So, I realized yesterday that my Hippo Tang, which I believed to be dead for around 3-4 months, has been living in my overflow. I looked in both overflows after she became missing but I never saw her until yesterday when she was swimming near the top. I recovered two anthias from the overflow before by removing the drain and letting them siphon into a bucket nearby, but Dori is too big for that so esentially my question is should i still just pull the drain and net her from the bottom of the overflow? It is kind of difficult to reach down there because the tank itself is rather tall and Im afraid i could injure her in the process. Im also somewhat concerned that my Powder Blue will flip out when she is reintroduced. He has been known to go ape when he sees new fish.

Also the reason I was able to see the fish is because recently something has been causing the water level to rise in my overflow and she was more visible at the top. Is it possible she has been making a mess in there that is cloggin the overflows or do I need to clean my pipes and overflows to make sure nothing is blocking it.....

That's a good question. How big is he?

probably 4.5 inches

My advice would be to move the rocks around as best you can to mix up the tank and plaster pics of tangs. You definitely WOULD want to add a Acanthurus last but I know its not an option for you now.

The hippo was intially added before the Powder Blue, there was only one fish put in after the powder blue, because i knew they are very terrotorial but in this instance its kinda like introducing a new tang since she has been gone so long. But i have heard before putting pictures of tangs on the wall can help so i might try that.

Patrick, I feel your pain!

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20340&highlight=foxface

What we did was to stop up the overflow drain by me holding my hand against the bottom of the drain hose (so as not to create a siphon), then Tyler pulled out the durso pipe and netted him inside the overflow. I was afraid that draining the overflow would cause him to get sucked to the bottom of the tank and possibly get hurt in the siphon/drain.

Good luck.

Man every fish I ever lost in the overflow was screwed beacuse I wouldnt be able to get them so Good Luck and let us know how the expected tang on Tang aggression goes!

I have in the past turned off return pump, and then siphoned the water out of the overflow until the fish has no alternative but end up in my net.

So last night I did a waterchange, and removed the drain from the overflow to catch the hippo tang. It went ok, I was worried that i had hurt her because she did not come out all night. But today, Dori was swimming around the tank and eating so all is well. She is noticeably thinner than she was but has maintained her bright blue color very well which surprises me given how terrible the living conditions are in that overflow with aiptasias everywhere. Another thing that surprised me was not one of my tangs has given her a hard time, even the Powder blue, its almost like they remember her and dont wanna harass her. This is odd because my tangs have always hazed the newcomers pretty badly, but atleast the whole ordeal ended positively for the fish.