What do I do with my mean coral beauty? Please help.

[Stephanie]

My fiance' and I have a 20 gallon fish only tank. We set it up about a year and a half ago with two tiny false perculas, a small coral beauty, and a lawnmower blenny. The lawnmower blenny has passed away, but we still have everything else. I've noticed lately that the coral beauty seems to have outgrown the tank. I know its a small tank for saltwater, but since we have only a few fish, everything seemed fine. We recently added a goby and another lawnmower blenny, both of which are very small and shy. Since then, the coral beauty has lashed out on anything that moves. It constantly chases the new fish, and also gets in fights with the perculas. Will this aggression stop, or is it time for a bigger tank? We want to get a bigger tank anyway, but not right now unless it will help with the fighting.

Also, we are a little clueless as how to set up the new tank. We only have one filter and one protein skimmer, so how do we set up the new tank and let it cycle when the equipment is on the old one? We will probably be going for a 40-55 gallon. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Steph

[fishfreek]

Steph,

The coral beauity I have is rather shy and I can only imagen that yours has become agressive due to the overcrowded nature of your tank. Unless all those fish are extramly small (like 1" in size) then your tank is to small for what you got in my view.

In fact once you put everything in a 55 you will probably have a fair amount of fish.

If your getting a new tank and you dont intend to run two tanks then its realitivly simple. Mix up 30 gal of fresh saltwater ahead of time in a trashcan or something. Then move everything from the 20 into the 55 or 40 and then add the new saltwater to it till its full. If you move everything over then there will be no noticable cycle.

If you intend on using both tanks at the same time then put a few cups of substrate from your old tank into the new tank once its setup along with a few rocks. THis will 'seed' the new tank with bactera from the old making a cycle much faster.

[Stephanie]

Fishfreek, thanks for the advice. We bought a 55 gallon and are going to set it up tonight! Hopefully the coral beauty will chill out.


~Steph

[d9hp]

I think you made a wise decision Steph.

[Stephanie]

I set up the new tank last night, and the coral beauty is no longer chasing the other fish. She's actually swimming with them and loving the space. Lets just hope it stays that way! In the future I might get another fish her size, like a butterfly or something, to kind of equal things out size wise. The other fish are very small compared to her so she's the dominant one.

[Barney]

Another thing to think of. If you just have decorations instead of live rocks, move them around when adding fishes. This will break up the terriorial areas.
It keeps them busy trying to re establish a territory while ignoring the new fishes.

[Stephanie]

I have had the new tank set up for only two days, and the coral beauty is back to picking on all of the fish! I think its because she's much larger tnan the other fish so she's being the most dominant. It was really nice to see all the fish swimming around freely and enjoying the space. Now they have to hide again from this bully. Should I get a bigger fish to even things out? Would a butterfly be a good choice?