120 planning for tangs

[kmellon]

Hi everyone. I know that several of you have been successful with keeping different types of tangs in your tanks and now i'm looking to plan this out as well.
I will be running a 120 and I would like to have several tangs in he tank and I am looking for your experiences. I can use LiveAquaria and similar sites to determine things like minimum tank size and max size of the fish, but I know that blue tangs have been kept in less that 180s before.

I plan to order them all as small as possible and introduce them to the tank together after qt in a 29 and some time after my 120 has cycled.

Let me know your thoughts.​

 

[ReefCheif]

All depends on the fish. I have 6 tangs that live peacefully together, yellow, LT, clown, kole, sailfin and hippo, all in a 180.

I had to try 3 different clown tangs before I found one that wasnt a butthole, but other than that the others got along from the start.

 

[andynco]

120 planning for tangs

I have had a powder blue and a hippo in a 90 for a while.
Just prepared to upgrade or take them out and your good.
which tangs are you looking at?

 

[daverf]

I've done hippo and yellow tangs, never together, but personally think my 200G is too small for any large (hippo) as it is only 5' long. There is enough collective experience on keeping tangs to support the 6' tank minimum rule of thumb for the bigger ones, and that there is a good chance of trouble or disease if it isn't followed. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions, but personally I would stick with that rule of thumb if it were my tank and stocking plan. I had a hippo that terrorized a tank full of predators twice its size (puffer, harlequin tusk, trigger, etc)...even when fed algae (which reduces tang aggression).

I would also be ready to pull any fish you put in. I guess that's a rule of thumb that applies to any stocking, tang or otherwise...except that tangs are a little harder to catch once they're in!

Have you looked at the Ctenochaetus / Bristletooth tangs? They are very eye catching and active, and don't get as big.

 

[jda123]

Most tangs are rent-a-tang in a 120G, but if you get into it with the fish's best interest in mind and are willing to pass them on to a good home (even if it means giving them away for free), then I think that you can still responsibly own one for a while. I am going to leave tangs like valmings/unicorn out of this since very few could ever have room for them and you cannot usually give those away when they start to grow.

Most of the Bristletooths (as mentioned above) purple and mimic tangs can probably live their whole lives in a 120G.

Tangs (and most fish) are kind of like the idiots on Big Brother. If you meet all of their needs with food and good environment quality, they will generally get along (not always). If you starve them, or poke-the-fire, then they will act like asses. Tangs need a lot of food and even though they are mostly reef safe (not completely), they aren't really reef friendly when they get big because you need to feed them a lot. If you have them in a FOWLR with high nitrate and phosphate levels, they can start to get HLLE and get mad. Hippos need vitamin E, so you might have to supplement. If you use a good pellet, like New Life Spectrum, then you have a good chance of raising some nice fish. I used to feed mine NLS Pellets, Formula 2 Pellets, Nori and Mysis/Octopus/Squid. Tangs are omnivores, not herbivores.

I have had hand-me-down tangs that ate coral, so they aren't completely reef safe. I had a purple that ate zoas, salifin that ate a guy's prized acans, yellows that ate zoas and leathers and a sohal that got a taste for rose 'nems. Not sure if the sohal actually ate the roses, but it did enough damage to kill some of them before the guy caught it. Except for the purple, the other tangs were pretty good sized, like 6+ inches and probably not being fed enough anymore. You should be feeding enough that they are growing.

While you QT these fish, get them eating out of a fish trap - take the door off, and put the food in it every day and have them go in to eat. Get them eating pellets too. This can really make it easier later. Remember that hypo will not get rid of all disease, so plan your QT regimen accordingly.

 

[FinsUp]

I've got a powder brown, Desjardini, and kole in a 180 and they're happy. I had those 3 kinds (same Desjardini and kole, different powder brown) in my 125 (6') for probably a year and they got along great most of the time. Only one that was a butt was the Desjardini, but I wasn't feeding much nori at the time, either. Now that I'm feeding nori and they're in the 180, everyone gets along pretty well. That, and the new powder brown seems to be putting the Desjardini in his place, so he's behaving better. I'm pondering adding another few fish, since there's so much room in there. I added a blonde naso, but he didn't make it. With all the stress on the tangs in the tank switch and the intro of the powder brown, they got ich. That's nearly resolved now. I might try getting another one once things settle down.

 

[ricklee]

Naso, Hippo, Purple and Sailfin all got along great in my 125.

 

[Cake_Boss]

Re: 120 planning for tangs

Vlamingii/sailfin/sohol get along decent in my 250. The Zebrasomas (yellow, scopas, sailfin) picked each other off until the sailfin was left. KIM, they had all previously lived together previous to my purchase of them. I ended up having to trade/give fish away for their safety.

 

[MartinsReef]

Two purples/three yellows/two vlamingis/powder brown/powder blue all in a 300 cube 48"x48"x30" tank. Only the powder picked on each other.