new fish being bullied beyond anything I've ever seen

I was just looking into my tank and I caught sight of my new tiger sleeper goby. He came into the tank with a full tail. Now his tail has been nipped half off. The bottom half of his tail is literally gone. Again, there were no problems when he was introduced. It seems to be my Ocellaris that are doing the bullying. Is there anything I can do for him/ should do for him. The lights are going back off now for the night.

 

Anyone? He seems to be in a lot of distress.

 

You can remove either one. Some people rearrange all the rockwork so that everyone has fresh turf to claim, some move out the bully to a QT till the new addition gets situated in a week or two. Or you can let nature take her sometimes destructive course...

 

man that is tough. what can you do really. you would need to catch him(more stress)!! Is there no places where he can hide from them? do you have any type of small plastic breeder containers you might to able to put him in for the night. My daughter has one for her betas that has a cover and sits in her tank to keep her male and female separated

This only makes me think I should find some plexi and cut it so if I ever have a fish issue I could slide it in to partition things off for a day or so.

 

It is a 90 so there are a lot of hiding places. I think I will leave the lights off tomorrow, but beyond that the corals might start to get bothered. I would do some rock work but there is a full reef in there with so many corals that it would be tough. Hopefully he'll dig a burrow overnight. He'd be safe in there from predation.

 

I think that this will all work out once this guy digs out a burrow. I don't understand why he hasn't yet. Maybe he's just looking for an ideal placement.

 

My husband and I had a prob like this b4. Our osciilaris clowns were extremely territorial. They killed fish after fish, by dragging them backwards by their tail until the new fish eventually drowned. The best answer we could get was that they were either laying eggs or they were about to. We decided our best shot was to take them to the LFS and see if they could find a less crowded home. If you have a pair, this could be happening. The other set of advice we got was to never add only one fish at a time. Thos way the new fish wont become a sitting duck. Since we have done this, we have been very successful in keeping a happier tank. Our six line wrasse will always be a bully, but he sure is spunky and fun to watch. We'll keep him for as long as we can. Best of luck.

 

Hey lcp how is your goby today?

 

i've heard that when introducing new fish into a tank with clownfish, to pull the clownfish out and rearrange their area a little bit, then put them back in after the new fish has already been put it.

 

The lights have been off all day. I just got home and I've been gone since 7 in the morning. I flipped on the actinics to have a look around. No sign of the goby. No sign of a new burrow except one small entrance to one under a rock, but I think that belongs to the pistol shrimp. Its not a jawfish style burrow. I'm strongly considering removing my ocellaris and six line. I think this may be my fish telling me that all the territory is taken, and the clowns are so mean I'm not sure if its worth it. I've heard the six line might eventually start eating my shrimp from the LFS, so I'm considering replacing him and the clowns with something else more peaceful.

Gobies can be elusive, so no final verdict yet, but hes not looking good. I'll keep you posted.