powder blue and powder brown

[Mark3]

can I add a powder blue into tank with a powder brown already living there? ...or will the brown kill the blue?

 

[saltyhog]

What size is your tank? How many and what other tangs do you have?

Regardless of the answers to those questions I would never try that. Two of the most aggressive tangs in the same tank is not likely to end well.

@4FordFamily is our resident tang guy, let's see what he says.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Powder Blues are notoriously aggressive, what size tank? How big are the Tangs? Are they similar in size?

 

[4FordFamily]

If you added more similar acanthurus tangs concurrently it may work but this is a recipe for disaster.

What size is the display tank?

 

[Mark3]

Thanks for the replies....I guess I will pass on the Blue ...they are about the same size, body about the size of palm of my hand, what's that? about 5 or 6 inch fish? ...Tank 125gal with about that same size of yellow tang, blue hippo tang, fox face and a pair of clowns....
The new blue would be low man on the totum pole. ....maybe a school of 10 or 12 blue/green chromis would be better?

My tank needs a makeover, open to sugestions....thanks

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Thanks for the replies....I guess I will pass on the Blue ...they are about the same size, body about the size of palm of my hand, what's that? about 5 or 6 inch fish? ...Tank 125gal with about that same size of yellow tang, blue hippo tang, fox face and a pair of clowns....
The new blue would be low man on the totum pole. ....maybe a school of 10 or 12 blue/green chromis would be better?

My tank needs a makeover, open to sugestions....thanks

Do you have any wrasse?

 

[WMR]

Thanks for the replies....I guess I will pass on the Blue ...they are about the same size, body about the size of palm of my hand, what's that? about 5 or 6 inch fish? ...Tank 125gal with about that same size of yellow tang, blue hippo tang, fox face and a pair of clowns....
The new blue would be low man on the totum pole. ....maybe a school of 10 or 12 blue/green chromis would be better?

My tank needs a makeover, open to sugestions....thanks

If you’re looking for a blue schooling fish, try some blue dartfish, you can add a good number of them & they stay out most of the time. The Chromis might do ok in there, what kind of clowns do you have in there? They might beat the Chromis up

 

[Mark3]

I have a pair of common clown, percula I think, ...no wrasses, tank kinda empty. (see photo)

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I have a pair of common clown, percula I think, ...no wrasses, tank kinda empty. (see photo)

Check out leopard, Tamarin, and fairy wrasse.

 

[Mark3]

I changed my mind....just put a deposit on the powder blue tang.....soon to be tankmates with my powder brown....I guess we will see what happens in a couple of weeks.

I bought out a whole tank of fish 19 fish total, my thought is that adding a bunch at one time will soften the blow in the bully dept. .... I think, hope, it will work.

tried to catch a shot of my brown...but he doesn't want to hold still for photos!

 

[Whisperer]

My powder blue and brown just came today and both are released in the tank at the same time. Both are small, 3 inches. Right now, no serious aggression other than occasional bursts of short chase by the brown on the blue. So, Brown is the aggressor at the moment.

 

[Mark3]

the blue I'm getting is a little larger than the brown that I have, so the new guy being bigger might balance the scale?
I think that yours's being released at the same time and being small will make them be good tankmates.

 

[OrionN]

I added a smaller Powder Brown to a tank with establish larger Powder Blue successfully, but my tank was considerably larger (420 gal) than your's.
What I did was to put my Powder Brown in the refugium section of my sump. He was there for several months by himself. He was fat and very much use to and aggressively feed from my nori clip. When I added him to DT, he was driven to the rock by the Powder blue. I have to spend weeks placing one of the nori clip where he is hiding. He eats well even in hiding and did not loose weight. After about 10 day, he was out to swim around with the rest of the tank, no significant injury or weight loss.

 

[Whisperer]

Today, both the blue and the brown try to establish dominance with occasional side by side wiggling and display of their tail spikes. Then each go on picking on algae.

 

[Mark3]

Monday I added 19 new fish to my tank, one of them being a powder blue. ...as expected, my powder brown did not like the new blue in HIS TANK. The other 18 are going completley un noticed by the brown. So on Wednesday, I put a sheet of eggcrate in the middle of the tank to seperate the brown from the blue, ...but it is Friday and the blue still in hiding. Happy to report that all the others are happy and eating well.

 

[David Matthews]

Watch out for a nutrient spike too due to adding so many fish at one time.

 

[Mark3]

Watch out for a nutrient spike too due to adding so many fish at one time.

,
So far, it's good....it's Saturday, not a week yet, going to do a water change today.