druckle
New member
Many years ago I had a 500 gallon saltwater aquarium built into a family room wall. That was in the days when undergravel filters were the best technology available. The whole thing was a PITA and so when I moved to Arizona I never thought of saltwater again until about a year ago.
I did a lot of reading and talking to folks about how things are done now days and since I'm now retired I decided I'd have enough free time and new technology available to try again. I now have a 225 gallon set up with a sump and a separate "overhead" refugium in an adjoining room which required some holes through a wall for pipes but by my standards the whole thing has been a great success EXCEPT I was too dumb to realize just how aggressive a Purple Tang can be. I added a 3-4 inch purple tang with the first 5 fish that went through quarantine and into the 225.
What a disaster. The purple tang was OK with the fish that went in the tank at the same time as him but would not tolerate ANY new fish added after him. After he murdered the next three fish that went in the tank I decided I would never have more than 5 fish if he didn't come out of there. A fish trap baited with Nori and about an hour of my hand on the trigger caught his nasty butt and he went back into a quarantine tank for several weeks.
At this point I was about ready to see if I could find a good home for him with another aquarist but a friend suggested that I build a "isolation chamber" in the 225 and try putting him in there for quite a while to see if all the fish could become accustomed to each other and allow a relatively peaceful coexistence.
I built a 18X10x10 rectangle from small diameter PVC pipe and covered all sides except the top with the type of plastic netting normally used to keep fish from jumping out of a tank. The isolation chamber floated nicely within the 225 providing great vision in and out but safety for all if war was threatened again.
The purple tang went in there and immediately a harmless war erupted between an infuriated purple tang and the other tangs (I had successfully added a powder brown, a hippo and a naso while the criminal purple tang was in quarantine/isolation). (Yes...I love Tangs).
The war lasted a couple of weeks with a lot of posturing and mutual attempted attacks but it faded away and everyone seemed to ignore each other. I thought that it might be well to move the floating isolation chamber from one location to another now and then just in case the purple beast marked out one location as his territory.
After several more weeks I decided "now or never" and release the purple guy into the main tank. Wonder of wonders ....it seems to have worked. All fish busily search for food and ignore each other. The only aggression is between the powder brown tang and a rabbit fish which for some reason the powder brown doesn't like. Nothing ever comes of that because the Rabbit Fish just raises his poison spines and the Powder Brown seems to understand that there's not much he can do to rid the tank of his enemy.
With the success of that, I decided that any new fish in the future were going to go through the in-tank isolation cell before they got their freedom. I've successfully added a medium sized yellow banded maroon clown and she totally ignores two Ocellaris clowns. I'm not sure that situation will hold as the maroon matures but for now I count it as a success.
Sorry to be so long winded but my experience has been so positive I thought it might be worth sharing in full in case other folks might want to address their own issues with fish aggression to see if it works for them.
I did a lot of reading and talking to folks about how things are done now days and since I'm now retired I decided I'd have enough free time and new technology available to try again. I now have a 225 gallon set up with a sump and a separate "overhead" refugium in an adjoining room which required some holes through a wall for pipes but by my standards the whole thing has been a great success EXCEPT I was too dumb to realize just how aggressive a Purple Tang can be. I added a 3-4 inch purple tang with the first 5 fish that went through quarantine and into the 225.
What a disaster. The purple tang was OK with the fish that went in the tank at the same time as him but would not tolerate ANY new fish added after him. After he murdered the next three fish that went in the tank I decided I would never have more than 5 fish if he didn't come out of there. A fish trap baited with Nori and about an hour of my hand on the trigger caught his nasty butt and he went back into a quarantine tank for several weeks.
At this point I was about ready to see if I could find a good home for him with another aquarist but a friend suggested that I build a "isolation chamber" in the 225 and try putting him in there for quite a while to see if all the fish could become accustomed to each other and allow a relatively peaceful coexistence.
I built a 18X10x10 rectangle from small diameter PVC pipe and covered all sides except the top with the type of plastic netting normally used to keep fish from jumping out of a tank. The isolation chamber floated nicely within the 225 providing great vision in and out but safety for all if war was threatened again.
The purple tang went in there and immediately a harmless war erupted between an infuriated purple tang and the other tangs (I had successfully added a powder brown, a hippo and a naso while the criminal purple tang was in quarantine/isolation). (Yes...I love Tangs).
The war lasted a couple of weeks with a lot of posturing and mutual attempted attacks but it faded away and everyone seemed to ignore each other. I thought that it might be well to move the floating isolation chamber from one location to another now and then just in case the purple beast marked out one location as his territory.
After several more weeks I decided "now or never" and release the purple guy into the main tank. Wonder of wonders ....it seems to have worked. All fish busily search for food and ignore each other. The only aggression is between the powder brown tang and a rabbit fish which for some reason the powder brown doesn't like. Nothing ever comes of that because the Rabbit Fish just raises his poison spines and the Powder Brown seems to understand that there's not much he can do to rid the tank of his enemy.
With the success of that, I decided that any new fish in the future were going to go through the in-tank isolation cell before they got their freedom. I've successfully added a medium sized yellow banded maroon clown and she totally ignores two Ocellaris clowns. I'm not sure that situation will hold as the maroon matures but for now I count it as a success.
Sorry to be so long winded but my experience has been so positive I thought it might be worth sharing in full in case other folks might want to address their own issues with fish aggression to see if it works for them.
