Tang hierarchy

[Coralsdaily]

I have jus transfered and combined my collection of tangs all into the 550G tank.

I was hoping the added space and rock work would reshuffle the power rank. Alas this is my preliminary finding:
Ranking from top to bottom:
1. Purple tang
2. Blue tang
3. Tomini tang
4. Orange shoulder tang (actually the largest fish in the tank)
5. Gem tang (almost same size as purple, took two days for the purple to really beat him up and now is complete subject to the purple)

Interstingly, my blonde naso tang seems to be in a class of its own it is neither dominant over, nor subjec to any of the ranked tangs.
Also interesting, I have 3 captive bred yellow tangs ranging 2-4”, none of them is a part of the overall tang ranking system but they had small ranking pushes among themselves.

what are your tangs’ power ranking? Love to learn any useful findings from everyone

 

[Drich5150]

Our naso is the queen of the tank. Keeps our brown in check and our yellow eye in check. She rules the tank

 

[i cant think]

My siganus magnificus is the peacekeeper but my Ctenochaetus binotatus really tests that sometimes.

 

[rhostam]

My tangs don’t appear to have a pecking order. They all either do their own thing. Or they explore and swim together. They’re well fed and don’t ever fight.

I have a camera that I watch through out the day and have never observed them to squabble directly or remotely (yet). They are all less than about 4”.

• Wobble wink the White trail bristletooth
• Gloria the Hippo tang
• Fin the Yellow tang
• Daffy aka “Lips” the Naso tang

 

[Coralsdaily]

My tangs don’t appear to have a pecking order. They all either do their own thing. Or they explore and swim together. They’re well fed and don’t ever fight.

I have a camera that I watch through out the day and have never observed them to squabble directly or remotely (yet). They are all less than about 4”.

• Wobble wink the White trail bristletooth
• Gloria the Hippo tang
• Fin the Yellow tang
• Daffy aka “Lips” the Naso tang

This is week one of me mixing all tangs together so I did expect a bit of a territorial gang fight. My hope is that once they have established the order they’d settle down. But I also plan on making some more additions, potentially magnificent foxface and a larger angel to reset things a bit so that the purple tang doesn’t get too comfortable being the boss

 

[Matt1997]

my tank I would say

sailfin
Purple
Achilles
Powder brown
Gem
Yellow eye kole

 

[Coralsdaily]

my tank I would say

sailfin
Purple
Achilles
Powder brown
Gem
Yellow eye kole

Do you find the ranking has anything to do with size, or mostly just personality?

 

[rhostam]

This is week one of me mixing all tangs together so I did expect a bit of a territorial gang fight. My hope is that once they have established the order they’d settle down. But I also plan on making some more additions, potentially magnificent foxface and a larger angel to reset things a bit so that the purple tang doesn’t get too comfortable being the boss

One thing they definitely love are is hiding spots. If they have a place to dart to when startled or bullied, they seem a lot happier. I don’t see bullying, but sometimes visitors startle them. I think the next biggest thing is making sure they are well fed.

My whitetail tang doesn’t hide much. But he got sick and just couldn’t or didn’t care to (?) compete for food. He is always rasping stuff. Anywhere but where there is GHA. LOL. But he was looking frumpy. Someone was harassing him because I could see the fin damage.

I didn’t want to panic and stress him out with chasing down remedies. All I did was rearrange some rock work. Ticked off the clowns in the process and now he has a spot to park which is something he hasn’t done before. I also feed manually some algae wafers daily. He has thickened up quite a bit since, his fins are restored, and he has sloughed of what ever was ailing his rear and. He now actively swings along side the other tangs.

We call him Wobblewink.

Good luck! We are so fortunate to be able to include these beautiful creatures in our family.

 

[Coralsdaily]

One thing they definitely love are is hiding spots. If they have a place to dart to when startled or bullied, they seem a lot happier. I don’t see bullying, but sometimes visitors startle them. I think the next biggest thing is making sure they are well fed.

My whitetail tang doesn’t hide much. But he got sick and just couldn’t or didn’t care to (?) compete for food. He is always rasping stuff. Anywhere but where there is GHA. LOL. But he was looking frumpy. Someone was harassing him because I could see the fin damage.

I didn’t want to panic and stress him out with chasing down remedies. All I did was rearrange some rock work. Ticked off the clowns in the process and now he has a spot to park which is something he hasn’t done before. I also feed manually some algae wafers daily. He has thickened up quite a bit since, his fins are restored, and he has sloughed of what ever was ailing his rear and. He now actively swings along side the other tangs.

We call him Wobblewink.

Good luck! We are so fortunate to be able to include these beautiful creatures in our family.

My purple tang and gem tang went battle royale one night and the next morning come feeding time I don’t see neither out I got worried. I actually have so many hiding soaces I was shining flashlight down every crack. Finally found the purple totally fine but must have been exhausted. The gem tang was laying in its side. I was convinced I’d be pulling a dead body that night. The next day both tangs came out of hiding (with torn up fins) and act like nothing had happened…

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have jus transfered and combined my collection of tangs all into the 550G tank.

I was hoping the added space and rock work would reshuffle the power rank. Alas this is my preliminary finding:
Ranking from top to bottom:
1. Purple tang
2. Blue tang
3. Tomini tang
4. Orange shoulder tang (actually the largest fish in the tank)
5. Gem tang (almost same size as purple, took two days for the purple to really beat him up and now is complete subject to the purple)

Interstingly, my blonde naso tang seems to be in a class of its own it is neither dominant over, nor subjec to any of the ranked tangs.
Also interesting, I have 3 captive bred yellow tangs ranging 2-4”, none of them is a part of the overall tang ranking system but they had small ranking pushes among themselves.

what are your tangs’ power ranking? Love to learn any useful findings from everyone

In my 660g, Vlamingi at 15" was ruler of the tank. I currently have 18 tangs who get along well. Of course a squabble here and there but no actual fighting or torn fins. My Naso at 8"+ very docile and the powder blue, the tank jerk.

 

[ReluctantIM]

My Purple Tang is the punching bag in the tank. He's well below my sailfin Tang, yellow Kole eye Tang, the magnificent fox face, and the timor Wrasse. The sailfin has taken two chunks out of his rear fins.

 

[JumboShrimp]

OP, when you get a chance, can you have the Orange Shoulder pose for his own portrait photo? Gorgeous fish! ;Joyful

 

[bnord]

So have reasonable balance right now with the tangs, the prince vlamingi was re-homed from the 180 due to size and too many bruises leaving now dominant purple, young blue and growing CB yellow and all seems peaceful.
Question to the group - have purchased my first Copper band - it was in a LFS for 3 weeks and eating the whole time, is 3 days in my home QT and waiting to be added - so has anyone seen tang on CBB aggression?
thanks

 

[punchy7080]

I have a huge Achilles, purple, powder blue, powder brown, blue, sohal and naso. All the naso’s I’ve ever had have been completely docile. All my tangs get along fairly well but will flare fins and do some circles from time to time. Most of the time they swim in a pack together. No real pecking order that I’ve noticed with the powder blue, powder brown, purple and sohal being equally dominant.

 

[McPuff]

I agree with what was stated above regarding the Naso... mine also seems like Switzerland. Nobody messes with her and she doesn't mess with anybody else. This was true even when she was the smallest tang... and now she's just about the largest. The lieutenant tang got a bit more aggressive as he got bigger... he's a beefcake now at ~8" long and over 1" thick. He will occasionally give chase to the pyroferus tang (probably the least aggressive) tang but it's all for show. The scopas tang was a very aggressive tang when it was the same size as the other tangs. They have since outpaced him so he is pretty cool now. I've got a two spot bristletooth tang that will be added once he puts on a little more size so I'm eager to see how it will slot in. Only concerned with the scopas at this point.

Naso - N/A just feed me
lieutenant - occasional dominant show
scopas - will probably chase newcomer
pyroferus - beautiful and not aggressive
two spot bristletooth - wildcard, lives with humu and assassi triggers...

 

[saltyhog]

My pecking order is seemingly based on size and order of addition.

Gold Rim.....about 5 years
Yellow..........2 year
Lavender.....1 year

The Lavender was really small when added and was pretty much ignored until he grew to about 3.5 ".

 

[MiniCoco]

My tangs don’t appear to have a pecking order. They all either do their own thing. Or they explore and swim together. They’re well fed and don’t ever fight.

I have a camera that I watch through out the day and have never observed them to squabble directly or remotely (yet). They are all less than about 4”.

• Wobble wink the White trail bristletooth
• Gloria the Hippo tang
• Fin the Yellow tang
• Daffy aka “Lips” the Naso tang

I like how you have names for all your Tangs!

 

[Coralsdaily]

OP, when you get a chance, can you have the Orange Shoulder pose for his own portrait photo? Gorgeous fish! ;Joyful

I will try, he’s so fast! Also he’s a weird color right now. Was all matured and grey when I bought him but has reverted to yellow ever since he subcomb to purple tang’s reign. I am hoping the extra room will boost his confidence and turn back grey

 

[Coralsdaily]

So have reasonable balance right now with the tangs, the prince vlamingi was re-homed from the 180 due to size and too many bruises leaving now dominant purple, young blue and growing CB yellow and all seems peaceful.
Question to the group - have purchased my first Copper band - it was in a LFS for 3 weeks and eating the whole time, is 3 days in my home QT and waiting to be added - so has anyone seen tang on CBB aggression?
thanks

Last time I added a cbb to a tank full of tangs there were no trouble. That said every case is different. Make sure tou get the cbb fat and confident before you add it to the mix

 

[Coralsdaily]

I have a huge Achilles, purple, powder blue, powder brown, blue, sohal and naso. All the naso’s I’ve ever had have been completely docile. All my tangs get along fairly well but will flare fins and do some circles from time to time. Most of the time they swim in a pack together. No real pecking order that I’ve noticed with the powder blue, powder brown, purple and sohal being equally dominant.

I would have imagined the sohal would own everyone!