Mixing Tangs

[Gulrez]

i have several tangs in a 500g aquarium and thought i will post some behaviors that may be of benefit to others who are thinking about adding multiple tangs. bear in mind, tank is almost 12 feet long, so they do have room to swim and many places to hide, which in my view is key to maintaining equilibrium. Equilibrium in the sense that if they get in a fight, they have options to hide and swim away... giving them breathing space. This has been my experience. your's may be different, especially if you have a small tank less than 4 feet long.

format - Fish combination - agressor

Mata tang & Barienne tang.. Mata
Sohal - wants to dominate everyone
Purple tang & Dsejardini - maintain status quo
Achilles & Powder blue - occasional sparring but get along and swim together
Vlamingi & Dussemeri - Vlamingi is very peaceful but once in a while goes nuts. keep in mind Vlamingi is almost a foot vs 7 inch Dussemeri
White tail bristletooth & Barienne - do not get along at all. i think it's more of grazing rights over the rocks.
Blue tang yellow belly - get's along with everyone
Epaulette tang & white cheek tang - occasional sparring but otherwise very peaceful
Mustard tang & others - no challenges
Naso & Blonde Naso - not a good idea. very aggressive to each other.

any other experiences... pls add.

 

[ariellemermaid]

This is great, thanks! Made a thread a while back about tang combos as we plan our 200g but didn’t get a lot of specifics. Only way it seems, is to get experiences of what other people have done and you seem to have a lot of experience mixing tangs!

 

[Squidward]

I think you have the advantage of a huge tank that many aquarists don't have. And that makes the fish less aggressive than they would be in smaller tanks. Do you have pics or videos of your tank and fish? How did you introduce them? One at a time or a few at a time?

 

[Gulrez]

i try to avoid introducing just one tang as the others just gang up. I rearrange a few rocks, put nori sheets and some good food.. and as the gang is distracted, i drop in the tangs. sometimes that works.

 

[Brittanyjo]

I too have a 500 Gallon. Here is my run down. My tangs are small and my tank is new. My tank is 10' X 30"X30"

Purple tang X2: get along with others, but occasionally fight themselves
Powder Blue -Benny: Does great. I had another powder blue (Sam) and Sam was SO MEAN and almost killed Benny. Benny was tired and I easily caught him and put him in a box to relax. I was trying to figure out how to catch Sam and Sam jumped in the box to kill Benny! I let Benny out of the box and got rid of Sam . NEVER GET TWO powder blues.
Hippo tangs X3: They get along great with everyone including themselves. They school together and have no problems with anyone.
Tomini tangs X2: They get along with everyone, but when they were in Quarantine (much smaller tank) they picked on each other.
Yellow tang: He picked on the purple tangs until they fought back. Now he gets along with everyone.

 

[Gulrez]

agree. bad idea to have more than one powder blue. forgot to mention, another bad combo - powder brown and blue.. fight to death.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tangs differ in many tanks. My purple, powder blue and yellows, quite calm as is tomini and gem. Have 18 tangs, there will be fussing now and then, but overall peaceful

 

[Brittanyjo]

Tangs differ in many tanks. My purple, powder blue and yellows, quite calm as is tomini and gem. Have 18 tangs, there will be fussing now and then, but overall peaceful

How big is your tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

How big is your tank?

Which one LOL
That photo was from a 660g. I have a 135g Oceanic and drop off tank now gone