fish fights, best way to stop...?

[spineshank385]

I recently introduced a longnose hawk to my 29g tank. The only other fish i have is a strawberry pseudochromis (which should have been the LAST fish in the tank). Well, when i first added the hawk, the pseudo did its usual "i'm the boss in the tank" thing, which it did to the cleaner shrimp as well. The cleaner shrimp ran and hid in a rock. The hawk actually fought back, for a while. Now, it is sitting up on top of the closed loop pipe, out of sight of the pseudo. However, it's tail is pretty shredded....not REAL bad, but bad enough.

So, now i have to seperate the two. Would it be better to pull the pseudo into another tank, and let the hawk heal/take over the tank, and then add the pseudo back in? or would it be better to put the hawk in a hospital tank, and continue to let the pseudo be king of the hill?

If i pull the pseudo, its going to be tough to catch him. What would be the easiest way, short of pulling out the 60 lbs of rock and coral?

-on a positive note, i got the hawk to eat 2 mysis shrimp today, so it can't be feeling THAT bad

 

[falconut]

I had a Purple Pseudo in my original 44 gal. tank. What a nasty fish. It completely shreaded and killed a firefish and they started on the next fish. He was pulled and sent back to the LFS. He did all of this in about 3 days. I would get the pseudo out and send him packing or keep him as the only fish and completely remove the hawk.

I didn't have too much rock back then and I forget how hard he was to catch. It was worth it, he was a nasty fish.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

I had a diadema psychochromis in my 90 that would attack any newcomer and would not ever let up on the weaker fish. I had a flame angel die and his replacement, although larger than the original was absolutely mauled by this little bugger. I ended up tearing the tank down to get him out and if I was you I would do the same, especially in a smaller tank. Some of those pseudos are just plain vicious.

 

[spineshank385]

keep him out permanently or just until the other fish in the tank are established?

 

[ACBlinky]

Dottybacks can be nasty, but so can hawks. You could try rearranging the rockwork, putting them on more even footing. They'll both be looking for territory, rather than the dotty defending 'his' current spot -- the entire tank -- against what he views as an intruder. It works with some fish, not sure if it'll work with this pair but if your rock is easy to shift around (i.e. not epoxied in place or covered in corals), it might be worth a try.
I have a pixy hawk and a BIG neon dottyback in my 65g and they don't hassle each other at all, but they have 100lbs of rockwork to play in which might make a difference.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

keep him out permanently or just until the other fish in the tank are established?

If it was me and I had to break down a tank to get a fish out he would be going bye-bye back to the LFS, thats what I have done with the few fish that I lived to regret purchasing. As to if he will continue beating on the hawk even after a time out, thats a good possibility IMO.

Dottybacks can be nasty, but so can hawks.

Yep, but LN's are about the mellowest hawk around, mine was a pussycat. I had a spotted hawk in the same tank as the pseudo and it was the only fish the pseudo was scared of. He went back to the LFS too.

 

[spineshank385]

rearranged the rock, will keep an eye on things for the next day or so