Sailfin Tang and Yellow Tang

[jdair101]

Just picked up a nice Sailfin tang and put it in the tank with a Yellow tang thats been in the system for 5 months. The Sailfin is a bit smaller than the Yellow and the problem I think I have is the Yellow tang is aggressive towards the Sailfin. Is this going to continue or will the Yellow ease of after a couple days? The tank is a 112gal 60X18X24 with lots of hiding places within the rockwork. I realize the tank will not be big enough when the Sailfin reaches full growth, but by then I hope to have a 180ish set up.
Thanks Jim

[Canadian Man]

When I added 2 tang's to my 90g they fought at first. I taped a mirror to one end of the tank and then swithced it to the other end after 2 days. after the 4 day period the tangs were best buds and followed eachother everywhere. They also enjoyed sharing the nori. :lol:

[EmilyB]

I believe the general rule is to stay away from tangs of the same genus...in this case zebrasoma.

Did you get a new tang Jon? :biggrin:

[Canadian Man]

I believe the general rule is to stay away from tangs of the same genus...in this case zebrasoma.

Did you get a new tang Jon? :biggrin:

No, when the monster is up then the answer will be yes.
The example I gave was when I had the yellow and zebrasoma tang in my 90

[zulu_principle]

My experience,

Same fish (240 gallon system) added at the same time.

The aggressiveness never went away until I removed one.

That being said, lots of people say you cant keep two yellow tangs together, thats worked for me in a smaller tank.


Wendell

[jdair101]

Update
Well its been a day now and the yellow has eased up a little bit. I tryed the mirror trick that Canadian Man mentioned (thanks by the way) and so far seems to be helping. Yesterday the new guy on the block just sayed up in the front corner of the tanks and any time he ventured down the yellow would run him back. Now he is swimming (rather playfully) but staying to one end of the tank. He is eating both the frozen blood worm and frozen brime. Not to say there won't be a problem but so far so good.
Thanks
Jim

[EmilyB]

That's good ! :biggrin:

Be sure to feed spirulina flake and mysis, along with nori, as it is more nutritional.

[Michael]

The other trick to having 2 tangs/ aggressive fish in the same tank is add them both at the same time. That way no fish has already established its territory.
or
change the rocks/decorations around to make it seem like a new environment so they have to establish their territory again.

(doesn't always work, but does a lot of times).

Michael

[StirCrazy]

jdair101, just to throw some personaly experance out, in a very simular situation. I had a sailfin and a yellow in a 94 at first they yellow picked on the sailfin then they settled down for about a month.. then they yellow started to pick on the Sailfin more and more untill I started seeing "sliced" fins on the sailfine.. at this point I decided to donate the sailfin to another reefer and all was fine again.. tanks of our sizes are not large enuf to keep these two happy togeather, and the sailfin will eventualy outgrow a 100ish gal tank. My recomendation would be to decide which one you want and find a good home for the other..

Steve