Tang warfare

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

After spending the last two days observing my fish and especially the sohal tang, I have decided to remove him from my system. I spent all evening trying to patiently catch him, but have had no luck at all. I will be picking up my fish trap from my friend but I already know I won't have much chance at getting him out with it. It is close to midnight right now and the lights have been out in my tank for quite awhile. I am trying to see where he sleeps but he of course is in the back of my tank under a tunnel... I left the fishnet in the tank, but I have my doubts that I will get him.

This is a heartbreaking choice to make, but I do know it is in the best interest of my other fish. Sunny is my favorite and it will be hard to let him go back to the LFS where I purchased him from... He has not done anything since the fight with the sailfin, but I can tell I won't be able to keep him in a nice community tank. He was a model tank mate, and now he suddenly is not. Strange how they can turn on dime for no real rhyme of reason. I read if they are hungry they may get aggressive, I feed him all the time pellet by pellet, but he is always hungry.

I just have no idea fo how in the heck I am going to catch a streak of lightening that knows he is on the wanted list.

Ya it can be such a pain to catch them and I don't know if its more stressful for me or the fish!

How many chances have you given him? I certainly think its best he goes but at the same time its going to really stress him out to try to catch him. Also stressing out the rest of the guys.

Hard situation. I just went through the same thing the past week but in my case I removed the bullied fish and not the bully. In retrospect I made a mistake I think...the Hippo was beating the crap out of the PBT and since the PBT was the new comer, I opted to catch him out. But since then, the Hippo has just moved on to harassing my Tusk pretty badly. Maybe I should have removed the Hippo. Not sure what I am even getting at really

I also noticed my Naso has a small gash on his side too now. Not sure if it was the Hippo but I wouldn't be surprised. And my Naso absolutely does NOT stand up for himself. If the Naso ever gets hurt, the fish that does it will be gone in an instant. Guess you can tell who my favorite is

I would say if it starts to escalate again, try to get the Sohal somehow and fast. I almost waited too long to "save" my PBT. By the time I went to catch him, he was so tired and beat up that he pretty much had no fight left in him and let me net him near the top of the tank.

[MitchM]

I've had great luck using 2 nets to catch fish. I'll keep one net still and chase the fish with the other. Many times they will flee right into the waiting net.
I use black colour nets, if that makes any difference.

Mitch

[my2rotties]

Sigh... I have tried the two nets, but I have this stupid 18" euro brace right smack down the middle...

I was not chasing anybody last night since it does stress my other fish. Just left the net floating (supposed to be invisible). I thought if I put the net where he seems to be the most active in his movement... the nori clip.

My Naso tang never gets messed with, she used to be the peace keeper for the little fish but the sailfin is now large enough to fend for herself. I may remove her eventually as well, since she instigates a lot of fights. If we didn't get two feet of snow out here I would go get my trap from my buddy. Right now it will just have to wait.

I really wish we thought about the euro brace and ways to make it more livable when we put the tank together, darned it.

[PoonTang]

Have you tried placing a mirror up against the tank? The offender may be more interested in fighting "Himself" than the other fish.

[my2rotties]

I am on it now... lets see what happens.

Originally Posted by PoonTang

Have you tried placing a mirror up against the tank? The offender may be more interested in fighting "Himself" than the other fish.

[my2rotties]

The sohal took one look at himself and booked it into the rocks and is peeking out to see if the other fish is still there. The sailfin is posturing at herself. My banana wrasse changed colouration and wow I thought he was nice before...

My butterfly fish is wanting to kill his reflection and this is the sweetest most mellow fish I have. My puffer took one look at himself and went to hide. My naso looked like she knew it was a reflection and went about her business...

I took the mirror away after ten minutes since it was riling up the fish and the sohal was the last one fighting with himself. I see that fish are not all that smart sometimes...

Fun experiment for a snowy Sunday afternoon though. NOw the fish are looking for the interlopers and will probably be doing that for the rest of the day.

[MitchM]

I've also had good luck with partioning off parts of the tank with eggcrate. I cut the eggcrate to fit around rocks, sand, height and width. It really reduces down the space they have to run, then I remove rocks from the side they're hiding on which leaves them open for capture.

Mitch