please help..what to do

[Shaummy]

Well long story short is this...I have had a quite large ~6" Maroon clown for a long time and has basically become the bully of my 90 gallon tank.

It has basically killed everything that I have added, the latest victim is a yellow tang that I thought might be aggressive enough to hold his own, but the clown pushed it around too.

I added a blue throat trigger, in the hopes that the clown would have someone else to deal with and relieve some stress on the tang.

The trigger and the tang have had no problems with each other and the clown has pretty much left the trigger alone also.

The YT was eventually beaten up and has since died.

I think that this is the last straw for Mr. Maroon as it is clear that he will not allow anything in the tank. I will probably have to get rid of him to a local shop.

So my questions are these.

What can I put in the tank with the Blue Throat to rebuild my tank. Will I be back in the same situation? The trigger does not seem to be aggressive at all.

Should I get rid of the trigger too, and start everything from scratch? I wasn't originally going for an aggressive tank, but ended up there anyhow.

Please send me your advice I'm at wits end with this guy.

Thanks for listening.

 

[LisaD]

blue throat triggers are wonderful fish, very mellow. unlike most triggers you can almost count on them NOT to be aggressive. I would get rid of the clown and build your tank with the blue throat as the showpiece fish. what else are you interested in adding? mine has never harassed ANY fish.

 

[Shaummy]

Well..I haven't really thought that much about it, as the tang just came out this morning.

however, I know I like tangs, angels and butterflies. I wouldn't mind having a purple tang to replace the yellow I just lost or a regal blue. I like flame or coral beauty angels, or maybe a flame hawk.

Colors (as usual) are the things that I like. of course I want to mix small fish with the one(s) that can get to some size because I only have 90 gallons.

I went with the Blue Throat because I feared I would be in this situation and hoped it would not bother future fish.

 

[tah532]

I used to have a 90 too with a maroon clown who got really big and started going crazy on everyone protecting his territory which ended up being the whole tank. It took me a while but i caught him and assassinated his butt. IT was funny cause as i was chasing him down with the net, the other fish would chase him away from their spot, almost helping me out! I would try to get rid of him, trade him in or something and start over.

 

[Cockatoo]

sell him

 

[Petstorejunkie]

first i must adress that mr. maroon is in fact miss. maroon. the blue throat should give you no trouble i hav enever heard of one going nasty. but if you are planning on any relly small fish (under 2") or any decorative inverts i would say start all over.
definately get rid of the maroon, in my opinion that are a crummy fish with not enough flash in color to match their bullish personalities.

 

[Absint Reefer]

I keep many inverts with my blue jaw trigger even shrimp with no problems very passive especially for a trigger

 

[stevebydac]

It depends on if the 90g is your final tank, or if you are going to upgrade. If the 90 is the biggest you will have, get rid of both the clown and the trigger and start over. The trigger will definitely need a 6 ft tank someday.

If you are getting a bigger tank for the trigger, you can get a bunch of different fish that fit into the moderately aggressive category. Heck, you could probably keep the clown if you got really tough fish to put in there, but then that might open up a bigger can of worms.

 

[LisaD]

good point about final tank size for the trigger, they get 9-12" as adults, and do need plenty of swimming room. these are among the smaller triggers, and definitely are among the most peaceful.

 

[Shaummy]

thanks all...the 90 is not the eventual size I am going for, but I think I have a little bit of time to keep trigger before he gets too big for the tank. He's just a little guy right now, but he is very active so I thought it might help be a "dither" fish for the clown.

It looks like I may have someone close by that can take the clown, so I may be in business.