reflection aggression?
 

so ive noticed in the last couple of days that my tang has been flaring her fins and charging at her own reflection any ideas to stop this?

fish cant see their own reflection unless you have an actual mirror..... the inside of your tank only appears mirrored at an angle, but the fish see straight out

hmm kay then i feel stupid... haha well then she doesnt like the corner of the living room then

could be anything. might take a few days before it gets settled in. how long has it been in the tank?

I don't agree with this statement! I have a yellow tank that has been doing this since I put him in back at the beginning of Jan. I hope one day he will calm down.

Oakleys?

stick your head inside the water and see if you can see your reflection. honestly, its not reflective at all. i've put a waterproof camera in there and the glass is perfectly clear.

the mirrored surface we see when we're looking from the outside in is an optical illusion

I know I'm not retarded thanks! It's just fish see different to us so who knows if they see it mirrored or not......we will never know. There has to be some reason why they do it and that's the only real reason for it.

i never said you were retarded..... but it could be many things.

it use to happen with my cichlids in my freshwater tanks too

I also have a yellow tang that does the exact same thing.... he has been there about 3 months or so.

I think that under certain external lighting conditions, and in just the right spot, they can probably see a bit of a reflection off the glass in the corner. It won't be a solid mirror that we see, but I bet they can see enough colour and shape to trigger their inner demon.

I've had two long term tangs in my reefing career, and both have attacked the glass in the same spot in the corner, and only when the glass is really clean.

I bet if you were to put black paper over one of the sides, it would probably stop.

I have a bangaii cardinal that does this when the glass is freshly cleaned. If there is a buildup of film, then he doesn't.

So I think to some degree they see something. What that something is, is anyone's guess. Maybe a slight reflection like when you look in your rear view mirror in night mode? You see your back seat but you also see a bit of the road behind you...

Anyways, if it was fully reflective, they wouldn't see you coming and swim up to see you... :biggrin:

My wrasse and clown fish will do the same.....they are very territorial and will attack towards the glass.....but its during the transition from light out in the house to dark....and maybe the lights are changing at that time as well (not sure of that part).....I just assumed the glass at some times must be reflective to them

.....or I have some fish that need anger managment classes!! LOL.

Same thing with my foxface.