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View Full Version : Tang on the rampage!


chris-s
23-11-06, 21:29
Whilst quietly watching a bit of telly, I suddenly noticed a some unusual activity in the tank. On looking I saw one of our Regal tangs going at our clown fish hammer and tongs. The clown was being chased round and round a coral, I jumped at the tank and the tang retreated to the back followed by a lot of verbal abuse, but the moment I sat back down, out it came again and continued to wildly harrass the clown, even pinning it down at one point!

I've never seen this behaviour between these two before, the troublesome tang is one of two which have been in the tank for about twelve months, the clown several years. They've always got on quite amicably, so whats caused this sudden change of temperament I'm not sure. Of the two tangs, this is definitely the dominant one and has outgrown the other by a good 50%, they don't squabble, but the smaller one knows 'his' place.

As I'm typing this, the tang has come back out and not bothered the clown, although it was visibly a bit nervous. Maybe it's all over, perhaps I missed something earlier, perhaps the clown had done something to wind up the tang or perhaps the tang just had a pschyo moment!

Well, none seem the worse for wear, guess I'll keep my eyes on them.

Anybody else ever see something like this huge temporary swing in temperament between established tank mates?

firefish
23-11-06, 22:07
i had a yellow tang and regal that decided to pick on a new fish, sadly once the new fish was taken out, the regal then decided to attack the green chromis of which 1 died.:mad: i couldn't believe it.
all my fish were together peacefully for over a year :confused: , just by adding 1 extra fish tipped the balance
my regal and yellow tangs were inseperable, slept,swam,ate together.
beautiful fish but i moved them on as i didn't want to lose any more fish
jase

DannyW
24-11-06, 09:09
Same here I has a Regal and a large file fish together for over 18 months. One day it attacked it for no reason, and badly injured the filefish....