My unfortunate experience with convict tangs: Video

[knightnsd]

My experience was bad for other reasons, after diving Hawaii and grabbing a few fish to ship home for my 300 gallon reef, Hawaiian Airlines would not take them on the plane. This was rather frustrating as TSA had cleared me and the airline had originally said I could take them on as luggage down below when I booked my dive and trip, I had packed them in 2 coolers, triple bagged them with heat warmers, and oxygen. Hawaiian Airlines reversed their statement as we checked our bags. I ended up paying a courtesy checker to return them to the ocean.



The most ironic part was the large woman behind the counter said I should look at them in the ocean and leave them there, and then made a comment that “we eat these,” So a large woman wants to eat a fish that maybe she should not, but I cannot take it home for my tank? I had caught 2 small 1.5 inch convicts I wanted to add to my system, eventually I added a Palani tang instead.

 

[johndawe]

First of all, the Hawaiian Convict Tang is considered a food fish and they have to be 5 inches to catch and you need a fishing license.

I had a Hawaiian Convict Tang for 15 years and it was at least 5 to 10 years old when I received it. In September a old glass heater broke and tripped the circuit and the tank went 18 hours with out circulation. That tank had sand in it and all the fish died. My other tank does not have sand and all the fish survived.

Back to the Convict Tang, toughest fish I ever had, survived everything except the 18 hours of no power to the tank. I do have a whole house generator so this was a real shock to find the power out. This fish was collected at my request n 2000. Shipped to retail store and almost froze during shipment. Survived the glass tank lid breaking and falling into the tank in QT, survived a ick and oodinium that killed everything but the tang and a eel. Survive another stuck heater when the tank went to 95 deg F and the next day it was 65 deg F. The tank was usually below 70 deg F in the winter and low 70's in the summer. Feed mostly flake food and would eat brine and Mysis. The tank usually had green algae all over the glass and the fish was always biting at it. It was a fish only tank with some live rock, sometimes a protein skimmer sometimes not. But it did have lots of strong circulation.

My advice would be to QT and treat the fish for several months and feed it a lot of what ever it wants to eat at first and try to get it to eat a plant based diet. If you follow them on the reef, they pick all day long so feed them all day long. They are very active fish and require lots of food.

I think they are great fish and easy to keep.

 

[knightnsd]

Wasn't the convict tang was just added to the "food list" in Hawaii recently protecting them from catching along with several other fish? One of the local fish stores said there a lot of new species added to the food list and protection measures?

 

[mort]

With these its all about location, tankmates and bacteria for me. The gut bacteria has been mentioned already so I won't go into that, for tank mates I think they need a quiet tank where they are top dog at least to begin with (in your vid they were pecking at the grazer where they should be ripping chunks off and blocking other fish) and I think most die in busy tanks because tangs seem to be addictive and people push the boundaries too much imo. The final point about location is where the fish come in from. From you accent I guess your in England like me and for us you need to track down Fuji convicts. These travel much better and TMC get them from time to time but what you more often see is Bali or Indonesian convicts and I believe this is where much of the heartache stems from. They simply don't have the same level of care in the chain which is also a problem with their butterflies like copperbands and where their reputation comes from, pay the extra and get one of those from Australia and they are much hardier.
I think you were right to de-worm and if you used prazi its the same thing I did with mine. She's the only tang in the tank and fat as mud.

Sorry that should be Fiji not Fuji and to add to it a little, I have strong waterflow in my tank. When I got the convict it was around 60 times turnover per hour and a little while after it settled in I added a maxspect gyre vertically so it blew a sheet of water along the front of the tank (now 100 times+). At times this is mentally strong flow and although the convict can choose to get out of it elsewhere in the tank, it is normally found just gliding around in the flow like its not even there. It has also really fattened up since the pump was added.
When I got the tang it didn't eat for a couple of weeks and like the above poster mentioned I simply feed what I could when it began to peck. I found presentation was the key and foods smeared onto rocks worked well. I don't think it would have stood a chance against other aggressive feeders. So qt without treatment (dip for worms during acclimation) but plenty of live rock would be my advise, then when its feeding if you decide it needs treatment you can do so. Once it was eating it began to take pretty much everything.

 

[Humblefish]

No copper was used with these fish, it's a last resort for me

Being you live in the UK, you should be able to acquire Chloroquine phosphate from any local chemist without a prescription. Accomplishes the same thing as using copper but without all the nasty side effects.

 

[mort]

Being you live in the UK, you should be able to acquire Chloroquine phosphate from any local chemist without a prescription. Accomplishes the same thing as using copper but without all the nasty side effects.

Yep, Chloroquine is easily found over here.