stocking questions??

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter

When adding new fish always put mirrors up against the sides of the tank and add fish at night. Leave the mirrors up for at least 12 hrs. The fish will attack their own reflection and ignore new additions to the tank.

I've done this several times with tangs and angelfish with great success.

I have a yellow tang that was always nasty with new fish. Instead of mirrors, I printed off some pics from the internet of a yellow tang and taped it on the tank where the new fish would hang out. It was enough to make the yellow tank take pause when seeing them, and back off. I would move the pics around after a couple days, to keep the yellow tang from getting used to them.

This method worked long enough for the new fish to settle in, and take care of themselves. And after a week or two, the yellow tang would gradually become less aggressive to the new fish and I would take down the pics. After a few weeks, the yellow tang would only do token lunges at the new fish, just to show them he is the boss, but no prolonged harassment.

Speaking of nasty fish, though, my worst now is an old cinnamon clown. He seems to be getting even more nasty in his old age. He doesn't just chase fish, but nails them, and takes a bite out of them. He has already killed two perc clowns, and a pearlscale butterfly fish. He really whacks them and opens up a wound. He also whacks me, and bites me when I am cleaning the tank, as well as the mag glass cleaner. He actually hurt himself once doing that, and one of his eyes swelled out, and looked like it was going to pop out. But he got over that, and back to his nasty self.

Interestingly, though, I have a Copperband Butterfly that is not afraid of the clownfish. He gets chased, but is very good at dodging him and continuing on about his business. And there is one section of the tank, where I feed them, the Copperband will actually stand up to the clownfish, by sticking out his spines on this back and not backing off. The clownfish leaves him alone then.

Also, interestingly, the clownfish never chases the yellow tang, even when he is in his hosted coral (a big toadstool). They have been together for many years, though, so maybe that is why.