

Everyone's been living in happiness, I've had the puffer for 5 years. I plan on adding a purple tang to the tang over the next day or so...but don't forsee any problems with the puffer...just the typical "who's boss" among tangs. The other half had been interested in a hippo on/off, but I was never that interested in them, I'm glad I read your post...I know they can be different from individual to individual but I'd rather not chance it! Thanks for the info!