Yellow Tang theory? Does this really work?

[PuffersKick]

I was at my favorite LFS this weekend talking to the owner. This guy I trust very much as he's been in the business over 30 years and so far everything he's told me has been pretty darn accurate.

Anyway I was telling him about a slight aggresion problem with a few of my fish. I have an EXTREMELY aggresive Sohal Tang. He is definitely the boss of my tank and picks on all my fish. He doesn't do any serious damage as long as the other fish acknowledge he is the leader and swim away. But if anyone stands up to him (or mouths off as I put it) he will chase them relentlessly until they give up.

I mentioned this to him and he told me he had an easy solution to my problem. He said if I put a good sized yellow tang in my tank, I will never again have any aggression problems with my fish. His reasoning was that the Sohal (and all the other fish) would would turn their attention to the yellow tang, but that the yellow tang is so strong that there is nothing they can do to him therefore ALL the fish would mellow out.

He said this only works if you have a tank full of fish and add the yellow tang LAST. I didn't get the yellow tang yet, wanted to do more research and see if my Sohal would mellow on his own.

Has anyone else heard of or tried this? Would this really work?

 

[marie]

I would have to say that the sohal would beat the stuffing out of the yellow tang before the poor yellow knew what hit him

 

[ACBlinky]

I don't keep tangs, but I do keep dwarf angels which can have their own agression issues... IME whenever I've added another 'tough' fish to my tank, it doesn't get bullied; they just size each other up, then pretty much leave each other alone once they've figured out who is the boss. Not so for any passive fish - I once made the mistake of adding a Talbot's damsel to my tank, the angels nearly tore her in half despite the tank being very mellow before the addition. (I moved her to the 30g, she's fine ).
My theory is that if you house fish of equal agression together they may come to a standoff and learn to live with one another, much like African cichlids. It's no guarantee that they'll STAY calm if you add something else that's either much more or much less agressive.

In short, I don't think adding a YT to the tank is going to change the sohol's behaviour much, and the YT might take a beating.

 

[stykthyn]

that guy is feeding you a load of crap! he wants you to put a fish in the tank for the sole purpose of getting the crap beat out of him? Once the yellow tang hit the water that Sohal would tear him a new one. If it was a new tank and they were both acclimated together maybe it would work.I would seriously question anything he tells you in the future.putting 2 aggresive fish together wont cancel out the other one's aggression, it only makes dead fish. I am glad you took the time to research rather than taking his advice.

 

[PuffersKick]

Yeah, I thought it sounded odd. Especially considering the fact that at the beginning I put the Sohal and a Deshardini Sailfin in together and the Sohal killed the Sailfin.

Like I said, right now the Sohal has the respect of all the tankmates so I don't have any real problems. The only fish that takes a beating occasionally is my Foxface, but he'll pop up his spines and the Sohal will back off.

 

[BlueNWhite]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7331908#post7331908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PuffersKick
...Like I said, right now the Sohal has the respect of all the tankmates so I don't have any real problems. The only fish that takes a beating occasionally is my Foxface, but he'll pop up his spines and the Sohal will back off.

Given that the Sohal backs off, I would say that the Foxface is the boss of the tank.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7330847#post7330847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stykthyn
that guy is feeding you a load of crap! he wants you to put a fish in the tank for the sole purpose of getting the crap beat out of him? Once the yellow tang hit the water that Sohal would tear him a new one. If it was a new tank and they were both acclimated together maybe it would work.I would seriously question anything he tells you in the future.putting 2 aggresive fish together wont cancel out the other one's aggression, it only makes dead fish. I am glad you took the time to research rather than taking his advice.

I agree. no matter what you do the sohal tang is going to be the boss and may eventually kill or harrass the rest of your fish to death. Espically when it gets bigger and bigger... Might want to think on upgrading in the near future 150 (if thats the tank were talking about ) is to small for a fish that reaches about 15-16 inches in length and one that is highly aggresive.

 

[PuffersKick]

The 150 is my reef tank. My FOWLR is a 225.