Tang wars

[Navarre]

Well it seems my short term plans are ruined
As many of you kow, I took an injured Powder blue tang as it was kept in a small hospital tank. Its done really well and settled in nicely.

However....

My new tank (which im sure most of you have read about ) will be arriving around the 18 December. It wont start to get setup until the new year and it was going to have an Achilles Tang as its centrepiece attraction.

Unfortunately my lfs were delighted to tell me that my Achilles tang is awaitings my collection at the shop! Naso type tangs simply dont get along and i knew that placing the 2 tangs in the same tank (which is far too small to be honest) was asking for trouble.
I got the achilles hom and world war 3 broke out.. i tried to place a mirror on the side of the tank to take the attention of the maruading powdrblue but its simply not interested After trying to catch either tang and place it in the sump i have so far been unssuccessful and i am seriously consideering having to strip the entire tank to catch thefish. Over the last 3 hours the poor achilles has taken a mighty hammering.. its fins are badly gashed and its body now shows several scars and one deep wound

I have contacted a friend who has agreed to take teh powderblue from me but the problem still exsists... how do i catch this fish!

The Achilles came to me in perfect condition. Nowit looks like its done 2 rounds with a great white shark! If anyone doesnt see why tangs need huge tanks I hope this shows a good reason why. 100 gallons simplyisnt large enough and from the aggressioni have witnessed i seriously doubt if 220 is enought to house these 2 fish either

I will watch a bit longer to see if this situation calms down. if it does then all will be well but i seriously doubt it. Im very upset with my lfs as they knew full well that i was not ready for the fish until January. i didnt like the idea of keeping the fish in an 18 inch hodling tank for that length of time andi cant sump it as it will eat all my macro algae.

 

[Def]

If you ordered it for January, why couldn't you tell them to either hold it or sell it to someone else and order a new one for you... If I buy a car and say I want it delivered in jan, I don't expect it to turn up in December & be lumbered with it...

 

[Navarre]

Yes i could i guess but i know how hard and long my lfs has been searching for an achilles. I startd searching for one in september and this was the first one to appear on their books. If it wasnt for the Powderblue appearing in my tank due to me rescuing it (i sould have known better ) ) then this would not have been a problem but the powder blue really has put a fly in the ointment

 

[lmaniotis35]

navarre,

When i cycled my tank i was having a hard time catching my damsels. My lfs suggested an eggcrate divider that will leave minimum room and to start from one end of the tank and slowly move to the other hopefully cornering the fish to one end of the tank.

I basically had a net in one hand while moving the eggcrate with the other.

it helped me catch my 6 damsels within half an hour to 45 min with limited stress on the fish.

hope this helps

 

[Navarre]

Well the powder blue has been caught and the tank looks like a disaster area

The Powder BLue has been rehoused and the Achilles looked like its settled in fine.



Then my emperor thought it was time to pick on it! Beforei could do anything the emperor has placed a huge gash on the cheek of the Achilles The tank lights are now turned off to try and calm things down. I will put the lights back on toorrow and see how this develops. Any more aggression fromthe Emperor tang and this wil be rehoused too .. And once more my tank will look like its been hit by a tidal wave

 

[Navarre]

Lights on and things look much better already!
The Achilles is out and feeding around the rocks. Not a single sign of whitespot (which they are extremly prone to and with the stress its been under i was sure it would happen).

Its looking a little battle sore and its fins have been ripped in places. ON closer inspection it has a small cut on its belly above its anal fin and a large gash on its gill cover. both of these will heal in time i thin and i only hope that infection doesnt set in during this time.

My Emperor has mostly ignored it. It does give a quick chase every now and then but nothing serious and definately nothing like yesterday.

I will try and get a photo of the tang later and post it. Its a shame though because when it reached me it was in superb condition and looked awesome. It still looks stunning but i know it wont show the fish to its true potential )

 

[ste2k3]

Sorry to here about you probs mate. I was lucky when mixing my powder blue and orange shoulder. there was very little agression. I found that having a couple of lettice grips with nori in all the time helped as there was no compertition for food. I think if you ordered the fish for january, then january is when they should have got it for you. Did it come via TMC?

good luck with the new fish.

ste

 

[Navarre]

I had 2 nori clips in place.l I even had a mirror on the other end of hte tank (which my stupid Emperor found very quickly and proceeded to atack it with extreme prejudice).
The powder blue totally ignored its own image in an attempt to get at the acihlles. this proved to me that these 2 fish were simply not going to co-exsist.

Yeah the fish came via TMC to my lfs (at a great price too! £42)

Here is the latest piccys of him.

The 1st photo shows the damage caused by the Powder blue acros his face and fins (the damageis actually far worse but its not showing here )

Its settled in well now though and my Purple tang mostly ignoresit.. it chases it every now and then but nothing serious.

 

[ste2k3]

They are available at TMC quite often, but that is a very good price

ste