Mirror mirror method for aggressive fish

[Sdeluca10]

Has anyone every tried the mirror method on the tank when adding new fish to decrease aggression?
I added a new tang (purple) to my tank today, I already have 3. For a half hour to an hour after I added it, it seemed to be doing just fine. It was right out in front of the tank. It ate with all the other fish. And then bam, my powder brown decided it was time to be a bully. The hippo and the sailfin are fine, so issues. I’ve read multiple people talk about the idea of adding a mirror in the tank .
I guess the idea is that the bully will try to fight its own reflection, to the point where it gets so tired it gives up his “Alpha status”.
Seems plausible. The reviews I read using this method had used a small 5 inch by 5 inch mirror. They state it worked well. I wasn’t able to find a small Mirror, therefore I had to resort using a mirror that I had in my house. It’s about 6-7 inches wide by about 4 feet or so long.
I placed that in the front of the glass and since I did, the powder brown is relentlessly fighting itself.
Idk if the larger mirror is a better idea or a worse idea. Idk if he’s gonna fight his reflection to the death. Idkk….
Anyone have any experience trying this?

 

[Casino]

Doesn't matter the size of the mirror. As long as the aggressive fish is busy fighting itself it will give the new fish time to adjust and find a place for its own. Beware... established powder blue/brown are relentless and sometimes when you remove the mirror after some time they will see the new fish and say... "hey who are you?" and it begins again. Sometimes deporting them to the sump or other tank for sometime is another option. Also rearranging some rockwork... specially the powders area... which could basically be the whole tank as far as its concerned. You did add a purple who is no wimp. Give him some time and he will be ranking up the alpha chain.

 

[Sdeluca10]

The purple is bigger or very close to the same size as the brown. Right now he’s shy’ed off to one corner. It stills eats every time I put food in the tank. It’s still moving around in the size that he’s currently “allowed”. I put the mirror up. I’ll see how it goes in the next day or so and then I’ll probably redo the entire aqua scape

 

[Sdeluca10]

Tried and true, there’s very minimal aggression from any of the fish towards the purple after only a few days. It’s crazy how well it works. I’ll do this any time I add any new fish.

 

[DylanCameron]

Thanks for the update, glad things are going well. How long did you leave the mirror up, and did you end up redoing the aquascape at all?

 

[Sdeluca10]

I left it up for an over 3 days. I did redo MOST of the aqua scape. I monitored for a while when I removed the mirror and when I did I noticed so aggression however I noticed that the purple tang gained alot of confidence and now the aggression is mutual and their are working themselves out.