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Frag rack fun (1 Viewer)

Ben Nicholls

Ben Nicholls

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So since some of my SPS need fraggin I bought one of those magnetic frag racks from SWE. I attached it to the upper right of my 110g and proceeded to frag and place plug on it.

Well it seems my stupid tangs are thinking the dark object near the surface is a predator. Immediately they both went to the left side of the tank and refuse to leave. I figured they would eventually get use to it, but due to both of them being self confined to a small area of the tank, the normally peaceful lavender tang started beating the hell out of the sailfin. After two days of this I moved the rack to the left side and sure enough they both moved to the right side and kept up the same behaviour.

They would probably get use to it eventually, but I don't want to put the sailfin though any more abuse. I removed the rack and put all the frags down in the sand. The tang behaviour immediately returned to normal with them cruising the full tank. So I guess that rack is out. I might try again with something clear as I think it was the large black object that freaked them out. But the sailfin need to heal up before I try anything else.
 
Wow, interesting. My PB tang has never shown in any interest in my frag rack. I think I have the same one. Bought it at SWE recently.
 
Where did you have your's in the tank. I had it about 4 inches down on the front wall all the way to one side. The tangs were not even coming up to the nori feeding in the middle of the tank with the rack in there.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
Where did you have your's in the tank. I had it about 4 inches down on the front wall all the way to one side. The tangs were not even coming up to the nori feeding in the middle of the tank with the rack in there.
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Hahaha!! That's hilarious!! (Not that the fish were fighting though)
 
You could put it in all the way at the bottom then move it up once they're comfortable. My dog's like that too sometimes, gets scared of hands coming from above. No idea why, he's never got anything other than pets in his pampered lil' life.
 
I agree with wes. Start lower in the tank. If they don't mind then put the corals back on it and slowly move it up over a week or two.
 
No real room to put it significantly lower. There is not enough space between the rock and the front, plus there are corals at the bottom which would be shaded.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
Where did you have your's in the tank. I had it about 4 inches down on the front wall all the way to one side. The tangs were not even coming up to the nori feeding in the middle of the tank with the rack in there.
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Left side about halfway up the tank.
 
Here's what the poor sailfin looks like now. At least there is no more aggression now that the rack is gone. I am hoping the cut heals. I'm not worried too much about the fins as he heals those up quickly. Adding garlic to the food tonight.

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As the lights started going out tonight the aggression started again. The fox face and lavender are both picking on sailfin. Had to shut all the lights off to stop it.

Guess I upset the balance of power in the tank and now they are seeing him as week.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
As the lights started going out tonight the aggression started again. The fox face and lavender are both picking on sailfin. Had to shut all the lights off to stop it.

Guess I upset the balance of power in the tank and now they are seeing him as week.
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Ugh, that's really unfortunate and I feel your pain. My clowns recently decided to kill my bangaii cardinals and I was distraught.

Hopefully this gets taken care of.
 
The fins are mostly healed, but he has a new body cut. The purple tang is making regular runs at the sailfin now. The salifin is mainly keeping itself to a spot above one of the power heads to avoid the attacks.

I've put a second vegi clip all the way on the other side of the tank to try and draw the two attackers back over to that side of the tank.

Odd how little it takes to upset the balance in a tank. Prior to putting in the frag rack the two tangs and the foxface hung out together with only minor posturing. Now even with the rack gone for 3 days I still have all out war. Even the swimming habits of the aggressors have change. They use to browse the entire tank, and now hover mainly near one rock cave.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
Odd how little it takes to upset the balance in a tank.
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Good luck, sir. Those Acanthurus tangs can be a pain.

Things to try:
1. Remove the aggressors to the sump for a while if possible.
2. Put up mirrors on the aggressors' end of the tank to keep them occupied with their reflections. (maybe just temporary fix...)
3. Take out all the rocks and put them back in rearranged to completely disrupt the territories.
4. My personal favorite: Add 5 yellow tangs, keeps the aggressors busy and may get them to give up.....water quality can be a challenge here, but it is awesome if you will do the work!

Even after all that, you may have to make a choice. Sucks. Also, I am sure you are aware, all of those options can stress out the aggressors thus leaving your tank a mess of nervous fish.
 
Update to the story. The sail fin healed up in about a week, but he remained cowering in the corner and would not even come to the feeding station.

I did sell off the fox face to reduce the aggressor count.

It was not until this last week the sail fin finally got brave enough to go out to center tank and eat at the nori feeding station. Yesterday he was finally cruising the entire tank again.

So 2 days of having a frag rack in the tank caused a month of problems in the tank. SWE was also nice enough to exchange the frag rack.
 
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