Yellow tang fighting reflection?

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Beej1254

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Joined
Apr 29, 2015
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Location
Ohio
Ever sense I blacked out the back of my tank I've noticed my yellow tang appears to be annoyed with its reflection. The lighting in my living room is pretty dim as its getting colder so we leave the curtains closed...which leaves us plenty of light but the tank is much brighter. I'm hoping this won't stress my tank to the point where she gets sick. Any ideas how to fix this? Should I scape off the paint?


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I have 3 sides blacked out never had any type of issue with shadows
I would think he would get used to it ,
 
I'm frequently annoyed by my reflection so I can sympathise! It will pass. The same thing happened with my tang when I upgraded my tank


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I usually have to avoid mirrors. If I catch one I dunno what happens but it feels like I lose 3 hours of my life.


Lol.

I hope it passes though because my tang definitely looks like he's fighting off another fish.


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When you painted the glass black ( I assume that's the color) you increased its reflectivity. Now he sees himself and is convinced it's a aggressor. As mentioned, some times a mirror is used to distract a tang from a tank mate he hates. He may never get over a occasional tail swipe at his reflection, but it can't hurt him. One of the challenges of keeping certain surgeonfish is their aggression levels. They love to fight.


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when I sprayed my 90g black I used a paint called flex seal it's a matt finish it keeps the glass from reflecting It's like rhino coat that they use in truck beds , it works great and looks good , I sprayed 3 sides of the tank and have no complaints it also keeps the light directed into the tank ,
img_3302619_0_dbddb148b10755ba09621e6a7bd5d669.jpg


2 years after I sprayed it it still looks if it was just done , the best part is the matt black
background brings the color out on the coral and the fish , the black draws you in to focus more on the coral and the fish aren't bothered with it as there's no shadows ,
img_3302619_1_e529d5b0391e5438acf10cf4b3f58902.jpg
 
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I unfortunately didn't paint my tank when it was empty. It's just far enough from the wall to where I can reach my arm behind it and I used water based acrylic paint on it. I love the way it looks now and my tang hasn't been showing aggressive behavior in the past few days.

But I swear he looked as though he was shadow boxing at first haha


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They can really get compulsive about it. I can't clean the back wall of my tank, so it's covered now with pink algae and various other clingons. But my yellow tangs were almost obsessive with the shadow boxing for the first year, they are now almost 15 years old and pretty calm.


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They can really get compulsive about it. I can't clean the back wall of my tank, so it's covered now with pink algae and various other clingons. But my yellow tangs were almost obsessive with the shadow boxing for the first year, they are now almost 15 years old and pretty calm.


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That's just an amazing feat in itself ,... Do you have any idea just what their life span is ?
 
I have heard as high as twenty years in the proper environment and diet. No predators.


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