aggressive coral beauty, injured tang

[buddy08]

I have a coral beauty angel that is very aggressive towards certain fish. I cant keep chromis in my tank because the angel harasses them constantly. About a month ago, i introduced a yellow eye tang and royal gramma into my tank... For the first week or so, my coral beauty had the royal gramma cornered in a hiding spot and would constantly bother her but payed no attention to the yellow eye tang. soon after, he no longer was aggressive towards the royal and everyone got along fine.. this past week, the royal gramma has found a new hiding spot and is back to hiding. today i come home to a very sick looking yellow eye tang... i soon noticed the angel fish was harassing the tang now as well. He doesnt mess with the yellow tang nore the clownfish but since the royal gramma is now hiding again, and the yellow eye tang is now beaten up, i can assume hes the aggressor.

Are dwarf angels usually aggressive?
is there anything i can do to stop the harassment other than removing him (which IS an option if hes going to kill off my other fish)?
do royal gramma's usually hide or do they normally swim freely around the tank?

as for the yellow eye tang, hes beaten up pretty bad and im sure it will only get worse, if the fish weighed "10lbs" yesterday (and yes i know it doesnt weigh 10 lbs, hypothetically speaking) it looks to weigh "5lbs" today. veeery skinny, tail fin has been nibbled and looks frayed. He also has a mild cut on one side that looks to have come from the yellow tangs barb as well. the yellow eye is currently hovering over my frag wrack near the surface of the water as if hes avoiding the other fish. I moved the veggie clip infront of him with an algea sheet to eat and he trys to nibble on the algae but doesnt each much, its hard to tell if hes even swallowing it because what he rips off he chews a bit and the rest floats away. My fuge in my sump is roughly 5 gallons and has moderate flow in it. would it be safe to put the yellow eye tang in the fuge as a hospital tank temporary to nurse him back to health?

 

[BL1]

I think putting the tang into your 5 gallon sump will only stress him out more and make it worse. I think you only have 3 options, 1. Remove the coral beauty. 2. At lights out re-scape your whole tank to remove any territories the original fish may have claimed. 3. Remove the coral beauty and put him in a temporary tank for a week or two and let the tang have time to recover and get comfortable in the tank. After a period of time you can re-introduce and monitor behavior (changing up the rockwork for this option may also help).

 

[buddy08]

well the sump is 20 gallons, but the middle section where i have cheeto, sand, and liverock rubble is roughly 5 gallons of water (1/3rd of the 20gallon volume)...so 6.66 gallons? :D

If i set up a temporary tank for the coral beauty, how do i go about doing so? i have a spare 10 gallon somewhere and plenty of fresh water equipment ranging from heaters to filters

 

[BL1]

You'd just set it up the same way as a qt tank, a heater and powerhead is all you'd need but, you'd have to check the water quality often to make sure the angel isn't swimming around in ammonia.

 

[Reef Nutz]

I think putting the tang into your 5 gallon sump will only stress him out more and make it worse. I think you only have 3 options, 1. Remove the coral beauty. 2. At lights out re-scape your whole tank to remove any territories the original fish may have claimed. 3. Remove the coral beauty and put him in a temporary tank for a week or two and let the tang have time to recover and get comfortable in the tank. After a period of time you can re-introduce and monitor behavior (changing up the rockwork for this option may also help).

That will help alot by itself. I agree with BL1.

 

[buddy08]

if the yellow eye tang makes a comeback, will he eventually be able to ward of the yellow tang and coral beauty in the future if this problem arises again or is it going to be a vicious cycle

 

[Reef Nutz]

Tough to say. May not end until one of them is gone. Just unable to make that call. By moving the rocks around you make the tank different now, and it wont' be the Coral Beauties domain anymore. That sometimes resolves the issue altogether.

 

[buddy08]

i have toooo much rock to move :[

 

[wontonflip]

You don't have to move it all...just rearrange things so they look different.

 

[fastrd400]

I think if it was me, I'd go with BL1's option number 3. Taking the CB out of the equation and allowing that Kole Tang to heal is your best bet. At the same time change the way the rock work appears, thus getting all the peaceful fish a chance to find their spaces before reintroducing the CB.

 

[buddy08]

update on the qt tank, i setup an old 30g i had laying around and filled it with what little supply of saltwater i had remaining (currently making more) and some of my display tank water, its filled halfway so roughly 7 gallons of clean saltwater and 7 gallons from my display.. i threw in a 50watt heater and a maxijett 900 powerhead for circulation. I also put a large piece of live rock i had in my sump (roughly 10 lbs) in the tank along with 2 smaller pieces, another from the sump and 1 from the main tank.

I came home and thought the yellow eye tang was dead, he was next to the overflow chilling up against it (i thought he was sucked to it and of course dead before i got the net out) i moved him into the sump temporarily till i could get the quarantine tank setup. He was in worse condition today than yesterday obviously so i decided itd be in his best interest to be isolated in the qt tank to heal up (providing he survives) after he's doing a little better, i will re establish him in the main tank and remove the coral beauty and possibly the yellow tang because apparently theyre both picking on the yellow eye judging by the new slash marks on its side today. while theyre in the qt tank, i will move a few things around in the main tank and give it a few weeks till the yellow eye tang looks and acts better before returning the other 2. any advice or concerns is always welcomed, i dont want to lose this fish for one and for 2, i'd like to nurse it back to health to protect my investment... sucker wasnt cheap :\

will post pictures after camera charges.

 

[wontonflip]

Poor guy :( I hope your tang gets better! Which goes to show how different each fish is! My tang and coral beauty are best friends, and it's actually m kole tang who bullies other fish.

 

[buddy08]

pictures of the quarantine tank/ hospital tank...

and one very sick fish :[

hopefully he pulls through, bad news, he isnt as interested in food as he was yesterday. at least then he tried eating.... not so much today

 

[BL1]

He's probably pretty stressed out from being moved into the QT he'll probably start eating once he gets more comfortable in there.

 

[buddy08]

hope so. hes breathing rapidly

 

[buddy08]

sad news... i lost him. He got sucked up against the power head, i actually feel like ive lost a loved one :(

 

[little_fish]

Im sorry :(

 

[ErinCahir]

Such a huge bummer to lose a fish... I'm sorry. :(

 

[wontonflip]

Awww....sorry to hear :( Poor guy. What are to do with your cb if rearranging the rocks don't work? You can also try the mirror trick.

 

[buddy08]

the coral beauty is replaceable. i can always get a flame angel instead. what is the mirror trick?