Opinions on a battleing flame hawkfish and lawnmower blenny

[vdub]

Yesterday I bought a lawnmower blenny to feed on some stray algae that is starting to grow on the live rock. The blenny seemed to be doing well, it has been out quite a bit and I've seen it grazing on the live rock. Recently, I've noticed that the flame hawkfish, which has been in the tank since late-August 2003, and the blenny have been "chasing" and "grabbling" each other and they "perching" within 6 inches of each other and almost eye each other up with cocked heads.

The tank is 44 gallons, pentagon shaped with plenty of retreats within live rock. Other inhabitants are various species of soft coral, blue and red legged hermits, astrea snails, yellow watchman goby, and (2) small (under one inch) false pecula clowns.

Is the flame hawk just getting use to the blenny and I'm being too paraniod? Or do I need to have an intervention? Should I wait a couple days and see what happends? If an intervention is needed, what is the best way to catch the fish?
Thanks, brian

[Soltaker]

I would give them a little time. I recently added a small Anthias to my tank, which already had 2 much larger Anthias. Initially, the male chased the smaller one all over the tank. But it has been almost a week, and they seem to be getting along much better. I hope you have the same luck with your situation.

[civil]

Keep an eye out for signs of stress, and battered fins. Hopefully they will get along. I guess I have not heard of this being a problem.

[vdub]

I hope they're just testing each other, establishing dominance. The feud seems to be the most noticable in the evening before lights out. Other than increased respiration, there are no noticable marks. At least the blenny is the largest fish in the tank and hopefully can hold it's own. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks.

[FastFish720]

Interesting Soltaker. I had 2 anthias and at first the big one kicked the crap out of the little one. Then the little killed the big one.

[Soltaker]

I bought my 2 Anthias about 9 months ago or so from SF. They have always been peaceful with one another with little or no bickering. Occasionally (as in once every other week, if that) I would watch as 1 would kinda chase the other around for a bit. But I never witnessed any nipping at the fins, ect...Maybe they all came from the same batch from the distributor, thus kinda having some sort of familiarity with one another before being brought home I'm not too sure, but I am not going to complain.

As I sit here typing this out, the new Anthias is out and about swimming freely. The other 2 seem rather disinterested.

Works for me.