Aggression advice (I know..not another one!)

[nezquick]

Hi!

been on and off this forum in the shadows for a long time but finally decided to register for more advice so hello!

woke up today to find my immaculate flasher wrasse has taken quite a nipping last night. Fin damage almost down to the body so fingers crossed it’ll heal all ok! Seems to be swimming around although a little more timid as usually his in your face at the glass and eating no problems.

anyway, my gold rush has had a few nips recently as has my yellow wrasse although nothing serious, Two clowns are unscathed.

main suspect is the vampire tang who I’ve seen several times chase after the rush and flasher. He leaves the clowns alone and normally follows the yellow wrasse around quite happily.

Should say all fish are well fed with regular water changes every week (skimmer currently offline so doing more water changes than normal to compensate).

is there much that can be done? Or is it maybe time to look at ridding the vampire and maybe changing him out for a smaller kole (we’ve always liked the look of the yellow eye)
Would be a shame as his a lovely fish and does do quite a good job.

I’ll upload some photos today too when I get a chance

thanks!

matt

 

[Waters]

Hi!

been on and off this forum in the shadows for a long time but finally decided to register for more advice so hello!

woke up today to find my immaculate flasher wrasse has taken quite a nipping last night. Fin damage almost down to the body so fingers crossed it’ll heal all ok! Seems to be swimming around although a little more timid as usually his in your face at the glass and eating no problems.

anyway, my gold rush has had a few nips recently as has my yellow wrasse although nothing serious, Two clowns are unscathed.

main suspect is the vampire tang who I’ve seen several times chase after the rush and flasher. He leaves the clowns alone and normally follows the yellow wrasse around quite happily.

Should say all fish are well fed with regular water changes every week (skimmer currently offline so doing more water changes than normal to compensate).

is there much that can be done? Or is it maybe time to look at ridding the vampire and maybe changing him out for a smaller kole (we’ve always liked the look of the yellow eye)
Would be a shame as his a lovely fish and does do quite a good job.

I’ll upload some photos today too when I get a chance

thanks!

matt

Welcome !! What size tank do you have? There are things you can try (like temporarily removing the aggressor and adding him back in later.....changing around the aquascaping.....etc) but I personally have never had any luck once a fish starts "misbehaving". I would rehome and look at adding something else.

 

[Scdell]

I personally think most aggression is from a lack of food. Think about it, if a fish is hungry and there's not enough to eat? Take out the competition. They are wild after all.
There are certainly other aspects to it, but I think if people fed more there would be less aggression.
I have 2 blue Fiji devil damsels in my tank. They've been in there since the beginning.
I used to feed sparingly an they were quite aggressive. As time went on and I added more fish, blue chromis, anthias, etc they chased the new fish into hiding. Which starved the new fish. When I started feeding more heavily the aggression toned down. They still didn't like any new fish but after a few days they would figure out there was enough food and calm down. Now these damsels were spawning in my tank which even made it worse.
Sometimes it's hierarchy. When I added 2 Lamarks angels things changed. The angels would go anywhere they wanted in the tank. Even in the Damsels "home" which they protected from all the other fish. The male damsel didn't like that at all. I'd see the Lamark that turned male chase him occasionally. One day I noticed the male damsel looked like he went through a bout.He was tore up pretty good. They figured things out on their own and there's no real aggression anymore.
I feel adding the angels was like adding a peace keeper in the tank. You have to respect those sharp spines!

 

[nezquick]

Welcome !! What size tank do you have? There are things you can try (like temporarily removing the aggressor and adding him back in later.....changing around the aquascaping.....etc) but I personally have never had any luck once a fish starts "misbehaving". I would rehome and look at adding something else.

It’s a rsm250, should say all fish are on the small side currently with only a central rock scape so plenty of swimming room to the sides and above. Vampire tang is the biggest out of the bunch so thinks his top dog in there. Upgrading when we move house. I’m leaning towards removing him and swapping with the Shop as the poor wrasse has taken a beating and I’m not for one for keeping fish that cause problems for the others. I likes a nice peaceful tank!

 

[nezquick]

I personally think most aggression is from a lack of food. Think about it, if a fish is hungry and there's not enough to eat? Take out the competition. They are wild after all.
There are certainly other aspects to it, but I think if people fed more there would be less aggression.
I have 2 blue Fiji devil damsels in my tank. They've been in there since the beginning.
I used to feed sparingly an they were quite aggressive. As time went on and I added more fish, blue chromis, anthias, etc they chased the new fish into hiding. Which starved the new fish. When I started feeding more heavily the aggression toned down. They still didn't like any new fish but after a few days they would figure out there was enough food and calm down. Now these damsels were spawning in my tank which even made it worse.
Sometimes it's hierarchy. When I added 2 Lamarks angels things changed. The angels would go anywhere they wanted in the tank. Even in the Damsels "home" which they protected from all the other fish. The male damsel didn't like that at all. I'd see the Lamark that turned male chase him occasionally. One day I noticed the male damsel looked like he went through a bout.He was tore up pretty good. They figured things out on their own and there's no real aggression anymore.
I feel adding the angels was like adding a peace keeper in the tank. You have to respect those sharp spines!

Thanks! I’ll up the food a little more although I do feed plenty at the moment. Maybe I’ll introduce some more nori and algae drops to see but I am leaning towards removing him and taking him for a swap. We’ve always had pretty good tanks without much aggression so it’s a shame as I don’t want to have a fish that’ll damage other fish. The shop did sell it to us with the “vampires are very peaceful etc” story but I’ve always known they have a semi aggressive temperament so didn’t let that sway me too much and I’ve read quite a few posts where the vampires are pretty good tank mates.

 

[nezquick]

Thanks! I’ll up the food a little more although I do feed plenty at the moment. Maybe I’ll introduce some more nori and algae drops to see but I am leaning towards removing him and taking him for a swap. We’ve always had pretty good tanks without much aggression so it’s a shame as I don’t want to have a fish that’ll damage other fish. The shop did sell it to us with the “vampires are very peaceful etc” story but I’ve always known they have a semi aggressive temperament so didn’t let that sway me too much and I’ve read quite a few posts where the vampires are pretty good tank mates.

Just ordered some more seaweed sheets and also ordered some selcon vitamin solution just to soak some of the food with to help the wrasse. Read some reviews that selcon/vita Chem can help the fish heal up a little quicker