freaking tang

[kpatterson]

My kole tang has been flipping out today. It may have started last night. No other fish are bothering him that I can see. He keeps swimming extremely fast around the end glass panel of the tank. This is the area that I feed him seaweed so he usually cruises thru there regularly. He is eating well. I added Brad's Sailfin Saturday night but everyone seemed to be doing fine. They show no aggressive behavior to each other.
The thing that is really freaking me out about this is that he has this kind of prong sticking out of his flesh near his tail. You know how most tangs have this little horizontal line on their body right before the tail? That is where the prong is protruding from on one side. Is that a normal thing for a tang that is freaking out? Or has he injured himself on something?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[goodfortune]

Hi Kristi:

What you are seeing is the caudal peduncle spine, which Tangs use in fighting for self-defense or over territory. It may be that the Kole has territorial issues with the new Sailfin.

Another note, "Uncle Nick" has decided to appoint hmiself the General Contractor of my tank, and he is busy regrading my sandbed . If anyone would like to have a nice gold-stripe maroon clownfish, let me know .

- Michael

[nos68]

I'd agree with Michael. I have a Kole too and at first, he was never seen and was quite shy. Now, it couldn't be more different. Any fish that I get will get grilled by the Kole for several days. In the best case, he will then leave it alone, worst case, he will harass (maybe more) the fish until it is dead (lost a beautiful Copperband this way).

The Kole is definitely not happy. Isnt' the Sailfin similar to the Kole's body shape? From what I've read, that's risky.

Good luck though, keep us posted. :-)

-Chris

[kpatterson]

They are kind of similar but not the same genus. The kole is not a zebrosoma which are quite intolerant of other zebrosomas.
Thanks for the info guys. I'll keep an eye on him for the next couple of days to see if he calms down. Do you think I should split the seaweed feeding locations for a little while to see if that helps?

[goodfortune]

Kristi:

I think splitting the feeding locations should work; it's certainly worth a try!

I've heard somewhere that territorial issues can be eased if you switch around the live rock in your tank. I'm guessing that the fish use the positions of the rocks sort of like "landmarks," and if you change the aquascaping somewhat, fish that are territoral won't know where "thier" territory is .

...or, if you can/don't want to move the rocks, try moving the feeding clip around the tank.
- Michael

Originally Posted by kpatterson

They are kind of similar but not the same genus. The kole is not a zebrosoma which are quite intolerant of other zebrosomas.
Thanks for the info guys. I'll keep an eye on him for the next couple of days to see if he calms down. Do you think I should split the seaweed feeding locations for a little while to see if that helps?