Yellow Tang picking on new Heniochus

[hefner413]

I've had my yellow tang for 3 months and all is well - I just introduced a new Heniochus to the group, and the tang started picking on it and gave it a bad wound on the side. I divided the tank and thus separated the two. I know now that I should have rearranged the tank to help diminish territory fighting, but now I'm past that and don't know what to do. If I take away the separation, then the tang may attack again.
Is there anything that I can do before / after separation to help them get along? Also - I know Heniochus do better in pairs. Would getting a second help out?
Thanks all.

 

[le titou]

i think that the tang is just making his dominance known to the new guy, if you leave it after a while he should stop.

 

[hefner413]

well - now I'm starting to wonder - even though I've been seeing the tang chase the heniochus, I'm wondering if the gash on the hennie isn't fron the tang. I've also noted the hennie scratching on the rock at this spot. I wonder if the spot is from the hennie scratching from infection rather than from the tang. Well, I guess now that they are separated, the spot should begin to heal if it was from the tang, but would still get worse if it is from infection. Any guesses?
Thanks

 

[imurnamine]

Well, how big is the tank?
The tang may be overly territory if there isn't enough to share. Yellow Tangs are territorial enough as it is, and it is usually a good idea to add them last.

 

[sepulatian]

I was wondering what size this tank is as well. Did you qt these fish? Watch the Heni if he is scratching, look for tiny white spots. Tangs do have the spike on them that can do damage. The tang may have cut him.

 

[pikapp168]

Originally Posted by Hefner413
well - now I'm starting to wonder - even though I've been seeing the tang chase the heniochus, I'm wondering if the gash on the hennie isn't fron the tang. I've also noted the hennie scratching on the rock at this spot. I wonder if the spot is from the hennie scratching from infection rather than from the tang. Well, I guess now that they are separated, the spot should begin to heal if it was from the tang, but would still get worse if it is from infection. Any guesses?
Thanks
my heniochus had the same thing happen to him...I waited to long and the wound got to infected and he died. I later had another fish that had a little nick on him so, I bought a thing called life guard..it is a antibiotic that is live rock,invert..etc safe. Pretty cool it has a little life raft ring that you put the

[hr]
in, then they just float at the top. The stuff worked and he got a lot better.

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by pikapp168
my heniochus had the same thing happen to him...I waited to long and the wound got to infected and he died. I later had another fish that had a little nick on him so, I bought a thing called life guard..it is a antibiotic that is live rock,invert..etc safe. Pretty cool it has a little life raft ring that you put the

[hr]
in, then they just float at the top. The stuff worked and he got a lot better.
Well, the hennie died - I'm not sure if it was infection or the tang or both. But he was found dead this AM. The spot didn't look very good. He had been scratching on the rock, so I am thinking infection was the primary cause or secondary from a hit from the Tang. Anyway, I bought the hennie and a royal gramma together and the royal grama now is showing signs of ick. I took him out and he is in QT.
I shouldn't have listened to the LFS. He told me to not worry about the QT until the fish showed signs of sickness - that the QT caused more stress and thus would encourage more infection. So to only use it as a Hospital tank rather than a QT.
Well, I've learned my lesson - I would rather catch it and treat it prior to putting in the display rather than compromise the rest of the display. Now I have to keep an eye on the display hoping that there is no other signs of infection.
By the way - this last purchase was from ***** (all others from a small LFS) - I'm now very weary of purchasing from them. Although they were very nice and actually refunded my amount for the Hennie today - $20.
Well, overall, lesson learned. Use your QT.

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by pikapp168
my heniochus had the same thing happen to him...I waited to long and the wound got to infected and he died. I later had another fish that had a little nick on him so, I bought a thing called life guard..it is a antibiotic that is live rock,invert..etc safe. Pretty cool it has a little life raft ring that you put the

[hr]
in, then they just float at the top. The stuff worked and he got a lot better.
I looked into lifeguard, and all the sites that sell it say not to use with inverts?

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by Hefner413
Well, the hennie died - I'm not sure if it was infection or the tang or both. But he was found dead this AM. The spot didn't look very good. He had been scratching on the rock, so I am thinking infection was the primary cause or secondary from a hit from the Tang. Anyway, I bought the hennie and a royal gramma together and the royal grama now is showing signs of ick. I took him out and he is in QT.
I shouldn't have listened to the LFS. He told me to not worry about the QT until the fish showed signs of sickness - that the QT caused more stress and thus would encourage more infection. So to only use it as a Hospital tank rather than a QT.
Well, I've learned my lesson - I would rather catch it and treat it prior to putting in the display rather than compromise the rest of the display. Now I have to keep an eye on the display hoping that there is no other signs of infection.
By the way - this last purchase was from ***** (all others from a small LFS) - I'm now very weary of purchasing from them. Although they were very nice and actually refunded my amount for the Hennie today - $20.
Well, overall, lesson learned. Use your QT.
well, unfortunately you may have introduced ich, or the other infection, into your tank. taking the gramma out of the DT and putting into the QT was pretty much useless.

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by renogaw
well, unfortunately you may have introduced ich, or the other infection, into your tank. taking the gramma out of the DT and putting into the QT was pretty much useless.
What do you recommend then? My display is full of inverts, so can't treat it directly.

 

[renogaw]

you'll have to QT everything, not just the one fish. sry i misread one of your posts.

 

[hefner413]

Originally Posted by renogaw
you'll have to QT everything, not just the one fish. sry i misread one of your posts.
I only have a 10 gal QT. Not nearly big enough to put them all in.
Is it better to take out the inverts and treat the whole tank?
And should I wait until I actually see ick on the others or should I treat them irregardless.

 

[renogaw]

ich is there. now its a guessing game as to their immune system IF they get it, but ich will always be in the tank, until you let it go fishless for upwards of 6 weeks. it will always attach itself to the fish in there, even if just for a little bit, and even if the fishes' immune system is great. It will always be there.
you would have to remove all your live rock, all your inverts, and all your sand.

 

[molly05]

Originally Posted by renogaw
ich is there. now its a guessing game as to their immune system IF they get it, but ich will always be in the tank, until you let it go fishless for upwards of 6 weeks. it will always attach itself to the fish in there, even if just for a little bit, and even if the fishes' immune system is great. It will always be there.
you would have to remove all your live rock, all your inverts, and all your sand.
I don't think your statement is corret. Corrrect me if I am wrong. If ich can't attached to the fish then they will die.

 

[renogaw]

the only fish they won't attach to is a mandarin or other slimy, scaleless fish. they could easily attach to any fish for whatever amount of time they need, get what they need, then detach and start over.

 

[hefner413]

I'm a bit worried, that's for sure. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to just start treating everything - I guess I'm going to just stick with treating the Royal Gramma for now and keep an eye on everything else. Renogaw - I know that you are probably right that I'll have to eventually go 100%, but I hope that somehow things take care of themselves. I'm hoping too that my Cleaner shrimp will just go to town cleaning and get as much Ich as possible.

 

[hefner413]

And just wondering - To those of you with huge displays with many fish - when you have a case of ich or something that you find IN the DISPLAY - do you actually take out all your fish and leave it fishless for 6 wks? And WHERE do you put all of them? Do you have some huge QT where you treat ALL the fish? This does make sense to me to truly get rid of the ich, but just HOW do you all do this?
And I know the goal is to NOT get it in the first place by using the QT before putting a new fish in a display, but I'm sure ich gets past this to the display every once in a while.