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Help...Fighting Tangs!


Baxta

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Hi

I've done what the books all say not to do, I introduced a yellow tang AFTER a purple tang was aready in here. You can't always dictate what order the fish arrive! Anyway, the purple beats up the yellow tang using the spine on his tail stock. I can't catch the purple so I have put a dividing plastic grill down the middle of he tank to seperate them for a week or two to see if that helps. Now the purple tang spends some time patrolling up and down the divider and othe times he is busy grazing. I'm hoping he'll get used to seeing the yellow here and ignore it completely. Any suggestions?

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You could try the following

attach a small mirror to the outside of the tank to distract the purple tang.

rearrange the rock work in the tank so the territories change.

borrow a fish trap or try a bit harder to catch the purple tang.

Yellows and purples are of the same body shape and often will just never get on. Shape seems to be as, if not more important than colour with tangs. Purples also have a reputation for being mean.

BTW how big is your tank? Tangs require a long swimming space to be happy, usually a minimum of 4 feet is recommended, the length also helps lower aggression since they can hang out at their own end of the tank.

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i agree with surphew on the mirror thing, works well.

The other thing that may have happened is that the purple should have been introduced after the yellow, due to territory behaviour (from what i have read)

Sorry to say you might have to choose what one you prefer and sell the other (some fish dont get on)

But definately try the mirror thing first!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

About a week and a half ago I caught the purple tang and he's living in the sump (I've put some rock etc in there). How long do you think I should keep him there before reintroducing him to the main tank (which I've changed around a bit) with the yellow tang in?

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