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Orang Shoulder vs Powder Brown Tang (1 Viewer)

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RR-MAN

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So these two fish were good buddies for 3 yrs in a smaller tank. Now that they are in a much larger tank-the orange shoulder harassing the powder brown all the time. I'm surprised that the powder brown is the weaker fish in this case.

Im not willing to part out with either fish so will see...
 

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So these two fish were good buddies for 3 yrs in a smaller tank. Now that they are in a much larger tank-the orange shoulder harassing the powder brown all the time. I'm surprised that the powder brown is the weaker fish in this case.

Im not willing to part out with either fish so will see...
Are there enough hiding spots in the rocks for the powder brown to duck away from the larger orange shoulder?
 

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orange shoulder definitely on my wish list Jamail has a big one in his reef that is amazing.
They are stunning as adults! I had to move mine on to a larger tank. He outgrew my 215 gallon and I just felt bad keeping him in there. He's swimming around in a nice 1,700 gallon tank these days.
 
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Are there enough hiding spots in the rocks for the powder brown to duck away from the larger orange shoulder?

Actually the powder brown is much larger. I don't have the rock stacked so got a 3 foot wide arch and 6-8 towers/ledges. These fish are idiots...they got a 8 ft tank and still don't get a long. :D My angels are way well behaved. The emperor and blue line keep to themselves which is amazing.


orange shoulder definitely on my wish list Jamail has a big one in his reef that is amazing.

I'm not a big fan of tangs. This was given to me by a good friend. Who knows one day I will let you have him. As long as I know it's going in a nice large system.
 
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So after 4 yrs. powder brown lost the battle. Found it dead this morning. :angel:

In the smaller tank the two fish got along just fine but as soon as they were introduced to the large tank they starting bullying each other. And these were the only two fish when I started the large tank back in Oct 2017.
 

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So after 4 yrs. powder brown lost the battle. Found it dead this morning. :angel:

In the smaller tank the two fish got along just fine but as soon as they were introduced to the large tank they starting bullying each other. And these were the only two fish when I started the large tank back in Oct 2017.
I'm sorry to hear man. After 4 years, its a pet, not just an aquarium inhabitant.

If I had to take a guess, territorial fish can be kept in smaller tanks together because the overcrowding helps stymie their aggressive behavior. Basically, nobody has a territory to defend since they are all packed in there together.

I bet once you gave them a bit more room, one of them decided it had its own established territory and defended aggressively to protect it.

With my stocking, I had the opportunity(we'll call it that since almost all my fish died from velvet) to add fish in the order I wanted and I made sure to put all the aggressive and territorial fish last and together. That way, my tang and angels never had time to establish territories and by the time I put them all in there, it was really too crowded to even have a territory. I get no in-fighting ever with the angels and tang. I do get a some small scuffles with the wrasses but that's it.
 
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Thanks Ty! Yes super cool fish. Wife is very sad. It was her favorite fish. And it was not a typical one - super bright colors and healthy.

Your theory above makes 100% sense - just like african cichlids - when you have 30 of them in a 55/g tank they all get a long just fine and if you put the same 30 fish in a 300/g they will slaughter each other over territory.
 
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My orange shoulder is suicidal-showing some aggression towards a much larger sohal tang [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji15]


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Where are you located? I have. A fish trap you can sometime remove the fish then re-introduce it to the tank. Let me know if you want to give it a try?


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^^^Thanks for the offer but all is good. A little aggression is normal for tangs as long as they don't cut each other.

I'm sure there will be more action once I add the powder blue and power brown to the tank in the next few weeks.
 
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