SkyReef
New member
I have three tangs in a 75-gallon, reef aquarium. I got the blue tang first, the powder-brown tang second, and the yellow tang last. The blue and brown tangs adore each other and team up to eat nuisance algae on the same rocks. So yesterday, I brought the yellow tang home from the LFS. I introduced it to my tank for the first time, and the powder-brown tang went on the war path.
Man, it was brutal, and I vacillated between taking the brown tang out of the tank for a while versus just letting things be, in hopes of having things calm down on their own. Observing the attacks, I thought it most interesting that, every time the brown tang would back into the yellow tang, to try to spike the yellow tang, the yellow tang would gracefully turn to one side, warding off the attack like a kung-fu master. The yellow tang was brave; it did not flee--ever. I liked that graceful display of courage. The yellow tang was also non-violent, and it never attacked the brown tang. I liked that display of peacefulness. The yellow tang simply let the smaller, brown tang continue to wear itself out. By the time I turned the aquarium lights off for the night, the brown tang was still furious, scheming of ways to sneak up on the yellow tang from a new crevice in reef-wall.
I thought I would have to tear down that wall, to get access to the yellow tang with a net, to scoop it out and return it to the LFS. But to my astonishment, this morning, the hate storm blew over. The weirdest sight greeted me: the tangs became companions, gracefully swimming around together, without the slightest trace of hostility. Wow. Saves me a lot of effort in not having to catch and return the yellow tang to the LFS. Now, maybe they'll get back to work, nibbling on nuisance algae for me. Has anyone else experienced this transformation in their tangs, going from friction one day, to Frick and Frack the next?
Man, it was brutal, and I vacillated between taking the brown tang out of the tank for a while versus just letting things be, in hopes of having things calm down on their own. Observing the attacks, I thought it most interesting that, every time the brown tang would back into the yellow tang, to try to spike the yellow tang, the yellow tang would gracefully turn to one side, warding off the attack like a kung-fu master. The yellow tang was brave; it did not flee--ever. I liked that graceful display of courage. The yellow tang was also non-violent, and it never attacked the brown tang. I liked that display of peacefulness. The yellow tang simply let the smaller, brown tang continue to wear itself out. By the time I turned the aquarium lights off for the night, the brown tang was still furious, scheming of ways to sneak up on the yellow tang from a new crevice in reef-wall.
I thought I would have to tear down that wall, to get access to the yellow tang with a net, to scoop it out and return it to the LFS. But to my astonishment, this morning, the hate storm blew over. The weirdest sight greeted me: the tangs became companions, gracefully swimming around together, without the slightest trace of hostility. Wow. Saves me a lot of effort in not having to catch and return the yellow tang to the LFS. Now, maybe they'll get back to work, nibbling on nuisance algae for me. Has anyone else experienced this transformation in their tangs, going from friction one day, to Frick and Frack the next?
