What tank size is it?
They may fight since they’re in the same genus. White tail can be particularly aggressive within the bristleooth tang family. But as with any mix of fish, each has their own temperament.
This may be a risk
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Hello,
Thanks! To be clear, the PB is already in quarantine (along with the orange shoulder). It's the yellow I'm considering not quarantining, because he's healthy and been in the same system for 2 years. I do have an acclimation box.Hello,
Regarding skipping QT, I highly advise against this. Zebrasoma tangs such as yellows, gems, purples, sailfin, black, etc can be VERY resilient to parasites. If the person did not stringently quarantine, there is a high liklihood that it will bring parasites to your system which will infect everyone. Powder Blue tangs are among the most susceptible and I've not seen many successes with them more than a few months in the absence of proper QT.
Regarding adding them - I would add them together. This increases your chances. Gem can be fiesty, but adding multiples at a time will spread the aggression well. In a large tank with few other fish, the Gem will be accustomed to not needing to share its' space with many direct competitors. This is why it's heckling the foxface a bit. The risk factor in lowly stocked tanks is higher for this reason. Thankfully, Zebrasoma tangs don't seem to "hold grudges" against new additions as long or violently as their acanthurus cousins (particularly powder blue, achilles, powder brown, goldrim, clown tang, and sohal tang - in no particular order). Thus, if the new fish can survive the first couple of days without getting too beat up, things will likely be fine. I would be surprised if the gem would harass a coris wrasse, so I wouldn't worry about that. The coris can hide in the sand to stay safe if things get ugly (and likely will either way when added).
One option is a large acclimation box for adding new fish. This is best used when adding one tang to a tank containing a tang or tangs. Even better would be to add several at a time as mentioned. Adding mirrors on either side of the tank to distract the aggressor can also help.
Though a yellow tang and gem are of the same genus, and thus a bit at risk of clashing harder than the others -- I find that oftentimes zebrasoma co-exist better within their genus than many others. Of course, individual fish have indivudual personalities and thus there are NO guarantees.
Good luck!
Mixing tangs always poise a challenge but is often accomplished. I would be cautious on behavior of powder blue tang and tang introduction. My PBT is my tank jerk but overall is that way first 2-4 days of new intro and settles down a bit
So what you are saying is... throw the bristle tooth white tail and the yellow eye kole in there together and let them figure it out? :0Hello,
Regarding skipping QT, I highly advise against this. Zebrasoma tangs such as yellows, gems, purples, sailfin, black, etc can be VERY resilient to parasites. If the person did not stringently quarantine, there is a high liklihood that it will bring parasites to your system which will infect everyone. Powder Blue tangs are among the most susceptible and I've not seen many successes with them more than a few months in the absence of proper QT.
Regarding adding them - I would add them together. This increases your chances. Gem can be fiesty, but adding multiples at a time will spread the aggression well. In a large tank with few other fish, the Gem will be accustomed to not needing to share its' space with many direct competitors. This is why it's heckling the foxface a bit. The risk factor in lowly stocked tanks is higher for this reason. Thankfully, Zebrasoma tangs don't seem to "hold grudges" against new additions as long or violently as their acanthurus cousins (particularly powder blue, achilles, powder brown, goldrim, clown tang, and sohal tang - in no particular order). Thus, if the new fish can survive the first couple of days without getting too beat up, things will likely be fine. I would be surprised if the gem would harass a coris wrasse, so I wouldn't worry about that. The coris can hide in the sand to stay safe if things get ugly (and likely will either way when added).
One option is a large acclimation box for adding new fish. This is best used when adding one tang to a tank containing a tang or tangs. Even better would be to add several at a time as mentioned. Adding mirrors on either side of the tank to distract the aggressor can also help.
Though a yellow tang and gem are of the same genus, and thus a bit at risk of clashing harder than the others -- I find that oftentimes zebrasoma co-exist better within their genus than many others. Of course, individual fish have indivudual personalities and thus there are NO guarantees.
Good luck!
I would advise against not quarantining the yellow. It would be very easy for him to bring bugs with him that haven’t ever showed symptoms on him.
Haha it’s better than one at a time, at least
Update on this. I moved the 3 tangs (yellow, powder blue, and orange shoulder) from QT to my display tank the other day. I already had a gem tang in the display. I thought the gem and yellow would be the contentious ones, and the yellow would win. This was far from true. The gem remains the boss of the tank. I thought he was smaller than the yellow, but he's actually a fair amount bigger. But he pretty much leaves the yellow tang alone. The fish that he goes after is the orange shoulder. He pesters the OS pretty mercilessly throughout the day. It is what it is, but can anyone explain this? I thought that tangs were supposed to not get along with other tangs in their same genus, but ignore tangs outside their genus.
It may be due to the size difference, usually you want to add tangs from the same genus either as the same size or have one being considerably smaller. This usually knocks one out of the battle.
It’ll be the size of the orange shoulder, the orange shoulder is the tang that will become the peace keeper however as a new introduction the OS is most likely to pose threat to the Gem’s “status” in the reef.
Mixing tangs is always a risk, different genus may reduce risk. I am guessing that this will blow over in time, however.
Haha it’s better than one at a time, at least
