Fish pecking order

glenns

glenns

New member
I've kept marine fish for 16yrs, but never compared their pecking order to my dogs. For example, when I brought home my 8wk Parson Russell mix, he was the same size as my 18mth dachshund. My dachshund established dominance the first day. Today the Russell mix is twice as large and is still subservient to him. So I was wondering it fish will be the same?

I have a white striped maroon clown and bicolor dwarf angel. This week I introduced a juvenile Atlantic blue tang. The other two immediately let him know they're boss. But if all goes well, he will grow larger than them. I wonder if he'll still respect them then?
 
The tang will command the respect of the other two the larger it gets, clowns are mean to fish no matter what the size of the other fish is. My emperor will sometimes develop a attitude around a certain rock he claims as his and will chase any and all fish away, except my orange shoulder. The OS will come up next to the emperor (6.5-7") and dare the emperor if you will to try and nip at him... Needless to say the emperor hasn't done it yet
 
Many fishes will show aggression toward a newcomer in an established aquarium. Both the clown and the bicolor angel are no exception. In the long run however, my money would be on the Atlantic blue tang turning the table. I added a 2" juvenile to an established system that included a 5" powder blue tang. Within 2 months the Atlantic blue more than doubled in size and was wreaking havoc on the tank(which included several large angels and butterflies). It seemed as though this fish had a cunning personality. It would hide in the vertical folds of the live rock that was adjacent to one of the swimming lanes and then dart out in full chase mode as one of the larger fishes swam by. This gave it the advantage right from the start of the confrontation. I had to remove the fish after about 4-5 months. The powder blue, which prior to this had been only mildly aggressive, became a terror after all of this and had to be removed a short time later. FWIW the Atlantic blue never bothered any of the wrasses in my tank..

Al
 
Thanks for the info. I thought the tang will end up ruling the tank. At the moment, the bicolor frequently harasses him. My last tang was introduced last and was bigger than the other fish. So the he took control almost immediately.
 
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