New yellow tang is being a bully!

[BigGimp77]

We recently got a yellow tang for our tank 2 days ago. He seems to be bullying our Royal Gramma into a corner of the tank. Luckily the Royal Gramma did come out and eat yesterday.:fish1:

The tank is a 5 foot long and 120 gallons. Currently all that are in the tank are 2 clowns, a Royal Gramma, and the tang.

I’ve done a bit of research. Seems there are a couple ways to go about this.

a) Wait another 2-3 days and see if the bullying stops.
b) Take the tang out and put him in quarantine for a couple weeks and reintroduce him. I have a 37g tank that I use for quarantine. He’d be cramped in there, but he could probably deal with it for couple weeks.
c) Rearrange the rock work in the tank. << I’m dreading this one because it took me forever to get the rockwork how I liked it!:fun5:
d) (The craziest I’ve read) Place a mirror against the tank and let the yellow tang chase himself around until he gets tired and quits!:bounce1:

Any one have any advice/experience on this? I will keep attempting to feed the gramma daily (usually its every other day) just to make sure he isn’t stressed to the point where he’s not eating.

[JoeRonda]

I definitely would not move the Yellow Tang. Moving rockwork is a chore, I understand, but is there a way to change a small area, just to erase some territory. Maybe put some more rock in there, like out of your sump or something, that way you don't have to undo your existing rockwork. This should'nt last very long, Yellow Tangs are not usually agressive. Good Luck!

[dmarkham]

I had the same prolblem with my Yellow Tang and Kole Tang. It lasted for about a week and now they are best friends. They swim all over the tank together.

[cakemanPA]

Yellow tangs can be quite aggressive like most other members of the family. Believe it or not, the mirror trick works very well.


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[kichimark]

+1 on mirror trick or even taping pictures of his type on the glass and slowly remove them after a few days/week.

[BigGimp77]

Wow so the mirror trick really works huh? Maybe I'll give that a shot when I get home since it seems to be the least invasive option. Thanks for the advice thus far everyone!

The more I keep reading about yellow tangs being aggressive, the more it seems like it last for a couple days or a week and then subsides. It is good to know for future reference when adding new fish. I will have to be more careful in the future.

[Lynnmw1208]

Did you add him to the tank last? usually that is recommended. I was a bit worried about this as well because I want one and a couple people told me they can be quite aggressive.

[BigGimp77]

If you mean last out of the four fish currently in there, then yes. The Clowns and my gramma were from an existing smaller tank.

However I do plan on adding more fish in the future. I wouldnt consider it too bad of bullying. There no fighting, and no chasing really. He just backs down the gramma behind a rock in the same corner corner of the tank. The gramma is still eating like a pig!

[lisafoster]

That is totally normal for a yellow tang. Mine likes to flash his fin and lay on his side to push a fish into a corner. Then he loses interest .