tangs & butterflies

[triggreef]

Wanting to hear from people who have added a butterfly with established tangs. Looking for how you did it, if it worked, how long for aggression to stop etc.

I qt'd a great copperband but my tangs are not having him. He huddles up in the top corners & if he leaves the tangs try to kill him. After 2nd day I caught the cbb & placed him in an acclimation box. Surprisingly he is eating well in the box after a couple hrs so I can keep him in there for a week I'm sure no problem. But not sure if that will help.

It's a 200g with 6 tangs, but I just sold the sailfin & the powder blue is in time out due to this issue so right now there's only 4 tangs. Now the cbb is in a acclamation box I'll probably put the pbt back in the tank. That's my info, but I'm really more interested in others stories. I wasn't really expecting this reaction from my tangs. I think I could have added another tang easier than this.

 

[tkeracer619]

Wait to put the powder back in until the butterfly is there.

Typically a healthy butterfly can evade a tang by flipping upside down and spiking their fins.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Are you sure the CB will be able to compete for food with the tangs? CBs are slow eaters.
Aclimation box, maybe change the rockwork around.

 

[jbvdhp]

I was going to suggest removing all the aggressive tangs and changing the scape. Then adding the aggressive ones back at the same time.

 

[aquaph8]

Whats weird is my Copperband didn't work out but my muelleri fits right in. I wont do another CB for this reason, its just too hard to get food to them. Im sure there are exceptions to this but for the most part its just not worth it with CBs unless they're very acclimated to captivity and eat voraciously enough to attack food (Rare), or the tank is stocked with their needs in mind.

 

[SDguy]

I agree with Brett. Copperbands and marginalis won't compete well, but muelleri will. There's a reason of the 3, only a muelleri is still in my FOWLR.

 

[triggreef]

I agree with Brett. Copperbands and marginalis won't compete well, but muelleri will. There's a reason of the 3, only a muelleri is still in my FOWLR.

Blast a muelleri is an expensive chance to take. I already sold off my sailfin for this cause, not ready to part with the rest.

At least I know I can catch the butterfly if it doesn't work, since I did that twice. I know if they would leave him alone, competing for food would not be an issue. He actually eats quite well. I'll give him at least a few more days in the acclimatiion box and see how it goes. They are ignoring him in there so far for the most part but I'm not buying that yet.

 

[SDguy]

They are ignoring him in there so far for the most part but I'm not buying that yet.

Direct aggression is not the issue.

 

[aquaph8]

Ive never had much of an issue getting CBs to eat but getting them to beat other fish to the food or even have any interest while being crowded has been a struggle.

 

[triggreef]

Direct aggression is not the issue.

Thats definitely the issue for mine. They were not letting out of the back corner at all. He never even tried the "fin up" defense.

I'm not worried about feeding, I feed like mad multiple times a day and theres a cloud of food throughout the tank. He eats black worms pretty aggressively and even was able to get some to him while he was huddled in the corner.

 

[lhm nole]

In my 300 had a yellow purple and rs sailfin tang all 6 plus inches added a 4 inch copperband no issues at all after qt threw him in the tank little chasing from the yellow first few hours than basically was ignored.. Sucks had to get rid of it ate everything including acans

 

[tkeracer619]

My copperband gets visibly angry if I feed flake, he hunts for about a minute and comes right up to the glass. Angry! People say their fish is happy, well mine gets angry when I feed something he doesn't like. It's pretty funny.

So then I put a block of frozen mysis in and he is picking at it before I can get it stuck to a powerhead so I usually hold it there for him to get his fill. He has no issues competing for food.

They all stay out of the way of my queen angelfish. Tangs included.

I grow aptasia rocks in my sump for my butterflies. They appreciate it.

 

[SDguy]

Ive never had much of an issue getting CBs to eat but getting them to beat other fish to the food or even have any interest while being crowded has been a struggle.

Yup, my experience as well.

 

[aquaph8]

My copperband gets visibly angry if I feed flake, he hunts for about a minute and comes right up to the glass. Angry! People say their fish is happy, well mine gets angry when I feed something he doesn't like. It's pretty funny.

So then I put a block of frozen mysis in and he is picking at it before I can get it stuck to a powerhead so I usually hold it there for him to get his fill. He has no issues competing for food.

They all stay out of the way of my queen angelfish. Tangs included.

I grow aptasia rocks in my sump for my butterflies. They appreciate it.

Your CB sounds just like my muelleri, my CBs were wimps though even after months of conditioning.

OT, your tank sounds pretty cool, got a link so I can see more?

 

[tkeracer619]

I'll try to post a vid later. Pretty sure if he could he would bite me :lol:

 

[jjk_reef00]

Most butterfly fish are not good additions to tanks with multiple tangs. That is why I only have 1 tang in my 375 which is a Naso and they are one of the least aggressive species. I don't think any of my butterfly fish would have done well in my old 300 which had multiple tangs.

 

[tkeracer619]

My powder brown was a real butt. I added a few butterflies to that tank after he was fully established. I couldn't add any more tangs, they would be killed in short order.

My powder was never able to land a strike on my butterflies and ended up frustrated only to give up after a day. This of course is just my experience and all situations are different. The butterflies were all qtd and eating vigorously at that point.

It may be beneficial to try the mirror trick with the tangs to distract them for a bit. Ideally the butterflies are added first.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Quote:
Originally Posted by aquaph8 View Post
Ive never had much of an issue getting CBs to eat but getting them to beat other fish to the food or even have any interest while being crowded has been a struggle.

Yup, my experience as well.

__________________
Peter

My experience also. My CBB ate ok, but it wasn't as quick to get food or efficient at snapping up as much as it could, and thus it ate much less than the other fish. It didn't seem to suffer from the amount of food, but it easily could have eaten two or three times as much as it got.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Most butterfly fish are not good additions to tanks with multiple tangs. That is why I only have 1 tang in my 375 which is a Naso and they are one of the least aggressive species. I don't think any of my butterfly fish would have done well in my old 300 which had multiple tangs.

Other than my CBB (and longnose, while it was alive), my butterflies compete well enough for food. In particular, my semilarvatus scours the tank for food, and the falcula, saddleback, ulitensis, and raccoon eat a lot. The tangs are much better, finding every last scrap, but I think that is true of tangs versus most other fish. I also start by feeding algae pellets first so the tangs already have eaten by the time the other food goes into the tank.

 

[lespaul339]

I added a 4" butterfly to my 150 gallon with a 5-6" yellow and regal tang. Theres only aggression at night when the tangs are defending their territory. Even then it's very minimal. I've found that if I add some Nori at night before lights out it tends to make the tangs less aggressive at night.