tangs not necessarily reef safe!!

[Plato1]

My stupid piece of #$%^ purple tang had been a model citizen for over a year in my tank until one day he/she decided to nip at frogspawn corals, and has now moved to nipping on my gigantic colt. This behavior keeps them all from opening up. Now my once gorgeous reef looks like #$@%.

This really pisses me off, because now I have to try to catch it, trade it for lesser value and it was my favorite fish in my tank. Despite efforts to keep it fed with nori, it still chooses to nip. I must get rid of it before it teaches the others to nip.

Consider yourselves warned.

Aggravated :evil: ,

Plato

 

[EmilyB]

Sounds weird. Did you know purple tangs like lots of meatier foods too ?With OSI spirulina for a side salad.

 

[Mouse]

Maybee it feels like the corals are cramping its style, how big a tank you got there.

 

[Henry1]

Plato,
Try this method.
Stick a mirror against the outside of the tank and get him all excited fighting his own image. Leave it there for a day to get his brain back into 'tang mode' Remove the mirror after that and observe . . . continue treatment if necessary.

I know it looks funny :wink: but it always worked for me when I use it on my PT to distract him from attacking new fish introduced. My experience was it took ~two days of mirror fighting before he stop his aggression.
(Note : while mirror fighting, it will leave the new fish alone)

Base on this exprience, I felt it might work in your situ.

Let us know.

happy reefing.

 

[dizzy]

Great tip Henry about the mirror. I like your common sense and your approach to fishkeeping.

 

[Ben1]

I trade with a fellow reefer who had an alantic blue tang for years, then one day it just started eatting his leathers. It was very bad and he had to get rid of the tang. I dont think the leathers made it, but could be wrong.

SO it does happen I would put a net in the tank and leave it for the day. The put the nori on a clip on the front glass, when he moves in to eat swipe him up in the net.

 

[Plato1]

Yes, I know tangs like meatier food as I also feed brine. I'm not sure the mirror would work, but it beats doing nothing.

My tank is a 110 and the tang is only 3.5" at best. Thanks for the replies, I'm still pissed though.

 

[Anonymous]

I unfortunately had a tang and a hippo both start nipping corals to the point of death. Sucked.

I don't even know if I will include one in my 180.

 

[JeremyR]

Tangs are not as reef safe as some people believe.. it's actually fairly common for them to bother fleshy LPS corals.. if someone complains that thier once fat open brain is staying closed, 9 times out of 10 it's a tang eating it. The behavior never changes, once an abuser always an abuser.. I don't think the mirror trick will work, it's not an aggression against other fish issue, it's a feeding issue. Feeding more and keeping seaweed in the tank doesn't seem to work either.

FWIW.

 

[Henry1]

Dizzy,

Thanks for the compliment.
I'm sure many reefers here believes the more we share, the better we enjoy and benefit from the hobby . . . ideas, experiences shared here are free and oftentime, invaluable.

Happy reefing.

 

[slojmn1]

My purple tang started eating my GOB and it took me a month to figure out what was happening, he seemed to nip it when I was not looking. When I moved the GOB to another tank he started in on my colt coral, when I moved the colt coral he looked pissed. At that point he started in on my doughnut coral. I got the message, took me a while huh? I returned him pronto. Catching him was a bi*ch. Good Luck.

 

[Bodine]

Had this problem.
People even told me you are feeding them enough...they are picking the slime....tangs are reef safe...yada yada yada...

I concur that they tend to go after LPS and even took a photo for all the naysayers......This hippo almost took out several before he was trapped and relocated to a FO tank.

Tang free in the reef now.......