I ended up getting a female Lubbocks wrasse to keep my male one company thinking he would be happy. He took a few dives and nips towards her and now he has her stuck up in the top corner of the tank. Any time she tries to come down in to the tank he chases her back up in the corner. For a little while the poor thing was hiding behind the over flow box in the little crack between it and the tank. Will he eventually stop or do I try to separate them? Does anyone have any advice or thoughts on what to do? :-("
One trick that sometimes works is to turn out the lights, then rearrange some of the rockwork. The idea is the PMs fish doesn’t realize he’s in his old tank and thinks he’s the new one which reduces the territotality issues.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Many times you’ll find you can’t keep 2 of the same species unless you add them at the same time.
I’ve had luck using the mirror trick. Place a mirror against a side of the tank, the fish would probably rather chase the “other male” out of his territory then the female. Just be careful the fish doesn’t hurt himself attacking the glass. This also works when catching a fish, use a trap with the mirror at one end instead of food. As a last resort, you will have to catch the male and let the female get some territory established, then reintroduce the male, still nothing is a guarantee.
I have in the past had the same issue. I caught the male and put him in a “time out” tank, in my case the sump. The next day I caught the male again and re-released him in the display tank. They got along fine after that.
All of the above is good advice. Also, if possible- you can leave the lights off for a day or two- won’t hurt your corals, and try to feed a couple of extra times. The extra feedings give the aggressor something else to worry about.
Cheers!
Joe
Much of the above advice seems to be general advice to fish aggression, but there is a unique set of circumstances here. Some fish are promiscuous spawners, some fish mate for life as a pair, and some fish will form harems. It is important to know before introducing multiple fish of the same species which the case is for the species your working with. Even when fish do form true mated pairs for life often they won’t just take any old mate and are a bit fussy. Breeders will put two fish in tanks side by side(or even in the same tank with a divider) to see if the fish seem to like each other or show aggression before introducing them together.
I found this stated on a very unscientific site:
"But the Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse fish has to be introduced to the tank simultaneously, to avoid any territorial dispute. It is advisable to have single male fish with two or three female Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse fish in an aquarium. "
http://www.eastcoastaquaculture.com/shopexd.asp?id=29174
I often look at fishbase.org to find info on certain species of fish to find out about mating, but there wasn’t too much info when I looked up the Lubbocks.(Cirrhilabrus lubbocki, Lubbock's wrasse : aquarium)
If aggression remains too long you may want to separate them. I assume you have a tight fitting lid? These fish often jump and with significant aggression they are even more likely to do so.
The updated situation is: At first the male acted reealllllly aggressive towards her and kept nipping at her and chasing her up into the corner and not letting her down into the tank. She took to hiding behind the overflow box in the tank. The only time she comes down into the tank is when I turn the lights out at night and he goes into his cave home, then she’ll come down and sleep in the rock work. Now that its been 3 days, he doesn’t really nip at her a lot anymore, but he still circles all around her and when she goes to eat and he’s around, he’ll cut her off and eat what she’s going after first as if he’s saying “Everything is mine first!.” He’s making it very clear that this is HIS tank. He does let her eat though. She is eating good. She still doesn’t come down into the rock work except at night, but she has been swimming around over top of it a little bit. The male still chases her up to the top in the corner though when he sees her and sometimes she still goes behind the overflow. I’m hoping the situation gets better with a little more time because it has improved a little bit. I tried to get them as close together as I could. I had the lights all off late at night and rearranged a bunch of the rock work because I had just bought new rock and corals. She went in the next morning about 11 a.m. I would have put him in the quarantine tank for a few days and then brought him back over after she was adjusted but I have a sick Chromis over there right now so I’m kind of limited in my options for now.
It may just work out then. You may want to consider looking into getting additional females as well. Research a bit more first, but I have a feeling this may help things. Often it is the case that the dominant animal in a harem needs to enforce his or her dominance to keep it’s spot(some animals it’s a dominant female, sometimes it’s a dominant male) When a species often has multiple subordinates, but is limited to one in captivity the one gets picked on a bit too much for comfort. I’m certainly no fish love doctor so I can’t say for sure what’s going on, but just a thought.
Hope it works out well for you, please keep us updated.