Dwarf angel nightly war - any remedy?

[Nick_Northern]

Hi all,

First a bit of background. I have had a captive bred flame angel in my reef for the last 4 months whilst the previous tennant, a captive bred coral beauty I have had since last December went back into QT. The idea being that the flame would grow quicker in the reef than in QT, which it has. The rockwork is completely different than when the coral beauty was in the tank months ago. I put the coral beauty in a fish trap for 48hours to let the fish get to know each other safely, re-arranged a bit of rock to break up the flames territory then released. After some initial disagreement they largely settled down with the newly introduced and larger coral beauty becoming the dominant fish.

This was 6 days ago and the last couple of nights I have noticed all hell break loose around 1-2 hours before lights out, the coral beauty goes on the warpath relentlessly chasing and attacking the flame and forcing it to hide. I imagine this is a natural instinct to protect the best/safest nightime hiding places in the wild. During the day they are still tolerant of one another and the flame gives as good as it gets but I can't let this nightly beatdown continue so am thinking of removing one.

I'd be grateful to hear from anyone else who has mixed Centropyge species as to whether aggression at this time of day is a common occurence and if there is any remedy to it other than removal? Or should I just wait longer to see if the relationship changes? (most things I have read say it takes a few days for them to settle)

The tank is 90g with 110lb rock so is on the small side for mixing these but I searched around and took advice from people on forums and the general consensus was that with the amount of rockwork, and the fact they are captive bred it SHOULD work out. I'll be trying the mirror trick tonight and may re-arrange some rock so that I have 2 seperate islands rather than a continous structure to see if that helps but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Nick

[Gweeds]

Sounds like you've been unlucky... Two islands would certainly help... assuming they don't both want just one, which is possible! Generally speaking, the smaller the tank the more hiding spaces you need, so whilst rearranging the rock I'd make as many swimthroughs, caves and gaps as humanly possible. Also worth trying, doing a last feed as soon as you notice the evening commotion starting, the food should put them off the fighting and they'll soon learn that food is delivered at that time and be anticipating that rather than fighting.

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[Nick_Northern]

Originally Posted by Gweeds

Sounds like you've been unlucky... Two islands would certainly help... assuming they don't both want just one, which is possible! Generally speaking, the smaller the tank the more hiding spaces you need, so whilst rearranging the rock I'd make as many swimthroughs, caves and gaps as humanly possible. Also worth trying, doing a last feed as soon as you notice the evening commotion starting, the food should put them off the fighting and they'll soon learn that food is delivered at that time and be anticipating that rather than fighting.

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Yeah I kind of figured that in a 4ft tank even with seperate islands one might just claim them all as the gaps between them would not be very wide, got to be worth a try I guess.

Feedings a great idea, I hadn't thought of that and will for sure try it out tonight thanks!

[Nick_Northern]

I'm sat watching them now, its so frustrating as they get along fine in the day. fingers crossed the feeding sorts them out

[Ngoodermuth]

I have a similar issue with fairy wrasses in my tank. My rhomboid is cool all day, but at dusk he goes super-male flashing mode and chases my smaller flame all over the place. Not fighting, since the flame has been able to evade him, but I'm worried about adding any more fairy wrasses with him. I do think he contributed to the death of my lineatus, who would stand his ground rather than swim away...


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[GSMclowns]

Same thing happened between my Flame and Labouti wrasses.
I got rid of one of them. It was terrible watching them fight every night.
Are you dimming the light as it get closer to bed time?? I found that by dimming the light, they fight a lot more.

[smoothmove]

I had this and had to get rid of the aggressive one. I have yet to have aggressive fish become non aggressive, no matter how well fed. One has to get voted off the island.

[Nick_Northern]

As an update I did remove the coral beauty, the aggression would not have been sustainable long term, its going in a new 55g FOWLR i'm setting up

[ReefMaster48]

What is your lighting setup? If you have LEDs, did the fighting occur when the color was very blue? I noticed that my clowns would fight to the death if I leave only the blue lights on. I do not know why, but they always fight when the blue intensity is overpowering; perhaps this could have been an issue for you too?

[Dmorty217]

I would suggest catching and reacclimating the most aggressive one after taking it on a "car ride". Not literally a car ride but a few minutes in a bucket and rearranging some rock work can sometimes do the trick. For the record it may only be a short lived solution since the real answer is a larger tank if you want both.

[humaguy]

why not leave the lights off (unless in front of the tank) and see what happens? and as many small feedings as possible..
good luck,

tk

[cwschoon]

I am dripping in a Coral Beauty now and I have a Flame Angel in my 120 mixed reef with a ton of rock. Wish me luck!