Tang advice

[Bellster165]

I have a 180 fowlr tank that has a yellow tang, a powder brown tang, two barred rabbit fish, a few cardinal fish, two gobbies and four damsels that I can't catch to remove (on a side note I would love some tips on how to catch them). My yellow tang bullies everyone in the tank and the tangs were added at the same time and have been in the tank together for about 5 months. I feed them often and give then algea sheets every other day to try and reduce regression. I figured the regression would eventually subside, but it's actually getting worse. I have rearranged the rock work and that only worked got a few days.

I have thought about taking the yellow tang out but I only have a 30 gallon quarantine tank and I think that would be way too small for him. I do have an 80 gallon bow front at my parents house, but I don't have anywhere to set it up and more importantly my wife might kill me. I have read about people using mirrors for the tang to attack to calm him. Has anyone had any success with that? I would ultimately love to add more tangs to tank, is there any chance that adding another tang would change the dynamic in a positive way? I'm assuming the tang would have to be bigger than the yellow. I would love any advice for you guys.

 

[snorvich]

The odds of success are against you, IMO

 

[kmbyrnes]

The mirror trick may work short term. I have used it in the past.
I can't see how adding another tang would help the situation.
You might try giving the yellow a week's timeout in the 30, rearranging the rocks in the 180 and reintroducing him.
GL

 

[Dmorty217]

More tangs won't help the problem since the issues you already have will only get worse the larger the fish get. I use to have 6 tangs in a 220g and I wouldn't do that many tangs again, not even in my 625g which is much more spacious

 

[Sandman182]

I had an issue with tangs years ago in my tank and this is what I did to solve the problem: I used a piece of egg crate for lighting that I bought from Home Depot( you can buy it in either black or white although white is the more readily available color) and built a divider that separated my tank into halves. You can also use sheet acrylic cut to size as well but it can be expensive. Yes you will have to rearrange your rock work so that the divider will work if your rockwork extends the length of your tank. It can be a lot of work but what this does is allow the two tangs to see each other but not come into contact with one another. Rearrange your rockwork( You stated you have already done this but do it again to break up any territories that your fish have already established) and then install the tank divider. Leave this divider in your tank for about a month( that's the time frame that worked for me and might work for you too) and monitor the yellow tang's behavior. If the yellow tang keeps rushing up to the divider to make contact with the other fish then you know the divider needs to stay in place until the yellow tang stops rushing the divider. Once he stops then it may be time to allow him to join the other fish and hopefully settle down. This method I used worked for me with other species including tangs but is in no way foolproof so be advised. Hope this helps. Whatever you do DO NOT add another tang as this will compound the problem you already have as others have stated. As for catching your damsels: while you are removing your rockwork to install the divider the divider can be used to coral them to one side of the tank and just move the divider closest to the end of your tank until you can net them.