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Aggression among fish, particularly marine species, tangs, is a problem that plagues both beginning and advanced aquarists. For example, you buy a new fish and add it to your apparently peaceful community tank and suddenly violence erupts. Long-term residents react aggressively toward a newly introduced fish, causing acclimation difficulties. This can lead to stress, disease and often the subsequent death of the new addition. The purpose of this article is to examine reef fish aggression and suggest techniques that will allow us to reduce conflict in our saltwater aquariums.

In order to understand, and ultimately curb, aggression in reef fish, it is helpful to examine the behavior of these animals in their natural environment. Aggression is "expensive." It requires energy, takes time and makes the aggressor more vulnerable to predators. Therefore, aggression must serve a purpose or natural selection would have done away with it long ago. In the highly diverse reef environment, there are limited resources that many fish must defend to ensure their survival. Reef fish defend food, shelter, mates and offspring from competitors and predators. Many damselfishes, for example, behave aggressively toward members of their own species or other species that feed on algae, the damsel's primary source of food. These damselfishes defend a specific area, known as a territory, from food competitors. One study conducted on the white-tail damselfish (Pomacentrus flavicauda) showed that it attacked 38 different species of fish representing 12 different families (Low, R. M., Ecology 52:648-654).

Anemone fishes defend their place of shelter — their anemone — against competitors, as well as anemone-eating fish. After millions of years of genetic programming, it should not be surprising that these fish do not abandon these behaviors when removed from the reef and placed in a home aquarium.

So, reef fish aggression does serve a purpose in the wild, but how do we squelch this undesirable behavior in the aquarium? There are numerous variables that will determine whether a fish will behave in an aggressive manner. The aquarist can control or manipulate some of these factors to facilitate the maintenance of peace in an aquarium. Let's look at some of these "aggressivity" factors in detail.

One variable, the species of an aggressor, is a factor that most aquarists are very familiar with. Certain species of fish are more prone to being aggressive than others. For example, members of the angelfish genus Holacanthus are often belligerent in a home aquarium. There are, however, always exceptions to the rule within a species, and making generalizations can be dangerous, especially if conclusions are based on the observation of only a few individuals.

Prior residence in probably the most important factor influencing aggression in the home aquarium. Even an apparently docile species can become extremely agitated when a new fish is introduced into a tank in which it has been a long-term resident. Because it is always unwise to introduce all of your marine aquarium inhabitants to a tank within a short period of time, problems of this sort of often inevitable.

The lack of space and shelter will increase aggression. As competition increases, so does aggression. Therefore, if space and shelter are limited, behavioral problems usually occur. Most reef fish use a large area of a reef for their daily activities.

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