Need help with tang aggression

[AnthonyA9953]

I recently added a coral beauty angel to my 125 reef tank. I put him in an acclimation box and every once and a while my desjardini tang would go up to the box and tail slap it. However I began to notice that that behavior started to decrease so a few days later I added the cb angel and all was well for a few hours. However something snapped and the des tang has been harassing the cb angel to the point to were he just hides were I can’t see him and won’t eat. At this point I don’t even know if the cb angel is alive or not. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[slief]

Tangs can be very agressive and it’s often recommended that they are the last species to go into a tank. That said, I won’t even put a Desjardini in my 500 gallon display because of their agressive nature. Frankly, I am not the least bit surprised he’s being agressive. And in fact, I would expect him to be. Aside from the fact that they are generally agressive tangs to begin with, your tank is relatively small and too small for that species of tang that tends to cover larger swaths of a reef by nature and is very territorial. Your tang has claimed the entire tank as his territory. There is a good chance that he won’t be accepting of any new tank mates It’s possible that this will pass but more than likely won’t. If it were me, I would rehome the tang and get a different species such as a tominini tang or remove the tang and place it in QT for a month or so to allow the angel to get established. Then put the tang back in but again, your tank is too small for that species and with them being a territorial agressive species, you should expect more issues down the line.

[Cloudburst2000]

I agree with slief. Desjardini tangs are super aggressive. Not a good choice for a 125g tank. Either make it a single species tank or remove the tang and replace it with a a different species of tang suited to a smaller tank size like a bristletooth tang or kole tang.

[ca1ore]

Is funny, my Desjardini is aggressive to me (tries to slash my arm) but not to my other fish. It's the purple/yellow combo that are Tango & Cash in my tank. Regardless, no tang behaves well if crowded and cramped.

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by slief

Tangs can be very agressive and it’s often recommended that they are the last species to go into a tank. That said, I won’t even put a Desjardini in my 500 gallon display because of their agressive nature. Frankly, I am not the least bit surprised he’s being agressive. And in fact, I would expect him to be. Aside from the fact that they are generally agressive tangs to begin with, your tank is relatively small and too small for that species of tang that tends to cover larger swaths of a reef by nature and is very territorial. Your tang has claimed the entire tank as his territory. There is a good chance that he won’t be accepting of any new tank mates It’s possible that this will pass but more than likely won’t. If it were me, I would rehome the tang and get a different species such as a tominini tang or remove the tang and place it in QT for a month or so to allow the angel to get established. Then put the tang back in but again, your tank is too small for that species and with them being a territorial agressive species, you should expect more issues down the line.

^^^Well stated^^^

I could not agree more

[VoltzNSalt]

I had a Des Tang in my 210 when it was a FOWLR before I took it down and rebuilt as a reef...very aggressive - especially towards my foxface...

I'll never put one in my tank again...

[WVfishguy]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Is funny, my Desjardini is aggressive to me (tries to slash my arm) but not to my other fish.

I had one which was highly aggressive to me and anyone who stood near "his" tank. But not aggressive to tank mates.

[Timfish]

As mentioned above you may just have an aggresive tang and may need to consider rehoming him. I have a Blond Naso in one of my tanks that's been rehomed twice now because it despises Regal Tangs.
But in my experience there are a couple other possibilities. First it sounds like you didn't QT the Coral Beauty. It's possible it has a problem and as a consequence is unusually timid and your tang is picking up on it.
Feeding could be a major reason. Elvis, see this thread, when he was moved to his current 240 was initially just being fed once a day and became noticably more aggressive and would really throw his weight around at feeding time each evening. Adding an auto feeder in addition to evening feedings greatly reduced his aggression.