Blue Hippo Tang - are they all mean?
 

I love my blue hippo tang but she's awful mean. She constantly picks at my trigger and has been chasing other fish around as well. I did redo my aquascaping a while ago but this behavior has not changed, and I am debating letting her go. Are all blue tangs like this or is mine just special? If I got another smaller one, would I have the same issue down the road?

They're supposed to be timid. Mine was an a$$...picked on everything, broke corals daily.

Yeah, the ones that I've had have all been like that. They are an aggressive species, much like the purple tang. The last one that I had and sold would wait for my favourite porcupine puffer to turn around and take bites out of his tail fin. Then he proceeded to take a chunk out of my maroon clown's fin, half of it. On the other hand, I've never had an aggressive naso tang,it seems so mellow compared to yellow or hippo tangs. The hippo is one of the nicest saltwater fish but it comes at a price!

That's the thing, they are such a beautiful vibrant fish, but holy attitude! The trigger watches out for her but doesn't really fight back when she does go after him. Timid??? This one sure isn't! She pouted when the sailfin first went in, but got over that fast. Otherwise she's boss of the tank.

Mine is scared of everything! probably the most timid fish I've ever had!

I've never heard of a timid hippo tang.

If you are looking for a solid mild mannered fish, look into a blonde naso tang. LOVE THEM!

That's crazy I had mine for over 2 years in a 180glns and now its like 6"+ with no issues at all.Maybe I have a special one.Or maybe my tank is over loaded with caves from the rock work and corals.Thinking back another reason maybe the fish re-thank her stay and life as it came so close to death by trying to walk on my floor for a period of time as I brought it back to life it was almost dried out.My favorite and toughest fish.

I guess they are hit or miss. Not sure if I should keep her or not. She's fine with all the other fish. There's lots of places for her to hide in the rocks and lots of swimming room. Is there anything I can do to deal with the aggression?

mine was nice too. It goes to show that each fish has its own personality, no matter what people experience it is always a wild guess.

My niger trigger is a sweetheart, not touching anything in the tank and not agressive one bit.

Ya I'm not sure if its a "hippo tang thing" to be good or bad. Of all the fish I think hippo tangs have the most varied personality. I've had my hippo for years and he/she has never bothered any other fish or corals, even when I added a powder blue, yellow and purple tang after it. On the flip side I've heard the horror stories to of hippos going psychotic. I've also heard of hippo tangs developing a taste to LPS and clams. So ya, hit or miss I guess :-). But then the same could be said about every other fish in this hobby.

I've had a couple and both were kinda crazy but not really mean.

I have two blue hippos, they chase eachother around a little bit but nothing serious. They are very well behaved and don't bug any of my other tangs or any other fish. They are halarious to watch and all the funny spots they hide.

Mine is a bi-atch!!! I want mine out also, but can't catch it unless I kill it. And I can't bring myself to do the dirty deed.

i will never add one of those to my tanks ,the only couple i had i took in to treat for people or adopted and they were sketchy as hell . ive seen so many scarred up,beat up and sick that ill never buy one ever even if it is blue :P

Yeah mine hides behind a power head and on top of the frag rack which is really annoying! There is only an inch of water but she gets up there and flops around.

mines mellow and so is the Six-line. The Purple Tang though can be a bit of a dick.

She only nips at the trigger's fins, but they are always doing a bit of a twirly dance. The trigger won't move to the other side of the tank, they all seem to hang out in the same spot, right front.

Ugh, I yell at her to stop but she pays no attention to me. Dam fish. :twised:

Would moving her to my smaller tank for a couple of weeks and then reintroducing her make any difference? She's about 3 1/2 - 4" big right now, this is of course assuming I can catch her.

Man, you guys are scaring me now. I have had mine in quarantine for the last 4 months because of and ich problem, but now that I have a handle on that I am scared to put it in the DT because of all your comments.

I'm not sure if the attitude comes from who's first in the tank. My trigger went in after the hippo, maybe that's the problem?

I really do think its up to each individual fish how they are going to behave.

My Hippo tang has zero attitude. It is very timid and lives in my Palmers Blue Milli 90% of the time. It only comes out to eat and swim around once in a while. It has not harassed any other fish in my tank. Mind you, I bought it as a small 1 1/2" - 2" juvenile at the time.

Now, my Purple Tang. That is a different story. It is a complete jerk to any new livestock. It harassed the crap out of my new Sailfin but has finally laid off a week later...