Ethical question: What would you do? UPDATE: HOLY COW I CAUGHT HIM ON THE 1ST TRY!

fishoholic · #1 01-29-2010, 02:22 AM

So I've been feeling guilty lately and finally decided to ask others their opinions. Basically I have a somewhat ethical dilemma with the fish in my FOWLR tank. As most of you know my King angel is pretty (to very) mean towards other fish. However she is my dream fish she is healthy she survived the marine velvet and I can't imagine ever giving her up which leads me to my dilemma.

My king angel is and has been picking on my foxface and my emperor angel. My foxface is somewhat ballsy and always swims out in the open knowing that by doing so, every now and then, my king angel will nip at his fins. So it isn't all the time but it's certainly enough of the time that my foxface has a fairly nipped up tail

As for my emperor he's not allowed to come out and swim in the open....pretty much ever....he basically has a spot at the back of the tank where he's safe and the king angel wont bite him. The only time the emperor comes out is when I feed the tank. At that time the king is distracted by the food so she doesn't notice that the emperor has come out, so the emperor has a few minutes to swim out in the open and eat then it's back to his hiding spot. As soon as the king notices the emperor move out from his hiding spot she chases him right back in. As long as he stays there he's safe, if he tries to come out he gets nipped, so he's pretty much learned to just stay put.

Now if I'm being honest with myself I know that this is not a great life for these fish

, but the thought of re-homing them makes me sad because I care for them and (maybe it's selfish) but I don't want to give them up

Then there's the excuses: What if I re-home them and they're not any better off; What if they die in someone else's tank; The emperor was mean to the fish in the guys tank that I got him from, what if he's mean to the new tanks fish; If they're gone from the tank will the king angel then just pick on one of the other fish, even though she doesn't pick on them now? *sigh*

Then there's the thought: Wouldn't it be nice for the foxface to be able to swim around and not get nipped at, and for the emperor to be able to enjoy swimming around open and freely. *sigh*

I'm torn as to what to do, basically my heart is saying one thing and my head another. The foxface would have to be re-homed as we already have another foxface (magnificent) in the reef tank and I don't want to chance any fighting. I've also half thought about the emperor going into the reef tank but since he picked on small fish in the tank I got him from (and I have mostly small fish in the reef) I'm not so sure about that. I also have zoos that he might find tasty and it would suck if he ate them. Plus the reef tank already has a fair amount of fish in it, so that's something to keep in mind. I could swap out the pink tail trigger (he swims into the net when I feed my eel so he'd be easy to catch) and emperor but the trigger is doing well in the reef and I'd hate for him to go into the fowlr and have the king pick on him, however the king leaves the bursa trigger alone so maybe he wouldn't pick on the pink tail, but then who knows? and what if the pink tail started picking on the bursa.....AHHHHHH!!!!!! Too much over thinking!!!!! Also if I put the emperor in the reef it would be extremely hard to get him back out, so if problems occurred after the fact I'd be somewhat SOL.

So everyone if you were me WHAT WOULD YOU DO!?! Please Help!

mark · #2 01-29-2010, 02:31 AM

Bigger tank.

Seriously someone has to go and I'd probably pick the aggressor. Be hard enough to get rid of the other fish then only to find the King starts picking on the others remaining.

Have you tried a big reorg of the rock work?

Chin_Lee · #3 01-29-2010, 02:45 AM

PUt a mirror in front of the tank and let the King Angel take out its aggression on itself for a few day. then see what happens fter you take away the mirror. Might have to do it a few times and see if things improve.

loveless · #4 01-29-2010, 02:45 AM

x2. In my tank if you dont play nice then yer gone. Its not fair to the other fish and it is definitely not the environment I shoot for in a tank. Doing a reorg of the rockwork might work as an alternative.

Leah · #5 01-29-2010, 02:49 AM

You already know the answer when you ask the question

RuGlu6 · #6 01-29-2010, 02:50 AM

Follow your hart, intuition is always the right choice.

StirCrazy · #7 01-29-2010, 02:56 AM

I would say rehome the emporor. the fox face is totaly capable of defending himself, mind you if he realy gets thretened he cold kill the other fish with his spines.

but start there and see how it goes.. with one less fish the agression might slow down or stop.

Steve

fishoholic · #8 01-29-2010, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark

Bigger tank.

Seriously someone has to go and I'd probably pick the aggressor. Be hard enough to get rid of the other fish then only to find the King starts picking on the others remaining.

Have you tried a big reorg of the rock work?

The problem is, is that the main reason I set up the 230g fowlr tank is so that I could have a king angel. If I sold this king angel I would get another, and possibly have the same problem occur that I'm having now, as most king angels are aggressive. However I might get lucky and find one (like my sohal tang) that's not aggressive but that seems unlikely. Then there's also the problem of finding a healthy king angel for sale in the store and also finding a person that I approve of that would be willing to buy my king angel.

Basically a few months ago I thought for a brief moment about re-homing my king angel but after all I've been through with her: The whole marine velvet incident, her being my only angel who survived it, and her surviving was the main reason I didn't shut down the fowlr tank after losing most of my fish. I just could never bring myself to give her up. She is mean but it's her tank and I love her the most.

So even though it would be hard to re-home the other fish re-homing my king angel isn't going to happen. She has never showed any interest in the other fish with her in the tank. I think because they are so different from her that that is why she's ok with them. I honestly don't think she would start to pick on the others once the 2 fish she is picking on are gone. However I don't really know but I don't think she would.

Moving rock around in the past never helped.....bigger tank you say

Unfortunately there's no room or money for one

Chase31 · #9 01-29-2010, 03:08 AM

give her the sump treatment for a few days?
maybe help a lil

fishoholic · #10 01-29-2010, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

PUt a mirror in front of the tank and let the King Angel take out its aggression on itself for a few day. then see what happens fter you take away the mirror. Might have to do it a few times and see if things improve.

I tried that, she half looks at herself then mostly avoids the side of the tank the mirror is on. You would think she'd attack her image but for some odd reason she doesn't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leah

You already know the answer when you ask the question

There's a difference between knowing the answer and having others pound it into your head so you actually do end up doing the right thing