That many Yellow Tangs is rarely a good idea. They, and many (if not most) other fish in the wild school not out of willingness but as a survival mechanism, basically safety in numbers. With the limited space of captivity, even in Andrew Sandler’s 17k gallon tank, upon closer inspection you will see a lot of damage from infighting. I would assume it’s the same in the wild if you observe closely enough over a period of time.
Another example would be Cardinalfish which are often viewed as a schooling fish. Your common Bangaii and Pajamas are exclusively monogamous as adults and form breeding pairs, the rest are singled out and ignored if lucky, or killed if not. In the wild you see a lot of Bangaii Cardinals take shelter in the spines of urchins but that is only to ensure their survival as juveniles or young fish, as they get older they find partners and pair off.
Genicanthus are basically an obligatory “keep in pairs” fish, for me at least. The sexual dimorphism is just too neat to pass on. Even the relatively plain (but still subtly elegant) Lamarck’s look better when in a pair, IMO. A pair of Lamarck’s, Spotbreast, Bellus, or Watanabei, maybe even a trio, would be fine. You can also mix Genicanthus species, usually (or at least what I have heard) one turns into a dominant male and the others remain female.
I love Angels so no tank should be without them for me. I would say you can choose from quite a few of the medium to larger Angels in your tank. Depending on your budget, Majestic and Goldflake are now fairly regularly offered as captive bred. Poma Labs might also have stuff you’re interested in, if a Conspic is out of your budget, wait around for something like one of their captive bred Blue Line Angels, beautiful fish. Regal Angels are a possibility, get a captive bred if you can, although that doesn’t seem to remove the difficulty entirely. I would feel comfortable putting an Emperor in your 96” x 30” footprint, there’s captive bred ones nowadays but do keep in mind they are on the dominant side for large angels.
You have plenty of choices for a tank this size, it comes down to what you want and what difficulty of fish you are willing to consider. Also, you could do a pair or trio of a Centropyge species of your choice IMO. Pyramid Butterflies, you can mix the Yellow and Black ones.
If you want more Tangs, you have Zebrasoma (Yellow), Paracanthurus (Blue), and Naso. If you want to go down the Tang route, I would add a Bristletooth (Ctenochaetus) and a smaller or medium-sized Acanthurus species (not a Sohal or any of the ones that get huge). You could also consider the Siganus Rabbitfish, with the smallest of them being the Foxfaces (formerly their own genus Lo).
And then there’s Wrasses, and basically any smaller fish would be fine in your system. I am not a Wrasse expert so I’ll leave it to
@i cant think @Tamberav @OrionN
