[E-A-G-L-E-S]

It would be a nice, fat, and healthy 3" Purple Tang to a 210g. All other fish are established, this would be first fish addition in months. And would be the last fish for the reef....
Current inhabitants:
2 - Ocellaris clowns(1.5"&2")
2 - Green Chromis(2.5")
9 - Lyretail Anthias(2"-3.5")
1 - Pink argin Fairy Wrasse(3")
1 - Vlamingii Tang(5")

[baobao]

I'd have some copper handy just in case.

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

copper? i would never treat a tang with copper - jmo

[Ixthys]

It should get along just fine with the others. Personally one of my favorites.

Now the Vlamingii that you have...that will grow to be one serious-sized fish!

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

yup....in 8 months my lease runs out and i will be buying a house.....then comes my 360g

he has already grown .75" in about 2 months

[leebca]

In that size tank, it should be fine.

I woldn't by-pass a proper quarantine process. Your established fish have lost their resistance to even some of the most common things that the PT could be carrying. Give the PT time in quarantine to show itself healthy and it should fit in nicely. Watch the other tang for signs of agression. An established (even 'gentle'') tang can get testy when another tang shows up in its territory.

Good luck!

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

I have a QT always running, so thats no problemo.....but how much damage could be done in 30 seconds if my bigger vlamingii(who does seem like a baby) goes nuts? I have never added any fish in the 2 years i've been reefin that even might cause a problem...but i really would like to see this work...
thanks Lee

[leebca]

How much damage? It could kill the other fish in a couple of minutes or less. It is equipped to do this.

You might be surprised how 'not docile' your docile tang can get when it thinks its territory is being invaded.

It's Nature's way to guarantee that the resources of an area are 'properly' distributed.

There are some suggestions, if you're interested. If not, just ignore the rest. :slap:

Your fish (all of them) have come to recognize almost every grain of substrate, every twist and turn, and every other fish's area in your aquarium. They have, more importantly, established a kind of pecking order. If you sit and watch any community tank aquarium for a while, you'll see the fish(es) at the lower end of this order, middle, and top.

When a new fish enters the scene, the pecking order has to be re-established. In addition to this, the territory has to be 'reassigned.' The fish in an established aquarium will resist this to varying levels.

The aquarist really can't do much about the pecking order. It is a 'fish thing.' About the only thing an aquarist can do is take away the established territories. Aquarists usually wait until there is a problem before taking action, but that can exasterbate the situtation sometimes (maybe the fish blame the newcomer for this? ) You can take the wait-and-see approach, or you can be pro-active.

When you are sure your tang is ready to go into your tank, then the pro-active move you'd make is to totally rearrange the rocks, decorations, corals, etc. The place has got to look like a totally new reef! Just give it an hour to settle the chuncks of debris that were dsturbed, then. . .THAT'S the time to immediatly introduce the new tang.

That's about the best the aquarist can do. Remember, that doesn't change the pecking order, but it does take away any notions the fish have of owning a familiar part of the tank.

Disrupting the tank is very upsetting to the aquarist. Some aquarist gets their tank 'just so' and couldn't conceive of changing everything around. I certainly understand this and I never insist anyone do this. It's your call.

One of the things that would have helped is to have put the smaller tang in first, then introduce the larger tang. It seems like it's too late to do this, but actually. . .it isn't!

If you remove the established tang and put it into its own QT; move (not everything) much of the rocks and decorations around; introduce the new tang and if all goes well; then add the larger tang in, you have in effect put the smaller tang in first and then the larger tang next. The trick would be to let enough time go by in between so that the 'old' tang really think it's in its new home in the QT and the new tang is comfortable in your display. That could take 6 weeks or so.

When the larger tang gets put back home, home looks different and it has been away so long that it really is unsure where its old territory is and go about establishing a place for itself. This might take its mind off of fighting with the tang that is already there, and there is little chance the smaller tang will pick on the larger tang (for long anyway!).

These are the only two things I've tried is some degree of success. This last action does disrupt the pecking order (as well as disrupting territory) because the aquarist is actually forcing the pecking order to re-establish iteself without one of the 'usual' fish being present. When the fish comes back, there will develop a change in pecking order again. Although it seems like a better choice, the 're-stablishing of the pecking order' can back fire on the aquarist depending upon the livestock. I would estimate, with the fish you have there now, this second appraoch might work.

[Ixthys]

I agree that redecorating is the best thing, but if I know most reefers, they'd rather take the chance with the fishes getting along than go through the hassle of redecorating.

The only thing I've tried that "kinda" works is to put the new fish in an enclosed environment within the main tank. I've used hang-on acrylic tanks, home-made tanks, and hampster balls (those are the round balls that you put the hamster inside and close it, and let them run around the house).

I say it "kinda" works b/c I think it lets the dominant fish take out some early agression in the beginning without hurting the new fish, but it definitely doesn't stop it (at least not all the time) after you release the new guy. Plus it gives the new guy a little more confidence in a protected environment.

[leebca]

That's a good idea.