Yellow tang being aggresive?

[saltymight]

So I got a 3-4 inch bicolor angel today and put him in my tank. soon after my yellow tang thats been in there for about 3 months started to swim near him. Than he did not attempt to bite but he back his butt up to him and ran into him. This went on for about 30 minutes until i finally put in a separator to let theangel can get some rest.
Any ideas what the Tang is doing besides harassing the angel?

 

[MCCOOL]

Yellow tangs can be very aggressive, not really surprising... Especially with a fish, it sees as similar.

What size tank? You could try removing the tang for a few days to let the angel settle in.

 

[MCCOOL]

Oh and they won't bite, they'll use their scalpel which will cut the other fish.

 

[Maivortex]

yeelow tangs are aggressive

 

[duncantse]

Turn lights off for the whole day.

 

[saltymight]

Oh ok didn't know that tangs had something on there tail to cut good to know. Ya i will keep them separated for now if all else fails i rather keep the angel.

 

[125G Reefer]

Move the Aquascape around, this will upend the Yellow tang.

 

[d0ughb0y]

tape a mirror to the side of the tank (or where the yellow tang hangs out). it will keep the yellow tang busy attacking its mirror image.
simply turning the lights off will not stop the tang from harrassing the new fish.

 

[amazo]

I have 2 yellow tangs in different tanks my bigger one is peaceful as can be the other took out a flame angel ( he seems ok with elongated and smaller fish) I tried to move the rocks around but it didn't help now I just stick to fish that look nothing like him (shape or color)the only other option is to get rid of him and I don't realy want to do that.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Tangs aren't completely peaceful fish, but when crowded or they have someone invading "their" territory they can get downright mean. Make sure you have a large enough tank, which most people don't have, and make sure there are areas where the angel can hide. All the other tricks like rearranging the rock work and turning lights off can help, but if a tank is too small it's just too small.

Jeff

 

[Dyzio545]

Yellow tangs in aquariums under 180 gallons get very territorial, that's why they can become aggressive to new inhabitants. I tried the mirror method a while back, and that just made my yellow tang even more mad than ever before.

 

[Dr. Reef]

print a color pic of yellow tang and post it on ur tanks wall. let it take its aggression out on the picture than ur fish.

 

[DoubleM 10]

we still have no idea what size tank this is. the only fish that i have seen stand up to a YT was a fully mature clarkii clown. i watched it at the store in the holding tanks. yellow tangs are nasty fish IMO. very active and colorfull none the less. they keep tanks lively. i agree with the others who have responded that if they are in a smaller tank they will be very aggressive tward all. the only way aside from the mirror or the color print out is to remove one of them

 

[saltymight]

its a 100G and right now I banished the yellow tang to my 30 gallon with my two occ clown fish until I determine what i want to do. The yellow tang is still pretty small so he will be fine in his temporary home. After i took the separator out it took about a minute than he got all up on him again. Funny I never really seen fish I picked out be aggressive to each other minus my tomato clowns that didn't like blue green chomis. Stupid tang didnt bother anything else oh well i figure if i give him a few day in the small tank and see how he acts again in about a week i guess.