Freakin Yellow Tang bites everytime I put my hands in the tank!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I can't figure out if he doesn't like me in the tank or he thinks I am food. He seems to bite at the hairs on my arms but also my finger tips, so I don't know. Is this common?

He also lets me hold him by the tail and also pet him, so I don't know if its that he doesn't like me...

My Naso tang also lets me pet him and cup him in my hands which I find weird.

Are tangs usually this friendly? All the ones I have owned in the past are not.

[PoonTang]

Count yourself lucky. I wish I could pet something in my tank other than a cleaner shrimp. When I put my hands in the tank everything runs away.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by PoonTang

Count yourself lucky. I wish I could pet something in my tank other than a cleaner shrimp. When I put my hands in the tank everything runs away.

Be careful what you wish for. I used to like to pet my fish too, until the day my Foxface stung me. It was my fault as I was doing some tank maintenance and startled him when I moved my hand quickly. But, if he wasn't so friendly he wouldn't have been anywhere near my arm. He's not so friendly now though as I caught him the other day to put in a larger tank.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

I can't figure out if he doesn't like me in the tank or he thinks I am food. He seems to bite at the hairs on my arms but also my finger tips, so I don't know. Is this common?

He also lets me hold him by the tail and also pet him, so I don't know if its that he doesn't like me...

My Naso tang also lets me pet him and cup him in my hands which I find weird.

Are tangs usually this friendly? All the ones I have owned in the past are not.

Maybe he just senses something that needs cleaned, similar to a cleaner wrasse, and that's why he's nipping.. But who know's, maybe he is 2-faced and likes being pet, but also like nipping at u for fun!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

My cleaner wrasse always cleans me too...I am used to that and barely feel it but I don't like the feeling of the yellow tang biting. He pulls on the hairs on my arms too. When I push him away, he just comes right back and keep biting.

My rabbitfish has stung me once before because he is also very friendly. I don't know, all my fish seem to be friendly except the small ones. They stay away.

[moldrik]

When I had my freshwater fish I used to get nipped all the time. Some fish are extremely friendly. The more human contact you try to achieve with them, the more they'll get used to it. It gets to be really weird.

I was diving in Belize recently and there was a grouper that kept swimming with our group, big grouper too, about 2 feet in length. He kept going really close to us and you could literally pet him. Both hands and all, one on each side. And he just kept on coming for more.

It's quite strange when you start running into this stuff in the wild, it really shows how much human contact fish actually manage to get from divers. I guess with a fish of that size, your hand is like a large cleaning station, scraping some stuff right off the side of their bodies.

My clownfish are finally feeding off of my fingers when I hold the food. But if I stick my fingers in there, they go away.

[chevyjaxon]

Be careful around his tail you are aware of why they are called surgeon fish right?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by chevyjaxon

Be careful around his tail you are aware of why they are called surgeon fish right?

Oh yeah...

[chevyjaxon]

so how many stitches did you get?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Actually none. It was years ago and a small Kole tang. It did take a long time to stop bleeding but it wasn't too bad. I was moving rocks in the tank and scared him and he got me as he frantically swam by.

My tangs now all seem way too friendly which is why I was asking if other tang owners have the same problem with them biting. I really don't think its a mean bite. He just seems to want to eat the hairs on my arm.

The Naso seems to like to be pet because I think he associates it with food since I only do it once in a while when I am feeding. Most of the time I feed with a turkey baster so my hands are not in the tank much.