Suprise fish delivery, thoughts on aggression

milkstatus

New member
Hello all, I have a bit of a dilemma. I currently have a 150 gallon setup, the only tang that was in the tank was a purple tang. No issues with any of the other fish. I have recently acquired a yellow tang ( I know, not a good idea).
Immediately the purple tang went straight for the yellow, and was incredibly aggressive . They fought constantly for the first day and calmed down a bit. A few days later they still were going at it, establishing a dominance. Well the yellow tang seems to have won that battle and now rules the tank. The purple stays far away and they still have their tail hitting matches, but mainly the yellow chases the purple away. I decided I did not want that headache so have been working on removing him and bringing to the LFS.

Here is the issue.

I had placed an order online with Petco before ever getting my new yellow tang from my lfs, taking advantage of a sale they were having. This was before I had read all the horror stories surrounding their service, backordered shipments etc. The fish low and behold did not arrive. I called petco, cancelled the order. Well just this morning what is on my doorstep? An order of fish. A yellow tang, a spotbreast angel , and a mckoskers wrasse.

So now I have 2 yellows, a purple, spotbreast , and 2 mckoskers(purchased one at the lfs with the yellow tang).

They are going to be put into quarantine for a couple weeks before going into the display. My question is... will adding a third zebrasoma ( the yellow tang) reduce the aggression of the current yellow in the tank? Should I put them all in the sump and then into display so they can all be added together? Remove one first( purple or yellow), then add the new one/s, and then put the yellow or purple back in? I would like to keep them all if the aggression would subside having 3 tangs instead of just the 2. Otherwise I would have to bring both yellows back to the lfs. Any particular order I can add or remove them to strengthen the chances or is it just not a good idea? And obviously sending the fish back isn't an option at this point, even if it was I would not want to subject them to that as it would prob end in certain death. So I am trying to make the best of s difficult situation. Any and all advise is appreciated . Thank you!
 
Use a acclimation box the first couple days to see interaction between the Zebrasomas. You might have to rearrange some rock work and catch and reacclimate all the tangs together
 
Could I put all three in a quarantine tank (possibly with dividers) or the sump, watch them and re introduce them in the tank at the same time? I just didn't know if adding one then the other would be more beneficial then all at the same time
 
I'd be a little worried that your not then necessarily QT the first one; i.e. the new one could transmit something to the others if they are all kept in the same water.

What I would do if you want to keep all three is to. QT the new one. Then after your sure it's doing okay I would then try the divider trick. At the same time I'd try to rearrange your rock work.

I would then add all three together back into the DT. I'd give them probably a week with the dividers.

Good Luck.
 
Yeah that's what i was going for just stated it wrong. I guess the general consensus is that it will be better to add all three into the display at the same time? As apposed to adding individually and waiting. Guess that is what I will do. Hopefully it works out
 
qt longer...min 6 weeks, 8 weeks is better, 10+weeks is killer...

+1

I can usually get new fish through QT in around 5 weeks, but I do TTM and Prazipro to treat for Cryptocaryon and flukes respectively. If you are not going to proactively treat, you need to QT for much longer as indicated above.
 
+1

I can usually get new fish through QT in around 5 weeks, but I do TTM and Prazipro to treat for Cryptocaryon and flukes respectively. If you are not going to proactively treat, you need to QT for much longer as indicated above.

I recommend a qt longer because it is the best insurance towards keeping a dt healthy...a chunk of many of our 8-10 week qt period involves no meds at all and is just pure observation...
patience goes a long, long way...
 
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