New Fish

gudar · Dec 29, 2008

Hey everyone,
On saterday i bot a Atlantic Blue Tang. he is still a little skiddish but is eating Rod's Food. he is also getting along with my other fish just fine. i was just wondering if there is anything in putticular i should know about tangs.

FirstSalt · Dec 29, 2008

That's a cool looking fish. I don't have any experience with them but I did see this interesting article http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/Surgeonfish/Atlantic-Blue-Tang.php

gudar · Dec 29, 2008

thanks for the article i will reed up on that

jmaneyapanda · Dec 29, 2008

They can get a little "angry" at other fish, but are a good strong acanthurus tang. Is he yellow or blue? The juvies start out all yellow.

gudar · Dec 29, 2008

he is blue with a yellowish tail

ironman · Dec 29, 2008

feed him well, lots of algaes, tangs do best with plenty of room, so avoid a small tank. but in general tangs are a good choice for tanks. once established they are pretty hardy. Atlantic blues arnt the hardiest but can do alright

AlexStinson · Dec 29, 2008

I put it's chances at survival about as high as Andy's chance of having correct spelling.

gudar · Dec 29, 2008

ive been adding formula 2 food a some lettis is that all right or do i need to get a sheet of seaweed. O i put some culurpa in my tank too. the tank is a 65 but has 100 gallons of water volume. do i need a bigger tank or will this sufise

ironman · Dec 29, 2008

you will be fine with the tank, just dont add anymore tangs. Tangs are grazers, they really need to have seaweed left on a clip in the tank daily if possible. the more you can feed seaweed the better there health will be. any caulerpa, or seaweed will help, I use julian sprunds green and red seaweed, plus I buy ORAs gracilaria when ever possible, and add calurpa whenever I can safely find it. I also feed rods reef which has several seaweeds in it. so I try and give a broad diversity.

bamachamp92 · Dec 29, 2008

Hey Alex, how many fish have you killed?

gudar · Dec 29, 2008

i will get some seaweed thanks for that info.

AlexStinson · Dec 29, 2008

tommy - dozen's if you include the little damsels my mantis has over for dinner

gudar · Dec 30, 2008

hes doing good today hes eating and has eaten all of the calurpa. ive treated the tank for ick. i have one question will he eat my corals?

revhtree · Dec 30, 2008

Normally tangs do not eat corals. They have been know to take a liking to corals and nip at times. Others have been known to eat zoas. The general rule is that they are reef safe.

gudar · Dec 30, 2008

k so it should be ok in my reef tank

gudar · Dec 30, 2008

Another question, is it bad that I am quarenteening him in Rid Ick(which is copper based) for three months?

bkv1997 · Dec 31, 2008

I don't think that is an ideal situation. Copper is hard to dose accuretly and requires a copper test kit to do correctly and maintain the correct levels.

I personally believe in feeding well and keeping a low stress environment and let the fish fight off the 1 or 2 spots of ich that might pop up over the years. When I use to try and treat the tank every time I saw an ich spot etc I had found a product called stop-ich which is a pepper based natural product that i liked. Only thing to watch out for here is that it can drop your PH.

Brandon

ironman · Dec 31, 2008

Im similiar to brandon here, Rid Ich to my understanding doesnt have the dosing problems like straight copper, but still the idea of treatment has always seemed to be more stressful than letting the fish fight it himself. I have added some antiparasite meds to a food soak for my new tangs just to boost there imunity so to speak, but I let them in the tank off the bat. its a tough call though, so many people for years have screamed quarantine, but I have never met anyone it really works for.

gudar · Dec 31, 2008

Ok, well i geuse i will stop doesing the tank and just make sure he eats well, and jest keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't get ick. I do prefer to quarenteen just because i alwase have, and it has workerd just fine for me.