2 tangs, advice?

[Rogueaquariums]

Wow that's awesome. I thought hippo tangs are not worth it because of the ich risk? But also my guess is that the tangs body shapes are so different that they didn't feel the need to be aggressive

powder blue & brown tangs as well as the hippos can run the risk of ich, but ich is something which is introduced but that’s another topic for discussion. I think you’d be fine having the purple and Tomini in the 75g for a short time until you put them into the 525XL which is the same tank I had until I upgraded. I actually had 4 tangs in there. (Powder brown, purple, black & a whitetail for 18months with no issues. I think having enough Flow, good rock scape with a lot of hiding places for them as well as a good diet all really factors in. Good luck with them

 

[Zbutcher]

powder blue & brown tangs as well as the hippos can run the risk of ich, but ich is something which is introduced but that’s another topic for discussion. I think you’d be fine having the purple and Tomini in the 75g for a short time until you put them into the 525XL which is the same tank I had until I upgraded. I actually had 4 tangs in there. (Powder brown, purple, black & a whitetail for 18months with no issues. I think having enough Flow, good rock scape with a lot of hiding places for them as well as a good diet all really factors in. Good luck with them

Thanks my friend. Much appreciated. At max I would only do 3 of all different genus and they would all be introduced at the same time as juveniles about an inch for all of them and being fed lots of shrimp soaked in garlic and selcon and lots of Nori. I need to pick up flakes and honestly none of my fish eat pellets anymore so I've given up on that lol.

And tbh I'm going to have a pretty small stocking list.
Assuming I do the 3 tangs, I'll have
1 bristletooth
1purple tang
1 acanthurus was thinking maybe lemon tang
2 clowns
1 baby mandarin I think he is only 1.5 inch
1 cleaner wrasse
1 lawnmower blenny
1 Springer damsel

That's it. All in a 5 foot 110

I don't think I'd trade any of my previous. Fish because the damsel is in love with my mandarin, he always snuggles up to him when he sees him, I've seen fish fight but it's not that he doesn't even touch him, he just slowly swims up beside him and scoots with him for like 10 seconds then goes on about his business it's quite funny.

 

[KrisReef]

I like the lights out game plan. That sounds like it can work to get the school sorted out and swimming peacefully.
As far as adding fish, I added mine one at a time without QT, which meant that the pecking order had to be established three times. I added the fish to feed the coral. I selected from the available tangs that came along that were healthy in the store except for the Tomini. That fish came from another reefer who had homed it for awhile but it was fighting (losing) and was missing a few chunks of fins and showing some light bacterial issues as a result. (IE, he was a sick rescue). I tossed them all in the DT as they came and used the hand technique to halt tank mate aggression. I feed heavy when I introduce a new fish and then feed lightly once they all settle in. I do use the hand to feed the fish and to discourage the fish from fighting until they learn to be kind. If you let them run amok one of them will run the tank besides you. That's nature.

I know it sounds crazy, but did you ever hear a dog whistle?
A week of hand is generally 3 or 4 days more than the fishes need! I expect the lights-out conditioning might work as quickly(?) but that method allows one of the fish to be at the top of the tank pecking order. I like all of my fish to be in the beta position at most and to stay in that spot as they grow. It also helps reduce accidents and aggressive attacks if I have to put my hand in the tank during cleaning or other random chores.

Oh, and about which species of tank is the most aggressive? They are individuals. Some will be jerks and the rest are probably total jerks, or can be. In a related story, I observed an individual butterfly fish that dominated a tank of triggerfish. I believe that individual fish could have been possessed by the devil? I did not use the hand on that fish, only a long handle net. True story!

 

[Zbutcher]

I like the lights out game plan. That sounds like it can work to get the school sorted out and swimming peacefully.
As far as adding fish, I added mine one at a time without QT, which meant that the pecking order had to be established three times. I added the fish to feed the coral. I selected from the available tangs that came along that were healthy in the store except for the Tomini. That fish came from another reefer who had homed it for awhile but it was fighting (losing) and was missing a few chunks of fins and showing some light bacterial issues as a result. (IE, he was a sick rescue). I tossed them all in the DT as they came and used the hand technique to halt tank mate aggression. I feed heavy when I introduce a new fish and then feed lightly once they all settle in. I do use the hand to feed the fish and to discourage the fish from fighting until they learn to be kind. If you let them run amok one of them will run the tank besides you. That's nature.

I know it sounds crazy, but did you ever hear a dog whistle?
A week of hand is generally 3 or 4 days more than the fishes need! I expect the lights-out conditioning might work as quickly(?) but that method allows one of the fish to be at the top of the tank pecking order. I like all of my fish to be in the beta position at most and to stay in that spot as they grow. It also helps reduce accidents and aggressive attacks if I have to put my hand in the tank during cleaning or other random chores.

Oh, and about which species of tank is the most aggressive? They are individuals. Some will be jerks and the rest are probably total jerks, or can be. In a related story, I observed an individual butterfly fish that dominated a tank of triggerfish. I believe that individual fish could have been possessed by the devil? I did not use the hand on that fish, only a long handle net. True story!

Really and you had no issues with parasites running amok?

lol alright I'll try the hand technique

Yeah I know what you mean... I do have a tomini and he is a bit of a jerk and all he does is pick on the lawnmower blenny. So I've decided to rehome to my LFS. I think they are a few factors. One of which I think is a lack of rock work. I do have 40ish pounds of liferock in there but I scaped it in a way that the rock is straight down the middle and no tucked away back corners in the dark and that probably raised stress levels. So that's my screw up. The tang is also about 4 inches so I imagine he came in with a bit of a chip on the shoulder.

 

[KrisReef]

If you already have a Tommy tang, why not "hand" that fish when you add another one or two with your currently healthy fish?

The way I see this, it that your current tank is perfect and the naughty fish needs to adapt. Seriously, why risk adding a new fish when you have a healthy fish in your system? I
would advocate that, if you can, you might wait to find a tang (or 2) that another reefer is rehoming and see if you can find already tank acclimated adoptees so that the fish are tank proven before you dump them in.

This is probably not going to work if you are looking to acquire small tangs. Those you will probably have to purchase, but something to consider.

Disease is another issue. I prefer to pick my own fish from the store. I have more than a few decades of experience that guides these purchases. I cannot recommend that others try this method because fish do die and I do not want to be blamed for that. So yeah, I dump fish and I'm probably a bad person for that?

If a fish isn't healthy enough to "dump" I don't think it will survive in a QT. Please take this opinion for what it is and follow or ignore it at your own risk. Sick fish spread disease to weak fish, so you also need to confidently know the health security of your home tank whenever you are considering adding new fish. I will not buy or dump or adopt even a *free-$5000 price tag fish* if that fish appears to have the plague. My ability or skill level to heal the infirm is not as good as some of the fish husbandry experts who argue for Observation & QT on this site. They can bring fish through. I cannot.

*For the record, I have never been offered a free $5K sick-fish. I might bend my dump rules if that would ever happen? Still, how would I explain this failure to my wife if her tang died as a result of my error in judgement? Good night!

 

[Zbutcher]

If you already have a Tommy tang, why not "hand" that fish when you add another one or two with your currently healthy fish?

The way I see this, it that your current tank is perfect and the naughty fish needs to adapt. Seriously, why risk adding a new fish when you have a healthy fish in your system? I
would advocate that, if you can, you might wait to find a tang (or 2) that another reefer is rehoming and see if you can find already tank acclimated adoptees so that the fish are tank proven before you dump them in.

This is probably not going to work if you are looking to acquire small tangs. Those you will probably have to purchase, but something to consider.

Disease is another issue. I prefer to pick my own fish from the store. I have more than a few decades of experience that guides these purchases. I cannot recommend that others try this method because fish do die and I do not want to be blamed for that. So yeah, I dump fish and I'm probably a bad person for that?

If a fish isn't healthy enough to "dump" I don't think it will survive in a QT. Please take this opinion for what it is and follow or ignore it at your own risk. Sick fish spread disease to weak fish, so you also need to confidently know the health security of your home tank whenever you are considering adding new fish. I will not buy or dump or adopt even a *free-$5000 price tag fish* if that fish appears to have the plague. My ability or skill level to heal the infirm is not as good as some of the fish husbandry experts who argue for Observation & QT on this site. They can bring fish through. I cannot.

*For the record, I have never been offered a free $5K sick-fish. I might bend my dump rules if that would ever happen? Still, how would I explain this failure to my wife if her tang died as a result of my error in judgement? Good night!

Hahahha I never thought about that good point!!!

Hahahha I understand and thank you for that point.

 

[najer]

I am currently introducing 2 scopas tangs to a tank with 2 established scopas tangs (don't try this at home kids) and so far so good, I do fins and tail checks a few times a day.
Due to the design of my tank I can isolate fish easily if there are aggression issues, there has been nothing except posturing so far.
Today is day 7 and the 2 smaller new scopas' are in the smaller end of the tank but the boss scopas does go to see them but won't let them into the display end, hopefully that is just a question of time.
Good luck with the ones you try.

 

[KRas1014]

Wow that's awesome. I thought hippo tangs are not worth it because of the ich risk? But also my guess is that the tangs body shapes are so different that they didn't feel the need to be aggressive

Well that is true, the Hippo tangs are very susceptible to ich and I did have some ich briefly show up in my tank. The only ones that showed signs of the ich were the hippo, royal gramma, and very slightly on my coral beauty angel. However, all symptoms cleared up rather quickly and I haven't seen any signs of ich in over 3 months.

I am sure its still present in the tank, but I just am doing my best at managing it and I am a firm believer that the combination of a powerful UV at a low flow rate, along with feeding good variations of food with Selcon and garlic power have helped boost their immune system and keep all the fish fat and healthy. At least it seems to be working for me anyway.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Issues with ich are self-inflicted. Do a proper QT, or purchase properly QT’d fish. If you don’t QT for ich then you will eventually get velvet and wipe out all your fish. Most new posts on this forum are “ help, everything died “. Not a big fan of treating these animals as cut flowers.

 

[Zbutcher]

Issues with ich are self-inflicted. Do a proper QT, or purchase properly QT’d fish. If you don’t QT for ich then you will eventually get velvet and wipe out all your fish. Most new posts on this forum are “ help, everything died “. Not a big fan of treating these animals as cut flowers.

True essentially what I was planning on doing is using my old tank and keeping it set up and just leaving it as a quarantine system. But it's 75 gallons so I'm probably going to need more copper power because I only have the small 4oz hahahahaha

However since it's going to be a brand new tank with brand new rock etc I don't think I need to quarantine that long. Like 10 days or whatever?

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Follow the protocols in the stickies; @Jay Hemdal advocates 30 days. I have used the Hummblefish/Hotrocks protocol.
Using a 75g allows room for a PVC reef which the fish accept.

 

[Zbutcher]

Follow the protocols in the stickies; @Jay Hemdal advocates 30 days. I have used the Hummblefish/Hotrocks protocol.
Using a 75g allows room for a PVC reef which the fish accept.

Sounds good thx buddy

 

[Flame2hawk]

I am not ther tang police, but do have allot of tangs in a 625g. Prior to that I had 6’ tanks as always thought that was the minimum for tangs except maybe the smaller kind ie: Tomini Or kole. Certainly 3 tangs would be questionable. Perhaps 1 of either of these would be good. Then of course there are other fish like smaller or dwarf angels that can really add color to the tank. If you do down the path of getting the small purple and lets say a Tomini, you might want to go with a blue spotted fox face, smaller of the species also. Even though not the trio of tangs, it would likely serve the same outcome of dividing the aggression. Good luck.

 

[OrionN]

Short time in a small tank to be upgrade tend to not happen a lot of time. In a 75 gal, I only recommend a single smaller tang. There are always time to buy another tang at a later time when the larger tank is in place.
I have a 320 gal and just have three tangs, a Powder blue, Purple and Yellow. I don't even have a Foxface.

 

[Zbutcher]

Short time in a small tank to be upgrade tend to not happen a lot of time. In a 75 gal, I only recommend a single smaller tang. There are always time to buy another tang at a later time when the larger tank is in place.
I have a 320 gal and just have three tangs, a Powder blue, Purple and Yellow. I don't even have a Foxface.

Sorry I should clarify the 75g would be for quarantine.

 

[OrionN]

Sorry I should clarify the 75g would be for quarantine.

So basically you looking to stock tangs for a 130 gal tank. The only bristle tooth tangs you should not keep on there is a Chevron tang. They get huge quickly. Other Bristle tooth tangs are fine along with the Purple. You can even add one more Smaller size tang in it if you want. I always have Yellow together with Purple, even in a 90 gal tank many years ago. Now I keep three systems 40 gal, 65 gal and 320 along with a lighted sump (top down tank of 100 gal)
Other than 30 years ago, always have option to move fish to larger tank. While I keep fish long term in 40, 65 or 100 gal tanks, I always have option to move them to a 320 or 420 gal tanks.

 

[OrionN]

all my fish when add to DT have been acclimated for captivity. They are all eating captive food well and all are gaining weight. I often do this in one of my smaller system or the sump. I don’t empirically treat for diseases. Most of my fishes get to the DT without treatment b me.
I always feed heavy. When adding tangs or other fish that may get bully, I always tape a large mirror on the fro t of the tank. This way the aggressive tangs /fishes are occupied while the new fish gets established.

 

[Zbutcher]

all my fish when add to DT have been acclimated for captivity. They are all eating captive food well and all are gaining weight. I often do this in one of my smaller system or the sump. I don’t empirically treat for diseases. Most of my fishes get to the DT without treatment b me.
I always feed heavy. When adding tangs or other fish that may get bully, I always tape a large mirror on the fro t of the tank. This way the aggressive tangs /fishes are occupied while the new fish gets established.

Why do you always keep a yellow with a purple? Won't they fight since they are the same genus? The tank they would be in is a 5 foot 110 gallon tank. It is a red sea reefer 525