Powder blue tang being bullied

[Westi]

Hi all,

After several years we have finally added a tang to our collection of reef safe fish. We did lots of research with regards to tank mates and believed this wouldn't be a problem however our male percula clown has taken an instant dislike to the tang and has taken it apron himself to make the powder blues life a misery! Much to my dismay, the female clown, the more dominant of the pair isn't bothered at all. Is this a lost cause, should I take the powder blue out and rehome him? He is a lovely fish, perfect specimen with not a spot of ich and is eating well. So far it's been two days since I introduced the tang and today wasn't as bad as yesterday. The clowns do host but we have several rose bubble anemones and they tend to move from one to the other. To try and reduce the male clowns perceived territory ( he thinks the entire 5x2 is his) we have moved all of the roses to one corner and tomorrow we plan on removing all but one anemone in the hope that they will stay put and give tang some space to graze. Any advice appreciated. Is this likely to end in tears? I would hate to lose the tang because of bullying...so far he has no signs of ich (we have uv running to try and reduce the likelihood of this taking hold) and he is eating well. The clown has had a few nips at him but so far he has not retaliated. We are feeding him garlic enriched food to try and build up his immune system. Has anyone else seen this with clowns?

 

[Eaval]

I have a slightly bigger than 5x2x2 and my clowns claim a 1 foot cube corner.

If the male is claiming the full tank I would sump the clowns for a week or two!!

Let the powder blue settle then readd the clowns

 

[Westi]

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought of that! Our sump is a bit rammed with kit, we have never used a DSB, we run a nitrate reactor instead. I'm guessing we could move a few things around and partition a section off with egg crate or something for the Percs. Just gotta catch the little tikes now! Are we doing the right thing removing all hosted nems apart from one? Am I correct in thinking that's Percs can host pulsing Xenia too?

 

[Eaval]

Clowns dont need a nem to host. They will but they wont die if they dont have one.

I would leave nems. Move clowns.

2 weeks or 3 weeks later re-add them. Maybe wait for 1x spawn in sump?

 

[carlowchris]

I wouldn't worry about the pbt. ..I've 3 tangs in my tank ..a powder blue...hippo and nasso. ...and the powder blue whilst not the biggest..he is by far the king......

There well able to hold there own...if it doesn't look like the clown is bothering him....he's not....

 

[372xp]

Any of the white cheeked tangs (p.brown p.blue goldrim) are the most aggressive of all the tangs, closely followed by bristletooth and purple. As above, don't worry about it to much. Other than a bit of nipping at the fins the clown won't really do that much in the way of damage. When I added a goldrim to my regal and 2 spot the blades where out and they were slashing each other, now there is only a bit of bickering after lights out, and to be fair I was worried for its safety. WS is more of an issue to a tang than a surly clown. Leave them unless you genuinely think there will be a fatality, they have to sort out there own pecking order and by moving either then replacing them later will only restart the problem .