HELP harlequin tuskfish bullying all tank mates

[donnieb07]

I just added my harlequin tuskfish to my new tank, 150 gal. Stock is royal gramma, 2 clownfish, threadfin butterfly fish, blotched foxface, fire fish goby. During non feeding ours he seems to leave everyone alone, but I absolutely can not feed any of my other tank mates. He will push everyone else out of the way and nip at them, he even comes up and chews on the dropper when I try and spot feed him. I also can not have any seaweed on a clip for more than 2 minutes for my foxface because he just absolutely destroys it. Any tips? Donate to lfs? Will this go away since he’s new in the tank? TIA

 

[KrisReef]

He is hungry. Try dropping a frozen cube of plankton and when he swims away with it in his mouth then feed the other fishes. He will settle down once he is fed properly. Right now he is hungry and going to eat everything until he feels safe

 

[OrionN]

Keep him well fed. Feed him chunks of seafood until he does not eat any more then broadcast food for other fish. I hand feed my Tusk all the time. Lots of food and he grew really fast.

 

[KrisReef]

Keep him well fed. Feed him chunks of seafood until he does not eat any more then broadcast food for other fish. I hand feed my Tusk all the time. Lots of food and he grew really fast.

How do you hand feed and not get nipped by the blue teeth?
I use a cup and my fishes will charge into it sometimes. I often get splashed when they panicking

 

[OrionN]

I drop it into the water in front of him. He knows when I go up to the tank, he is going to get his food, so he just awaits the food with great anticipation. Very smart fish. I think if I spend some time, I can train him to do trick for food.

 

[JC1977]

It’s surprising to read this because mine has been super shy and such a push over! He does get a little aggressive at feeding but I’ve never seen him go after fish only food. I agree with the comments above throw a larger chunk of food in and let him grab it and that should preoccupy him long enough to feed the other tank mates. Hope he works out for you it’s one of my favorites and wouldn’t run a FOWLR without one.

 

[donnieb07]

It’s surprising to read this because mine has been super shy and such a push over! He does get a little aggressive at feeding but I’ve never seen him go after fish only food. I agree with the comments above throw a larger chunk of food in and let him grab it and that should preoccupy him long enough to feed the other tank mates. Hope he works out for you it’s one of my favorites and wouldn’t run a FOWLR without one.

Well he didn’t he had ich and went back to the pet store my fault for not qt but have lost most of my fish lol