Fighting Tangs

[ebarner]

Have a Powder Blue Tang, 1 year old, about 4 inches long fighting w/ a newly added Clown Tang, which is about 3 inches long. They're both fine so long as the Clown is in the rocks, but when he comes out it's on! Any suggestions/tactics to help them both get along? :>)

 

[Gundo5000]

Feed more. They have a similar body shape and swimming style so they wont like eachother. Sometimes if they are well fed they get lazy and lose intrest in fighting. JMO

 

[Asuran]

definately feed more but how long have they been together? if it doesnt slow down after a week or two and you start seeing some physical damage i would suggest keep either the powder blue or the clown

 

[jmaneyapanda]

those are two VERY AGGRESSIVE fish. they will fight. I think you will need to remove one, especially in your size tank.

 

[thor32766]

may i ask what size tank these guys are in? I am not tang police just wondeirng what the size of their area is. But tangs will fight to form sort of a chain of command. They are figuring out sort of who will be the alpa leader in the tank. Also keeping tangs well feed will help suppress some of their aggression. Feed them atleast two times a day and nori. Good luck!

 

[nwrogers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8281400#post8281400 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
those are two VERY AGGRESSIVE fish. they will fight. I think you will need to remove one, especially in your size tank.

I agree

 

[FishNutzBoi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8281400#post8281400 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
those are two VERY AGGRESSIVE fish. they will fight. I think you will need to remove one, especially in your size tank.

IMO, blue tangs are one of the most peaceful tangs of all tangs. Clown tangs though, are indeed extremely aggressive.

 

[Kiel'thalin]

Umm, that is a Powder Blue Tang. They are probably the most aggressive, probably next to the Clown Tang, lol... I also agree, remove one or the stress will get the better of one.

 

[ebarner]

Appreciate the toughts and opinions. I'm feeding three times a day w/ Seaweed clips based upon the feedback. Luckily, the Clown has found an area that the Powder Blue can't reach...unfortunately, it's a rather small space. We'll see what happens.

 

[Bebo77]

i left the lights off for 2 days( only turned them on for 5 min to feed) when i added 3 new tangs to my tank.. and when i turned them on 2 days later i had added 3 large pieces of eggcrate to the tank to throw off the resident tangs. it worked... they are all getting along now...

this was last week by the way

 

[zoanthid2009]

get a vlamingi, i have one- they keep the peace

 

[McCrary]

zoanthid2009- I seriously hope you are joking. Vlamingi tangs get huge and should be avoided by those with tanks under 300 gallons. If he is having problems with a PBT and clown in the same tank then a Vlamingi is a bad, bad idea.

 

[jda]

Feed them some mysis too. Feed them a lot. It will help.

Clowns are agressive regardless. The PBTs that I have had have been babies, but they have been in 210G tank and WELL fed and have good quality water. They have never harassed a new fish. In fact, I recently added a new powder blue x goldrim tang, and it was hanging out with the established PBT withing a couple of hours.

 

[ebarner]

Thanks for the feedback. The Clown Tang is still living, I'm just concerned about his quality of life (hanging in the rock/cave all the time). I haven't seen him eat either, which also concerns me. I can tell the other fish appreciate the extra food though.

 

[DrBegalke]

I don't think they will get along.

You can try to completely arrange the rockwork, in the meantime relocate both fish then reintroduce them together.

This way neither fish has a territory established.

Another suggestion is to add a third tang, which can moderate the stress any one receives at a given time.

I keep a naso, yellow, blue hippo, and sohal together... no problems...

but powder blues and clowns (as well as sohals) are just very aggressive, as mentioned above...

 

[zoanthid2009]

he i was joking about him getting one but i have one im 75. hes still small though:rollface:

 

[Gundo5000]

Tangs will be tangs.

Seperate them if the problem persists.

Hey I jost noticed you live in OP. Cool, I'm in Wichita

 

[ebarner]

It's a sad morning....my Clown Tang succumbed to the stress last night. I'm Bumming'! He was a beautiful fish and didn't appear to be laboring at all yesterday. Should have put in the eggcrate.

 

[ebarner]

algundo -hey Kansas Brother! Good to see others in the area with the same interest. I don't know many around here other than those that I meet at the LFS. I'm a Kansas State and BMW fan though, so you may have second thoughts at corresponding.

 

[zoanthid2009]

whats the whole eggcrate idea?