Kole tang and copperband?
 

anyone have these two fish together?

I just bought a kole tang about 3" in size to eat the algae that is overgrowing on my liverock (caulerpa prolifera). It is now in quarantine and will remain for about 5 weeks with hyposalinity quarantine. I am wondering if it will harrass my copperband and become too possessive with his piece of liverock once acclimated in my main tank?

After reading that kole tangs can become very aggressive with small algae eating fishes I am afraid that he'll consider my mandarin and copperband intruders and food competitors, because both fishes are picking on the liverock for food?

Anyone have any experience with a kole, copperband and mandarin?

My tank is 75 gallons.

I have both CBB and Spotted Kole with a midas blenny, and they are doing good. :biggrin:

did you add the kole long ago? did you add the copperband after the kole? This is reassuring. I would love for it to work because the kole seem like such a nice fish, not too shy and with a gorgious color. Seem to be efficient grazer on the liverock as well.

I have the CBB for 3 yrs, I added the Kole few weeks ago and then the Midas Blenny. All doing good.
When I put fresh clam in the tank, my CBB won't touch it? Any tricks?

A kole tang will not eat caulerpa. They are film algae eaters. You will need to keep one side of your tank dirty and it also a good idea to throw a few of those smooth stones use for freshwater in a pile in the corner of your tank. The stones provide film algae for the kole tank and also act as a home for the pods your mandarin needs to survive.

I use oyster. I was told that some other shelfish might be too tough for the copperband to eat. Oysters have tender flesh and they may be more aromatic so the fish prefer it?

In any case, mine was not toutching the oyster at first, not until it saw the trigger eating it, then it started to pick at it and now it's a competition between the copperband and the trigger for the oyster, they both want it.

I have read that perseverence is the key and some people have tried putting it a few times before the copperband finaly decided to sample it. You might as well mix little pieces of oyster meat within what you are feeding your copperband and see if it get the taste for it.

Darn. I guess I am not sure now that I will keep the kole then. I really need a tang that will control this algae and if not a kole then it will be something else. That something else will probably be a tang, so not sure my 75 gallons has room for 2 tangs, but I doubt it.

I don't know if a seahare will do. Maybe a foxface would eat the caulerpa?

Is it just a calerpa algae problem or do you have hair algae as well?

no hair algae. I don't have much algae. I have tons of caulerpa in my aquarium. I don,t mind the other caulerpa because they are very easy to dispose of, but the caulerpa prolifera is well...proliferic, if you know what I mean. It has taken over most of my live rock.

I am not so sure what to do with the kole tang now. sell it and buy something else to eat the caulerpa...or keep it anyway and he'll eat the green algae that grow on the glass...not sure. The poor thing is in quarantine in my 21 gallons for now and seem very happy. it has a very nice coloration so I am tempted to keep it but I see it display some type of tail wagging at my blue hippo tang so maybe it is a dominant fish?

The Kole is a nice looking fish, I found that when i introduced new fish after the Kole that he would be aggressive towards them, unless i did the mirror trick first, then introduced the new fish in the dark. Just a heads up.