MEAN Fish!

[tuwhada]

Ok I think I have mean fish. I recently got a banded goby, real pretty thing. And I mentioned on the other forum but nobody got back to me that I noticed he seems to hang out at the water surface He eats but does not leave this small area of the tank. Well today I checked him and I noticed he had a chunk of his tail missing. And then I watched and saw my powder brown tang go after him a few times.

So what can I do to stop this. Obviously I could remove the fish but I would rather try to get the tank to accept him.
I currently have in there a small porc puffer, a pixy hawkfish, powder brown tang, bicolor cleaner wrasse, red tail file fish, small fire clown and 2 blue green chromises. I don't think the tang could have done that damage but I am sure the puffer could.

So any suggestions?

Thanks
Christina

 

[fishfriends05]

Powder browns are inherantly teritorial. They could definatley cause damage to your goby. But I would still count the puffer as a possible culprit.

So any suggestions?

You could always try and redecorate your tank. Its a long shot but it might work.

 

[debbieg]

If you can identify the attacker:
I have an angel that attacked everything in my 55 gallon tank. I put him in time out...alone in a 10 gallon tank for about 2 weeks. I needed the smaller tank for some new fish, so I thought I'd give him one last chance in the big tank before I gave him away. To my absolute astonishment, he is now the most docile fish you've ever seen. I know there's almost no chance of this working; but then, I didn't dream that it would cause my angel to calm down.

Good Luck,
Debbie

 

[tuwhada]

Wow two weeks I don't think I can do that to him, I would worry about something happeneing to him. He is my key fish and my first fish. Plus the cleaner wrasse and him are buds.
What is strange is that there have been several fish added after the tang and he never gave them problems why this guy. The puffer is small and really docile, I don't think he is terrorizing him but I do think he is the one that took the chunk out of his tail.

Thanks
Christina

 

[bertzone]

Well i have countless experiences with mean fishes, both fresh/saltwater. A 2-3 week isolation might do the trick sometimes. But for me giving away/up either 1 of em is usually the ultimate solution 4 me... It all depends on ur luck anyways.

Had a cute lil', innocent lookin' 1.5" target puffer who snapped a fin/tail or 2 of some larger fishes. Din't think it would do it but I saw it ate live shrimps & it cleanly snapped & chomped up the shrimps like scissors cutting up papers !! Really, really, really sharp teeth... So i isolated it & kept it 4 a while b4 i gave it away. So i guess ur puffer was most probably the culprit..

Had an aggresive domino damsel who stressed killed 2 lil' percula clowns. Then I added a lil' clarkii clown which was being chased senseless by the domino damsel!... Isolated it but failed. It was then i decided to give away the domino damsel if I were to add any new fishes into the tank in future. It took 2 person, 3 nets & almost an hour to net the bully bcoz of all the rocks & hidding places!

Used to have a boxer shrimp about 3"x3" & lost 1 leg/pincer a day to a hippo tang & finally limbless & obviously died... I tot they're supposed to be symbiotic in a way? Me & especially the shrimp didn't saw that one coming...

I used to hv 4 Discus's: A,BC & D... A was always harassing B, C & D... B was harrassing C & only D seems to be the docile one (It eat's from my fingers & allows u to touch him as well)... Tried isolating all of em 4 a few weeks but it didn't work. In the end B & C got killed, gave away A(big bully) & kept D for almost 2 years now & lives harmoniously with some guppies, neon tetras, bronze catfishes & a lil' pleco.

Albert

 

[tuwhada]

Well after a while of observing these guys. Both my tang and my hawkfish seem to go after him. However the goby does go after them a little to. So I think they will be fine. No other wounds or bites were noticed. I did watch some of the other banded gobies at the store and they actually hang out up top to and chase anything that comes near them. So it seems to be there personality.

Thanks
Christina