Biota Yellow Tang review

[burningmime]

Maybe we should start learning to breed yellow tangs like we do for corals and sell to fellow hobbyist.

Doesn't it take a lot more tank space than most hobbyists have (in particular, vertical space so they can do their up and down dance)?

 

[threebuoys]

@Biota_Marine

Jake, if you can answer a question, about how long does it take to raise the yellow tang to the size at which you are able to sell?

 

[OrionN]

@Biota_Marine
Are you able to produce defect free yellow tangs?
At this point I don’t think genetic is the cause for any deformities, like the clowns.
I would love to buy tank raised tangs.

 

[TerraFerma]

That's a great business model @Biota_Marine. Nothing like taking advantage of people. Capitalism is one thing but that's a joke

Everyone raised the price of yellow tangs. This is what happens when something becomes scare - simple economics.

If Biota can make a dent in the 300k a year former yellow tang hobby collection - they have their work cut out for them. And that requires capital. We should all be rooting for Biota and 200 bucks for a captive raised fish that you can literally not collect from the ocean is pretty reasonable. And it’s a lot cheaper than what people are charging for the remaining supply of wild collected fish.

 

[TerraFerma]

To be clear, locals don’t spear as many fish as they can, they spear as many fish as they need. Fishing and hunting in Hawaii is done for sustenance.
If you saw our cost of living you’d understand why.
And there is evidence that the West Hawaii fisheries which are teeming with Kole and Yellow Tangs are generally unaffected by aquarium collectors. But that evidence is not solid enough to stand up to court challenges. The law now being enforced does conceptually allow restoration of the commercial aquarium trade but requires an acceptable environmental impact study. I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one. It is a fairly popular view that sending live fish off island is not a good thing no matter the science.
It will be interesting to see if a tourist trade starts up...come to Hawaii, dive with experienced divers, collect your own yellow tang for your personal use. It is a win-win, you get your Tang, we get to rent the dive boat, the guides, the holding tanks until you finish your vacation not to mention all the other revenue from your visit!

That is a very interesting suggestion

 

[Biota_Marine]

@Biota_Marine

Jake, if you can answer a question, about how long does it take to raise the yellow tang to the size at which you are able to sell?

We were previously selling them at around quarter size, still fairly transparent, but fully developed. But we switched to around half dollar sizing at the request of both hobbyists and vendors. This extra sizing adds about 2 weeks of growout time in Hawaii in addition to the time we hold them here in Florida for conditioning. So overall previous sizing was ~75 days post hatch new sizing is roughly 95-100 days post hatch.

 

[Biota_Marine]

@Biota_Marine
Are you able to produce defect free yellow tangs?
At this point I don’t think genetic is the cause for any deformities, like the clowns.
I would love to buy tank raised tangs.

The incredible vast majority of our yellow tangs are defect free and are indistinguishable from their wild counterparts. Any defect we notice at either our Hawaii facility or Florida facility is either culled or used purely to clean up algae in our coral systems.

 

[SMSREEF]

This is my guy from biota that I got about 2 weeks ago. About silver dollar size with the attitude of a foot long tang. I think he is part Chihuahua

I like him A LOT! He is eating macroalgae like a champ and he devours TDO Chromaboost pellets. I do soak the pellets in Kent marine Zeocon and Selcon to help color it up a bit, because he is small and is still a bit transparent.


Posting different angles. There is no color correction or filters being used. I didn’t even clean my glass, lol.

 

[Mjl714]

I've had a captive bred yellow tang in my tank for about three and 1/2 years. It's done very well. I did pay a premium due to the fact it was captive bred being almost double the cost of the captured ones in 2017.

Let’s see a picture of this guy?

 

[Tamberav]

Is the white on them HLLE or something else? because they always seem to have a white face and lateral line.

The incredible vast majority of our yellow tangs are defect free and are indistinguishable from their wild counterparts. Any defect we notice at either our Hawaii facility or Florida facility is either culled or used purely to clean up algae in our coral systems.

 

[Mjl714]

This is my guy from biota that I got about 2 weeks ago. About silver dollar size with the attitude of a foot long tang. I think he is part Chihuahua

I like him A LOT! He is eating macroalgae like a champ and he devours TDO Chromaboost pellets. I do soak the pellets in Kent marine Zeocon and Selcon to help color it up a bit, because he is small and is still a bit transparent.


Posting different angles. There is no color correction or filters being used. I didn’t even clean my glass, lol.

It’s a beauty!

 

[SMSREEF]

Is the white on them HLLE or something else? because they always seem to have a white face and lateral line.

I think it’s just that we can see through the fish when they are young, early on. I could see his stomach when I first got him. This was about 1.5 weeks ago.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

He's awesome!

 

[danoo]

Is the white on them HLLE or something else? because they always seem to have a white face and lateral line.

This photo is from Nov 2019 when I'd had the tangs for about 6 months, but they don't look much different today other than being bigger:

And again, I have 3 of them and they all have the same face, and had it since they were very tiny.

As I said in my previous post I'm very pro-Biota and it doesn't bother me, but I'd be genuinely interested in the claim that the modern version of the tangs are indistinguishable from wild caught.

 

[Mjl714]

This photo is from Nov 2019 when I'd had the tangs for about 6 months, but they don't look much different today other than being bigger:

And again, I have 3 of them and they all have the same face, and had it since they were very tiny.

As I said in my previous post I'm very pro-Biota and it doesn't bother me, but I'd be genuinely interested in the claim that the modern version of the tangs are indistinguishable from wild caught.

Beautiful, looks nice and healthy.

 

[Tamberav]

This photo is from Nov 2019 when I'd had the tangs for about 6 months, but they don't look much different today other than being bigger:

And again, I have 3 of them and they all have the same face, and had it since they were very tiny.

As I said in my previous post I'm very pro-Biota and it doesn't bother me, but I'd be genuinely interested in the claim that the modern version of the tangs are indistinguishable from wild caught.

It seems like me they are missing something from the diet when small? Something seems off because that looks like HLLE and not simply just a transparent part on a fish.

I bought a sailfin so tiny it was partially transparent, even it's head could be seen through, but it had no such erosion. Wild caught ofc.

 

[danoo]

Their diet always has been high quality frozen foot (various LRS "frenzy"s, rod's food, PE mysis) + selcon soaked nori and selcon soaked pellets combined with whatever algaes they pick at in the tank. And they share the tank with a wild caught Kole Tang (my first tang from 5 years ago before I switched to only CB) that has perfect coloration.

So if it is diet, then boy you really gotta work hard to get them up to the perfect coloration!

 

[mwilk19]

Are there any deformities? small pelvic fins?

He has what looks like LL degeneration around the eyes but that's been there since I got him. Otherwise he looks like a wild caught Yellow Tang.

 

[SMSREEF]

It seems like me they are missing something from the diet when small? Something seems off because that looks like HLLE and not simply just a transparent part on a fish.

I bought a sailfin so tiny it was partially transparent, even it's head could be seen through, but it had no such erosion. Wild caught ofc.

Maybe... that is my guess too which is why I added the Zeocon and Selcon to the food. Mine is still really young so I can’t make any assumptions or conclusions but body is yellowing up but face not as much. Maybe it takes longer or maybe permanent.
I still love this tang! And @mwilk19 , if my little guy grows up to look like your guy, I’ll be really happy!

 

[mwilk19]

Maybe... that is my guess too which is why I added the Zeocon and Selcon to the food. Mine is still really young so I can’t make any assumptions or conclusions but body is yellowing up but face not as much. Maybe it takes longer or maybe permanent.
I still love this tang! And @mwilk19 , if my little guy grows up to look like your guy, I’ll be really happy!

The Regal Tang in the picture is also captive bred. He's a pig.