Tang harassing Anthias
 

I have a Yellow Eye Kole Tang. A couple days ago I aquired a Sunburst Anthias. The Anthias is being harrassed by the Tang. The Anthias stays in one corner of tank where it can easily hide but the tang will go over and chase it. Is this normal? I didn't think there'd be any problems between these two. Is there anything I can try aside from removing one.

My Yellow Eyed Kole tang likes to harass all new occupants. What I have have done is put up a mirror at one side of the tank for a couple of weeks. The mirror then shows the reflection of the Kole, and hence in my case the Kole attacks that side of the tank, forgetting about the new fish I put in and letting the new fish get established. After a couple of weeks I take down the mirror and everything has been good. I have done this method with my Kole tang 5 times now and it has worked every time ( and it is said that Koles are very peaceful, I would have to disagree).

I just bought a Kole tang the other day, I was told these guys are not aggressive at all…its kind of why I got him (well they are beautiful fish), I hope I don’t have an issue with adding new fish to my tank in the future.

It just pulls my heart strings when I see two of my fish not get along :sad:

I hope they get along soon, so stressful when you see your fish fight/chase each other.

That's an excellent idea. I will most defintely give that a try. THANKS!

Keep an eye on your tang when you put up the mirror. I tried this with my yellow tang when he went after my scopas. However my yellow ignored the mirror. It was my salfin that started attacking the mirror like crazy, so much so that I thought he was going to have a heart attack or something. I didn't notice right away but after a few hours of my sailfin attacking the mirror (I took it away once I realized) his mouth was pretty banged up and he looked exhausted.

My kole tang sustained a little damage on the spines (exposed the actual spine out of the skin) from using it to attack the mirror, but I figured it would heal and it always has.

Depending on ones rock work you can always move some stuff around. I found this effective on my yellow, desjardini and purple tang when I had a fowlr system and would introduce a new fish (they were worse with other tangs being introduced).

Mind if I ask where you found your anthias? Were there any more?

I'll PM you since we're not allowed to advertise non-sponsoring vendors.

So far so good with the mirror trick. Tang has been pre-occupied but isn't being too aggressive so he's not hurting himself. The Anthias came out for a swim through the whole tank yesterday for the first time.
:biggrin:
Thanks

Just wanted to say it worked like a charm :biggrin: I only needed the mirror for a couple days. Thanks for the great tip!