Xlarge Desjardini being harrassed by purple tang whos much smaller

[tangmaster]

I am a newbie with 1.5 years experience. I just (stole) a desjardini tang from a LFS owner. Fish is 5 years old and beautiful, exteremly hardly. Problem is, I have a purple tang who HATES him. He hasn't done any damage but I am ready to FRY this beautiful purple. They are in a 55 reef. Other than a cleaner crew, they are the only inhabitants. I am currently cycling my prized 180. Will the agression subside in the larger tank. Purple has been with me a year...DES has been with 2 months. BTW, I paid only 80 bucks for my DES, I jus couldn't pass it up! I have 2 gorgeous Torch corals and a hammer frag.
Going to hawaii in 2 weeks. Can't wait to see live corals and tangs in the wild. MAUI!!

 

[golfish]

Not much you can do...The PT is the boss, adding a tang of the same shape (kind of) to a tiny tank like that is asking for trouble, and that's just what you got. Once you move em things should improve.

 

[tangmaster]

thnks golfish for replying so quickly, but my desjardini is xtral large. Twice the size of the purple. I only purchased him because I knew he would be going into the new 180 in a few weeks. But that purple is a monster. The Giant Des just swims on his way oblivious to the purple badnes

 

[tony detroit]

What worked for me:
Take them out, kill the lights, rearrange the rock, put each in their own bucket with lid on for a couple hours. Darkness and sleep are key. Let the water get a bit cold so they calm down a bit. Lose a couple degrees.
Let them forget where they came from. I like to think of tangs as gangbangers. If the forget where they came, from their "turf" is all new when they get put in at the same time in a dark tank.
Put them back in the tank, weakest/smallest fish first, strongest last.
This worked great for me. No promises, but I saw it work.