Introducing Tangs

[oakwell]

I have a yellow, Kole and Sailfin tang in my tank and have today tried to introduce a Mimic Tang.

As soon as the Mimic entered the water the Kole and Sailfin began to rag its fins with the Mimic just taking it.

After speaking to Eric(Tangman) i decided to put the tang in my sump for an hour and try again, unfortunatly the tangs just went for it even more so i interveined with a net and scared the tangs away.

I turned off all the lights and left the net in the tank near where the Mimic was and the Kole and Sailfin went to the other side of the tank.

I also put a mirror in front of the tank and sat for a couple of hours interviening whenever the sailfin and Kole attacked.

After 3.5 hours of this i am glad to say the tangs seem to have stopped attacking the Mimic has he had ago back at them and now they are just tail dancing in front of each other (is this a sign of warning to each other?)

To cut a long story short because unless you have witnessed this first hand it is very stressful for the fishkeeper too seeing a helpless fish been ragged ...if you have tangs think before you introduce new ones , luckily for me i have an experienced reefer to fall back (thanks Eric aka Tankman :grin: ) and it just might have saved my mimic.

I have put the actinics on now and the bullying has settled down but i dread to think what would have happened if i had just put the fish in and gone out of anything.

The mimics tail fin and top and bottom fins have been ragged considerably, but it is swimming freely and i am hoping for a healhy recovery and hope the fins grow back soon

[Macca]

Re- arranging the rock work can take the pressure of any new introduction. I have a common clown female that with nem or no nem with just draw blood from my hand as soon as it enters the water :evil: . Yet it will take food from my wifes hand :?

I think it personally knows I am the one who only uses a net. :sleepy:

James

[Dons1903]

It is very stressful watching a fish getting bullied by others and if left unchecked the fish will die! Either directly through the attacks or by starvation as the bullied fish will be too stressed to eat. :cry:

Well done for having the patience to sit it out and hope they are all getting on.

[Dons1903]

In my last tank I had a Six Line Wrasse that kept attacking my two Common Clowns, however once I added a Bubble Anenome to the tank the Clowns eventually made it their home and everyhing changed.

The Clowns would hang about in the anenome and as the Wrasse swam past one of the Clowns would dart out to have a quick nip at it and shoot back to the safety of the anenome again :twisted:

[oakwell]

i had a similar problem with my clowns, they actually killed a kole tang in my tank and i tried for hours to get it out into a seperate tank(if only we could speak fishy??)

The mimic is a little more settled now and the attacks have slowed down , but as per previous reply he is a little battered!!

Hopefully he will get his fins back in a few weeks as he is feeding well....so fingers crossed

[Gillybaby]

I'm glad everything seems to be working out for your new tang. Things always seem to get a bit fraught when adding new tangs to an existing group. I made the mistake of adding a tiny 1" purple tang to my existing group of 3 yellows and 1 regal. I thought cause it was tiny the 4-5" yellows wouldn't see it as a threat. Boy was I wrong. They pinned him in a corner and by the time I managed to get him out and into the sump he was in a very sorry state. He died the next morning. I was gutted.

Having learned my lesson, I decided that if we wanted another tang it would have to be one that wasn't conspecific to my existing ones. As a result, when we added the orange shoulder we made sure we got one at least as large as the regal (ie 7") and fully changed colour (ie not yellow which would annoy our existing yellow tangs). This addition was a total success, the yellow tangs completely ignored the newcomer and the regal decided it wasn't worth bullying the fish that was big enough to have a go back.

A lot of careful planning and thought goes a long way in this business.

[flying Jock]

Hi

I have been keeping tangs for around 17 years and the best way to get by your problem is this....

Remove your existing tangs from your reef via a fishtrap (made my own and has yet to fail) and put them in a quarantine tank along with the new tang that you would like to add to your main tank.

Leave them there for 3-4 days.

Add them all back into your main tank and they will be fine :wink:

The mistake you have made was adding it too early after removing it and the very big one was adding it to a tank with existing tangs :shock:

For some reason tangs seem to be able to remember their territories for around a day but normally after that they dont.

I am only speaking through my experience and i do not have any scientific proof to prove this.

This has worked with my 2 YT's, 2 regals and an emporer.

Cheers

FJ

[Dons1903]

I like the sound of this theory FJ, but what is this fish trap???

Are you going to post instructions on how to build one?

[Tangman]

Hi What does your trap consist of FJ as i have used trapeze and the aqua medic one to no avail my fish wont go near them. When i added my tangs last one was a regal i put the fish in and then fed them they were to busy feeding to notice a stranger. The only tang that did notice was my powder blue which is the boss even over my sailfin and large lipstick, but he survived and is now best m8s with the PB. They are a very clever fish they never forget my lipstick will hide when a stranger goes near the tank until my friend who i got him off appears and he comes out as if its me, very strange indeed. Eric :)

[oakwell]

quick update on the mimic tang....seems to have been accepted now and is feeding well along witrh my other tangs.
His tail has started to heal already!!!
So touch wood he will now be ok.

Thanks for all your advise and i will update

[flying Jock]

Cant give away my trade secrets! :wink:

Basically as glass box with mirror at the back.

Fish see reflection in the mirror go in and you pull the line that is connected to the trap door and presto!

It also doubles up as a tank to carry the fish in if you are taking it anywhere! :wink:

Cheers

FJ

[total*clowns]

Wow, so glad he is happy now and excepted in his new home by his mates!!! Love happy endings!!!

There are some great tips here, thanks, they may just come in handy one day ;)

[oakwell]

yeah it makes you think what could have happened to my tang ...i got lucky, but will plan better in the future :wink:

[oakwell]

After having all my problems introducing this tang and eventually been accepted by my other fish i'm afraid the mimic has died today, not sure how just found the poor fellow on the bottom of the tank.

Gunna do some checks on the water but no obvious signs

GUTTED!!

[oakwell]

Just checked water and everythings seems fine

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos 0.03
Salinity 1.025(usual)
Temp 80 (a little high i know but cant see this been a problem at minute, has been this high before)

No more ideas must just be one of thoses things.

Only other thing i have noticed is that there was a daddy long let on the top of the water nowdont laught but they cant harm fish can they say if a fish trys to eat it?

Heard something on a prgram once that they have a toxic venom but cant punture human skin...long shot!!

[Tangman]

Hi Daz. Sorry to hear about your little mimic, was he getting enough food etc as if he was being chased away when being fed he would soon go down hill. Tangs can and do get very terrortorial with other fish including other tangs, my little Kole tang chases my algae blenny away as soon as he see's him near any food. Eric PS I dont think the Daddy Longlegs would have caused any trouble but i might be wrong. It might be worth doing a Google and seeing what turns up.

[oakwell]

he was def getting enough food eric fed like a pig!!

Just gunna put it down to one of thoses things.....

[celtic fish]

.ah yes,bullying on the subject of,i bought 2 small clown fish yesterday very pretty as well. anyway put them in tank both were mugged by my 6 line wrasse and lemon peal angel i ended up putting both in daughters nano tank t his is going to be a problem i think when ever i buy anything else boooo.

[Gillybaby]

Really sorry to hear that you lost the wee mimic. I am always on on edge when I add a new fish to our tank so I'm pretty glad we are now fully stocked.

Its a lot easier adding corals ;)

[liquidlogic]

just read the thread nice 1 mate:) well done indeed very interesting tho