Tang Growth Rates

[Zionas]

Yeah lol.

Do you think your old Purple, your current one, and these two are pretty much done growing?

 

[ConnorA]

My scopas tang has been a slow grower, Ive fattened him up with nori daily but hes still only grown maybe an inch in 1 year

 

[laverda]

That’s amazing. How big is your Yellow Tang and Rabbitfish? I really hope to have my fish for as long as you do.

The yellow tang is not very big a about 5". My rabbit fish is about 6.5" as best I can measure. Neither stays still to measure. My Scopus is about 4 years in my care and has grown quicker than I expected initially. Growth has slowed and it is now about 4".

 

[laverda]

Thanks and thanks. Appreciate your detailed reply. Sorry to hear that you fell sick. I hope you have made a full recovery and wish you health and safety.

Thank you. That is appreciated. Far from fully recovered due to numerous side effects. However, I am getting better every day now.

 

[jaxteller007]

IME this is all over the board and based on many different variables.

5) Competition - It seems like fish grow to compete with their tankmates for food - if a small tang is with many large tangs it MAY grow faster to be able to compete

I feel like this is the case with our vlaminigi tang. He seemed to grow very quickly up until he got about even with the Lt tang, and now his growth has slowed down. A friend got a vlaminigi shortly after ours but is in a tank with no one significantly larger and has already gotten bigger than ours.

 

[jaxteller007]

Fish age is not closely correlated to size, at least not in captivity. I’ve seen fish grow much larger or stay much smaller, than wild fish of the same age. Even color change from juvenile to adult can happen differently in captivity versus the wild.
One resource I use is www.fishbase.us for fish size. I generally figure that a given fish in captivity will grow about 70% of the maximum size they list .
Jay

Oh yea i wasn't saying that the scientifically they were juveniles based on size, just more like "aww look at the little babies, they are so small and cute" LOL. I'm definitely no where near knowledgeable enough to make any kind of scientific estimate on their ages. Heck, I can't even get a good size estimate cause the little boogers never stay still.

 

[Frogspon]

So if a 12 inch tang needs a 6 foot tank, or 6 inches of tank per 1 inch of fish, then a 6 inch tang would be good in a 4 foot tank for way longer than people lead on.

flame suit on.

 

[Squidward]

2) Dominance within the tank - I notice that less dominant fish tend to grow slower
5) Competition - It seems like fish grow to compete with their tankmates for food - if a small tang is with many large tangs it MAY grow faster to be able to compete

These 2 I totally agree on since I've seen it happen personally.