Devil Kole Tang?

Has anybody ever had any issues with their Kole Tang-mainly aggressiveness?

bought a small Kole and Juvy Car Blue tang from Live Aquaria maybe 3 weeks ago. They were best buddies, QT'ed together and no issues in 125g DT.

There was an issue with QT so i moved them into DT and the little Yellow (yellow in juvy state-actually car blue tang) tang got a mild case of ICK.

Ok no big deal, boosted water with multi vit, vit c and food with garlic and other vit's to help their immune system.

about a week goes by and ICK seems to be almost gone. I come home today and he is beat to all hell hiding in a rock. ***... he looked very bad. tried to feed him away from others and he came out of the rock a bit only to see my Kole charge him and start nipping back to back at him. He wouldn't leave him alone. *** Mr. Kole tang-i got you b/c your supposed to be peaceful...

so my question-fish are fish i get it, i might have a bad seed BUT...

could the Kole of saw that the yellow/blue tang was sick and started to pick on him for that reason? I'm not overcrowded, plenty of swiming space, good water para, good diet/food, etc... no clue why overnight the Kole decided it was time to kill off the smaller Juvy when they had been best buds up until...

thoughts?

 

how close in size were they? IME, yes they can be agressive but not as bad as a Sohal or a Clown. while being different kinds of tangs, they do have a simliar shape.

 

The Juvy Blue was much smaller, maybe half the size of the Kole.

So then i have to ask, what other tangs would be "ok" with the Kole? it seems that everything i read requires 150g or larger other than the same family of the Kole, even the Car Blue tang i got was 125 minimum and people still gave me a hard time about it.

Any suggestions on another tang or 2? I would love a purple but know they can get aggressive and would be a similar body shape to the Kole.

 

I have a blue like yours it was also 7yellow. it has grown up considerably and is truly blue now. I have him in my 180. Very active fish and needs alot of swimmin room. I have also had a kole in the past. you may have one that is just a PITA. truthfully, I dont see why it would be that agressive unless it is a large one in the tank and has been established for a good while. you may have to resort to removing the Kole to let the blue get established. Catching may be difficult, but it can be done with a fish trap or a barbless hook and some shrimp.

 

had one do the same,,,,every new fish he would nip and chase relentlessly, soo took him back and exchanged for another one,,,new one is perfect. So yes you can get one that can be agressive even if species is supposed to be peaceful. Doesnt matter.

 

I have a powder blue tang that can be pretty aggressive towards new fish. so what i do is place a large net in the corner of the tank (handle up). Every time, my new fish has discovered that this is a sanctuary where the powder blue won't venture (my fish tend to be wary of any new man-made item in the tank). The new fish can hide there in plain sight and venture out on its leisure. This seems to allow the fish time to acclimate without being bullied and allows the powder blue to get used to seeing the fish. After a few days, the fish has always been accepted by the others including the pbt and i can remove the net. i can't guarantee success but it has worked every time for me.

 

Say, funny you mentioned that I got a malanarus wrasse ans my 6line was hell bent on killing it. I put the trusty fish trap in and the new wrasse hung out in there for a few days. It would swim in and out to eat and the 6line never went to that end of the tank.

 

the first time i tried that trick was when I added my melanarus. that was the first time i got a look at how vicious that pbt could be. he fights with the desjardini all the time but he would have killed that wrasse if i wouldn't have interfered. The weird thing is that it is only towards new fish. other than the other tang, he completely ignores everyone else once they are established. and if the wrasse gets spooked and hits the sand for a couple of days, watch out. that pbt treats him like a new fish again and i have to stick in the net.