Which tangs tend to be the best behaved with Blennies?

GroktheCube

New member
I'm working on a stocklist for my 120, and the feedback I've gotten from a lot of people is that tangs tend to pick on blennies, and I seem to see more people making that comment about tangs in genus Ctenochaetus than those in Zebramosa.

Whatever tang I end up getting, it will either be added last or next to last (clowns may be the very last), but given how many threads I've read about kole tangs pummeling blennies, I'm still a bit worried.

Would a Yellow or Purple be less likely to chase a blenny until it keels over than a Kole or White Tail? Would adding the tang last make a big difference, or would I still be looking for trouble?
 
I can only tell you from my experience, I have a yellow eye kole tang, purple tang, and blue hippo tang with 4 scooter blennies and a lawn mower blenny and I have never seen any of the tangs touch any of the blennies

Hope this helps
 
Thanks. I have a feeling it may have to do with introduction order, territory available, available food, and temperament of the fish.
 
Just to give you an idea of my situation,the 4 scooters were in the tank prior to the tangs, the lawn mower came after the 3 tangs.
The purple tang came from another aquarium were he was the smallest fish and was being bullied, so he is very passive for a PT. The yellow eye kole was in a show tank at the LFS for about 2 years and has been no problem at all in my tank so far, I have heard they can be a little aggressive but it helps that my PT is larger then him. My blue hippo is just a little baby, so no problems from him.

I am a heavy feeder, I feed about 5 times a day, this could also help my situation.

I hope it works out for you
 
My experience with aggressive FW fish has generally taught me to add the species with the worst reputation for aggression last, make sure everyone has a means to escape from a harasser, and feed copiously (but reasonably).

I definitely appreciate your input, and I'd be curious to hear what others have to say. In my searches, I've read quite a few horror stories about Tangs chasing Blennies to death, but a lot of critical details (order they were added, tank layout, food, etc) are often missing, and bad experiences are always more likely to be posted than good ones.
 
I remember being surprised that my kole chased my starry blenny, but when I came here and looked around I found that it's a very common experience. No interaction with my scooter at all.
 
My kole harrasses my tailspot but only during feeding time. He will chase it back into its hidey hole. Otherwise I see them both out without incident if I am standing far enough away to just observe. The blenny was there first, if that helps.
 
My P. Hepatus gets along perfectly fine with my Tailspot Blenny, though the blenny has the wherewithal to be able to defend itself if necessary. They're both fairly small now, however, 2 1/2" each...

If I do have a conflict between any of the fish in the tank, it's always with my Flame Angel, who's managed to pick tussles with just about every fish in the tank. He's a wannabe bruiser.
 
I can only tell you from my experience, I have a yellow eye kole tang, purple tang, and blue hippo tang with 4 scooter blennies and a lawn mower blenny and I have never seen any of the tangs touch any of the blennies

Hope this helps

Just as an FYI, scooter blennies are dragonets not blennies.
 
I've used this in the past for tangs and larger fish and it works well especially if one fish is hogging the nori.
The chasing doesn't just happen at feeding time. Whenever my starry would swim away from the rocks, the kole would chase it back in.
 
my powder brown and blue hippo don't mess with my blennies.

I had a bristletooth tang that would mess with my lawnmower blenny. My wife didn't like him anyways so he was replaced by the powder brown.
 
Interesting. Based on the fairly small sample size here, it seems like more people have run into problems with genus Ctenochaetus tanks than the larger species. Unfortunate given I'm a little weary of putting even a yellow or purple in my 120, let alone a powder blue or powder brown :p.
 
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