Blue Tang & Yellow Tang Fighting?

[TitaniuIVI]

I just bought a blue tang and I've had a yellow tang for about 6 months. They day after I put in the blue tang it broke out with Ich. I then noticed that the yellow tang was picking on him, so that's probably why the blue tang broke out. Is there anything I can do to help the blue tang defend itself, or stop the yellow tang from picking on the blue one? Or anything? I've tried to get the yellow tang out to my other tank, but that was near impossible, besides the fact that I fragged atleast 4 of my corals. Any help?

 

[Blown 346]

You could try to re arrange some of your rockwork to confuse the yellow tang from its territory. Or the tank thy are in could be too small which can also cause conflicts.

 

[NCreefwannabe]

What size tank do you have them in?? 2 tangs would need a significant amount of room. Also the yellow could just be stating dominance.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

That is a shame they are not getting alone. I have that combo also and they dont leave each others side. I had the Hippo for a year and added and Yellow in about 3 months ago. Like blown said I moved my rock around and they became friends. I guess I got lucky. I hope everything works out. If you really need to catch one try using Nori as bate and then net one.

 

[robplonker]

ive got a blue and yellow tang together, they are living peacefully together. i did add them together though so there wasnt and fighting over dominance.

ive heard that putting one in before the other can cause probs. re-arranging your rockwork could work or take them out and re-introduce them both back into the tank.

personality clash?

 

[mystic7]

Yellow Tangs are very territorial. As the others said, you should either put the Yellow in second, or both together. Re-arranging your rock should do the trick.

 

[bobothewizard]

They will always fight since the yellow tang was in the tank first, if you get multiple tangs put them in at the same time.

 

[icarus999]

yellows can be a bit rambunctious, all i can say is, blue tangs are very prone to ick, and always add the more docile animals first

 

[jgoodrich71]

Just the luck of the draw. I've known regal tangs that were aggressive. The ick is very common for them too. That's just what happens. Best of luck to you and your tangs.

 

[TitaniuIVI]

Yellow tang is now out, and the Blue tang has no Ich. If the Yellow tang is on good behavior in my other tank I might put him back in about a month. Does that seem resonable?

 

[bigevill1]

as soon as the blue is healthy and happy move the yellow back. wait minimum 3 days but dont go longer if you dont have to. I have done this often. Moveing a fish into my 12 gallon nano for just a few days then there was no problem at all.

 

[TitaniuIVI]

My Yellow tang shouldn't be uncofortable where he is now. He's kinda small and he's in a 30gal. So I'm sure he won't die. I definatly want to make sure that he forgets his old ways, and the blue tang gets acustomed to the new tank and show good feeding and all the other good stuff.

 

[mlb75]

Like others have said this behavior is completely normal, Tangs are funny that way and if you add them at different times there will always be a period of time where they will assert dominance and establish the pecking order. I've normally found that after a couple days it cools off and they start to get along. You can always speed this up if before you add the new fish you change something in the tank. That way the old timers think the new fish was part of the mix up and get used to the new tank mate at the same time they get re-accustomed to the tank.

I just went through this as well, I've got a 180 that I had a Yellow and a Kole tang in and just added a Powder Blue and Clown Tang. They are all relatively small but it took two days for them all to pretty much get along and now they all hang out and swim together all day.

Since your Blue was stressed out and getting ick you did the right thing by separating them but you should be able to get them together just watch them careful and give it a bit of time.

If you get ick on any sort of regular basis in the tank you might really look into a UV sterilizer.

 

[TitaniuIVI]

I've never had Ich before this, so I figured it's just that the Blue tang was stressed

 

[Amy83820]

Are they both in the 55 gallon you have listed under your profile? If they are, that could be the problem...