Powder Blue compatibility

[asylumdown]

I bought a skinny but alert powder blue a while back. It was at least nibbling pellets in the store so I was confident with some TLC in quarantine I could get it back in to shape.

I knew I was taking a gamble because my tank is beyond peaceful, there is exactly zero aggression between any of my fish because I don't have any aggressive fish. I know these guys are on the more assertive side, but I have no other tangs, a powder blue is on my bucket list, and I don't know if I'll have a tank big enough for one again for a long time... so I did it.

He came out of QT today. He's still skinny, but he's a great eater so I'm sure he'll fatten up rapidly.

My problem is that within 3 hours of going in to the tank, he'd full blown attacked my copper band butterfly twice. Like, chased across the whole tank I was afraid blood would be spilled attacked. I was fully expecting a little competition between the PB and my doliatus rabbit since they eat the same kinds of food, but I was really caught off guard with the aggression toward to CBB

Is this something that I should expect to die down, or have other people noticed a particular hate on between these species in the past?

FWIW there was some posturing between the rabbit and the tang, but seeing as the rabbit is more than twice the size of the tang, it was a little like watching a punk teenager try to throw rocks at a tank. The tang backed down each time.

[denny_C]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I bought a skinny but alert powder blue a while back. It was at least nibbling pellets in the store so I was confident with some TLC in quarantine I could get it back in to shape.

I knew I was taking a gamble because my tank is beyond peaceful, there is exactly zero aggression between any of my fish because I don't have any aggressive fish. I know these guys are on the more assertive side, but I have no other tangs, a powder blue is on my bucket list, and I don't know if I'll have a tank big enough for one again for a long time... so I did it.

He came out of QT today. He's still skinny, but he's a great eater so I'm sure he'll fatten up rapidly.

My problem is that within 3 hours of going in to the tank, he'd full blown attacked my copper band butterfly twice. Like, chased across the whole tank I was afraid blood would be spilled attacked. I was fully expecting a little competition between the PB and my doliatus rabbit since they eat the same kinds of food, but I was really caught off guard with the aggression toward to CBB

Is this something that I should expect to die down, or have other people noticed a particular hate on between these species in the past?

FWIW there was some posturing between the rabbit and the tang, but seeing as the rabbit is more than twice the size of the tang, it was a little like watching a punk teenager try to throw rocks at a tank. The tang backed down each time.

my luck with pb and cbb's is similiar to what your experiencing , i had to remove the tang as the cbb was getting stressed and i feared he would stop eating.

it lasted a few days and once i seen the cbb paleish in color i removed the tang.


i had a yellow i rescued kill a cbb on me ....lesson learned, it seemed the same kinda i had before with the yellow so i pulled out the pb while i could

i imagine this is fish to fish and not all will be the same , so i hope yours settles down

good luck buddy

denny

[asylumdown]

gawd, what is it with fish hating the CBB? If that happens this will be the second fish I've had to remove due to uncalled for aggression directed towards it. I also had to remove a Harlequin Tusk because it just HATED the butterfly. Do you think it's that huge false eye spot or the stripes that triggers this in other fish?

The CBB performs a needed function in my tank, the tang is just pretty, so it will be an obvious choice if I have to make it. I just wish for once the CBB would spear it's attacker with those nasty looking dorsal spines rather than just flaring them. If it would fight back for once maybe it wouldn't get picked on so badly.

[Reef Pilot]

Yup, tangs really have a hate on for butterfly fish. It usually only lasts a couple weeks. So if you can distract the tang long enough, and the cbb sharpens his 180 degree maneuvers, they might be OK after that. I had the same experience with my yellow tang.

[denny_C]

maybe an eggcrate divider so they can interact but not cause any damage?

pita but may be worth the work

if it came down to it id choose the cbb too , great workers and better chance of adding fish later, plus its rare to get a good one id hold onto him for sure, tangs have a long list of enemies and they get worse to new incomers as they get established

[asylumdown]

yah that's one of the other reasons why I got this guy, he's absolutely the last fish in this tank. We'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. This CBB is about as robust as they get, he's fat like a battleship seen head on. I may over feed

[denny_C]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

yah that's one of the other reasons why I got this guy, he's absolutely the last fish in this tank. We'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. This CBB is about as robust as they get, he's fat like a battleship seen head on. I may over feed

yeah they need that so your doing the right things with him for sure, just monitor for now since hes in there already and watch your cbb behavior and visually , youll know if the PB needs to be taken out

good luck i hope it works out for both fish

[asylumdown]

Well today things seem MUCH better. I am, however, experiencing a new problem. My PBT still only tepidly eats frozen and pellet food, like 'nibble nibble spit' kind eating. It took him over an hour to get through the mysis that I was feeding in QT. In the big tank, food doesn't last more than 5 seconds, so I'm relying on nori sheets to get him enough calories to gain weight. A 3 inch sheet could last him 6 hours in QT.

However, my giant hog of a cowfish, which I swear would swallow plastic if only he could bite a chunk off the turkey baster I clean the rocks with, took about 20 minutes to decide he also wanted to try Nori. He is a bottomless pit and he takes the entire sheet in two bites!

I have to replace it three times before the cowfish is full enough to let the tang anywhere near it!

[hfp75]

I look at it as survival, if they are hungry enough they will eat.....

With time he will learn he needs to be a bit faster & compete for that food.

[kien]

Originally Posted by hfp75

I look at it as survival, if they are hungry enough they will eat.....

With time he will learn he needs to be a bit faster & compete for that food.

In theory, yes. Unfortunately, many of these fickle fish are more than happy to starve themselves to death while they wait for the perfect meal