New fish, time, lots of questions, mostly about tangs

[Legonch]

Im going to add some new fish soon, and have a few questions.

Here is my setup to get that out of the way. 75 gallon tank, with 15 gallon sump. Established since last October. All parameters stable. Stocked with two small clowns, a coral beauty, watchman goby, starry blenny, two chromis, blood shrimp, a few snails, and hermit crabs.

I will have my 180 gallon up and running in 3 months. I have a 30 gallon established qt ready for new fish.

Okay, new fish wish list.....one male and two female lyretail anthias. (yes im aware of feeding and restrictions on anthias) One yellow sided wrasse, or melanarus wrasse, not sure yet. Now on to the big questions. I want tangs. I know my 75 isnt big enough for big tangs, but I think would suffice for a couple months for small (1 to 1.5 inch tangs) until my 180 is up. Ive read if you want multiple tangs, best add them all at once. My wish list for tangs is a powder brown, yellow, blue hippo, white cheek, and sailfin. Of all these, the blue hippo would be the first cut.

First, can you have all these tangs together if you add them all at once, in qt and a dt? Secondly, I know my qt is small for this many fish, but how can I add multiple tangs without adding all at once? I do have two seeded sponges ready, along with the qt being established, and have live bacteria, etc. Fish would be in qt for 40 days total. Yes I expect lots of water changes. Yes I monitor all the parameters constantly.

Last question. This is for further down the road when the 180 is running. Can you add other new non tang fish after tangs have been established in a tank? Will there be any territory issues? I.E. adding different wrasse, blennys, blue chromis, an angel, etc.

Im sure I left out info you guys may need to answer these questions, but im running on 3 hrs sleep.

So, thank you in advance, and thank you for your help!

 

[damontoy]

Just make sure you have plenty of hiding places for them. Tangs love to hide between rocks.

 

[Fitz19d]

Tangs last if possible after all other fish if possible. A few of those I think are ones that would push the 180. (Longer/wider vs a tall would make a big difference, need swim room even if fish itself fairly small.)

I think if they are not adults, no biggie in the 75 IFFFFF the 180 is a sure deal etc. Or just be open to if the 180 falls apart realizing you have to catch the bastards and ideally rehome as they start to grow.

I'm a sucker for sailfins, but I think some of the others like white tail bristletooth and the other smaller types would work well.

 

[Legonch]

This 180 is the longer version, not the deep version. Id love a powder blue, but what ive read makes them sound like monsters, haha.

After tangs are established in a tank, can you add any other fish that are non tangs?

 

[Haddonisreef]

Pbt are not that bad I have 4 tangs in my 180 w pbt the last one added, I keep them fat and happy w no issues.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I still don't know how you QT all those tangs at once? I think Jeremiah had a few 40b gallon tanks for sale pretty inexpensively, maybe you should buy 2 more 40's and put 1 tang in each?

http://www.marinecolorado.org/forum...le-trade-or-want-to-buy/656720-6-40b-for-sale

If he still has the 2 scratched ones for $20ea that's a cheap solution to an overcrowded QT solution?

 

[jda123]

Add them when you can find healthy specimens. Health before species, IMO. Don't overthink this too much. Healthy, eating pellets and not scared of humans is a good start.

Tangs are not as hard as everybody makes them out to be. Give them enough room and food and they are quite easy fish. Most people don't give them enough room. Nearly everybody that has an aggressive tang does not feed them enough - they need to eat enough to grow more than 1 inch a year. Diet of 50% New Life Spectrum pellets is a good place to start. Mysis, Formula 2 pellets and the occasional nori can fill out the diet. Also, don't be that guy who thinks that tangs are herbivores - they are omnivores and they need the vitamins the meat to not get HLLE. They will eat the green, but they are not herbivores - they will suffer and die with only a green diet.

I have had lyretails for many years (the same ones). Once established, they can eat once or twice a day with a high quality pellet. I have a ehiem autofeeder that gets them 3x a day and then I put in some frozen about five times a week. 3+ years on my Lyretails and Bartlets.

I have also not had problems with PBT tangs, but I do feed them. I have had angelfish that are WAY more aggressive than tangs, but they get quite a bit larger also.

 

[Legonch]

Thank you for all the good info.

JDA, as far as anthias go......what is your preference, lyretails or bartlets? Im a total newb at anthias. Awesome looking fish though.

Chris, that is my reason for wanting small tangs. Ive got a 30 and a 20 that are established. Figured I could split the load between the two tanks. Any bigger tangs than that, well that may be quite difficult. Maybe I just wait for my 180 to be up and running, and turn my 75 into a qt tank??? =)

Jda where are you located? Im in Berthoud, how far away are ya?

 

[SynDen]

Add them when you can find healthy specimens. Health before species, IMO. Don't overthink this too much. Healthy, eating pellets and not scared of humans is a good start.

Tangs are not as hard as everybody makes them out to be. Give them enough room and food and they are quite easy fish. Most people don't give them enough room. Nearly everybody that has an aggressive tang does not feed them enough - they need to eat enough to grow more than 1 inch a year. Diet of 50% New Life Spectrum pellets is a good place to start. Mysis, Formula 2 pellets and the occasional nori can fill out the diet. Also, don't be that guy who thinks that tangs are herbivores - they are omnivores and they need the vitamins the meat to not get HLLE. They will eat the green, but they are not herbivores - they will suffer and die with only a green diet.

I have had lyretails for many years (the same ones). Once established, they can eat once or twice a day with a high quality pellet. I have a ehiem autofeeder that gets them 3x a day and then I put in some frozen about five times a week. 3+ years on my Lyretails and Bartlets.

I have also not had problems with PBT tangs, but I do feed them. I have had angelfish that are WAY more aggressive than tangs, but they get quite a bit larger also.

+1 although wish I could get my anthias to eat pellets. Ive tried for a few years now and they always just spit them out. I have had the trio for almost 3 years now in my 75g. I fed them twice a day when I first got them, but now days I feed them once every other day and I have not had any issues with them. They started out as 1 male and 2 females, but they have been 2 males and one female for sometime now, and they still get along fine