Acclimation struggle with powder blue tang and yellow tang - Aquarium Advice

ralphiedoodle · 06-08-2009, 12:47 PM

Any advice? powder blue has been in the tank for about 2 months, yellow tang just purchased. Powder will not let the yellow tang move from the corner of the tank. Lets him alone but confines him to a extremely small area. 125 gal saltwater tank. Thanks

CaptainAhab · 06-08-2009, 01:05 PM

Go figure. Upfront research would have informed you that PB are not very tolerant of other tangs in their space. It may calm down, it may not but things are progressing exactly as nature intended.

You can:

wait it out and see if they both survive
move some rock work around
take em both out for a bit and add them back at the same time
return one
turn off the lights for awhile.

would be my suggestions

Innovator · 06-08-2009, 01:06 PM

Powder Blue's are dominant animals regardless of what is in the tank. As long as the yellow tang isn't physically injured they should eventually separate. Try obscure feeding times while feeding both sides of the tank or manipulating liverock to create more barriers.

ralphiedoodle · 06-08-2009, 01:57 PM

Has anyone ever experiemented with putting a divider in the tank? I have moved rock. I have had the lights on for a minimum amount of time. I was aware that powders are aggressive I was hoping with a large relatively unstocked tank they might be ok. I was thinking about tossing the powder in a 10 gallon tank for a few days. Do you think moving the powder out for a couple days would help?

**melosu58** · 06-08-2009, 02:34 PM

It might and it might not. It will change the surrondings for him maybe causing him to not worry so much about the yellow but it might not also. I think the captain had a few good ideas when he said cut the lights out for a while, move the rock around and wait it out. I have three tangs in my 125 and they seem like best of buds but it was not always like that.

ralphiedoodle · 06-08-2009, 03:59 PM

So an update! I went home over lunch and the yellow is venturing out into the tank a little more, the powder is still chasing it back but not with near the verocity (im not sure thats even a word) and he ate a little food! I also spoke with my lfs who reassured me if after a couple days they didnt decide to be nice tank mates I could bring back either one! Thanks for your help!

Dr. Dai Phan · 06-11-2009, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedoodle

So an update! I went home over lunch and the yellow is venturing out into the tank a little more, the powder is still chasing it back but not with near the verocity (im not sure thats even a word) and he ate a little food! I also spoke with my lfs who reassured me if after a couple days they didnt decide to be nice tank mates I could bring back either one! Thanks for your help!

Greetings,

Mixing two tangs together is a "no-no" if you ask the people here. But I have seen two tangs that live together well. That is if you have a big tank (125 or more) and the submissive one stays out of harm's way. I can say that it will live but it won't thrive. If you have corals, I would remove one of them because stress will make one comes down with Ich. DP

ralphiedoodle · 06-11-2009, 10:48 AM

So obviously I havent had these for the long haul yet but it is Thursday and starting Monday the two tangs became "best friends"! They are constantly right next to eachother, they eat together and even at night when the tank lights are out they are usually near eachother. On another note I went to a lfs last night and they have a 300 gal with 4 tangs that all are doing really well together. I am not sure if I am stupid enough that I am lucky but the fish are doing well. Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know if anything changes!

Dr. Dai Phan · 06-11-2009, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralphiedoodle

So obviously I havent had these for the long haul yet but it is Thursday and starting Monday the two tangs became "best friends"! They are constantly right next to eachother, they eat together and even at night when the tank lights are out they are usually near eachother. On another note I went to a lfs last night and they have a 300 gal with 4 tangs that all are doing really well together. I am not sure if I am stupid enough that I am lucky but the fish are doing well. Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know if anything changes!

They are not "best friends" as you think. They are checking each other out to establish dominancy. DP

ralphiedoodle · 06-11-2009, 10:54 AM

Isnt that what they were doing when they were fighting for the first 3 days?