Tang police I give in!

[Nyx101]

Allright so it’s a very sad day for me today. I ‘rescued’ two tangs about a month ago from a pet shop I would not recommend. Both were around 3-4 inches & had ripped fins. Yellow tang almost had none left they were kept with a bicolor dottyback in a 20g. I only have a 92g with 32g sump skimmer etc...
Yeah not big enough.
When I got them home about a week later the hippo started showing black then white spots, flashing, the all nine yards so moved the both of them to a 20g of my own (wish I had a bigger HT). and dosed cupramine for 14 days. The spots were still there. I did 3G wc daily and kept copper at 0.5 mg. On day 10 yellow tang died. On the 15th day I decided to tank transfer the hippo so I bought a used 20g in order to start dosing paraguard instead. I’m not too sure what happened but the tang seemed unable to breathe in the new tank which had a hob filter and an airstone+sponge rated for 40g bought on amazon. Salinity 1.025 and dosed tank with bio spira two days prior. So, mea culpa. Won’t try this again. I have 2 btas and a bunch of lps doing pretty well in that system and I’m now going fallow 80 days and feeling defeated. Makes me question the industry altogether. There are so many hippos being fished out and sold in pitiful holding tanks seems hard to believe many buyers would have a 180g + tank lying around. It literally broke my heart to see that poor thing so stressed out and gasping for air. So unless you’re a rich hardcore reefer I say don’t do what I’ve done & stay the heck away from tangs. My 2 cents.

 

[Nyx101]

On a side note; after over a year in this hobby I am still a noob but I consider a nano tank much easier to maintain than a larger size one. I own a 30L IM fusion with 2 os clowns a clown goby and a diamond goby. My weapons of choice: selcon, dragon breath macro, polybio polyfilter and seachem matrix. No skimmer or reactor and it is so relaxing to watch that tank. Just putting it out there in case a newb like myself stumbles on this post.

 

[dylana407]

So you bought 2 tangs in terrible condition, and you put them into you DT without QT? You didn't rescued them, you sign their death sentence, and the sentence of your other fish. I know I'm being harsh, but it is true.

 

[Nyx101]

Tank had no other fish

 

[Nyx101]

So you bought 2 tangs in terrible condition, and you put them into you DT without QT? You didn't rescued them, you sign their death sentence, and the sentence of your other fish. I know I'm being harsh, but it is true.

Tank had no other fish just corals and anemones

 

[dylana407]

Good thing no other casualty.

 

[Nyx101]

The reason I am posting is so other newbs don’t get tempted to buy tangs unless owning a lot of $ and space for a huge tank.

 

[samnaz]

I often see posts about rescuing fish from wherever. But at the end of the day, that store doesn’t care why you bought it, they got your money and to them that says there’s a demand for that fish and their tank conditions and husbandry are acceptable, so they keep on supplying it.

The fish you rescued gets replaced with another. What about that fish?

I know it’s hard to see, but money is money. At the end of the day you’re just keeping a place like that in business.

 

[Salty Lemon]

You did your best. I'm glad you told your story. This is how we all learn. Thank you.

 

[Nyx101]

I often see posts about rescuing fish from wherever. But at the end of the day, that store doesn’t care why you bought it, they got your money and to them that says there’s a demand for that fish and their tank conditions and husbandry are acceptable, so they keep on supplying it.

The fish you rescued gets replaced with another. What about that fish?

I know it’s hard to see, but money is money. At the end of the day you’re just keeping a place like that in business.

You’re right about that but it’s sad to realize of all the places I went to buy coral and fish only one has the decency to properly care for them and it’s pretty far from my place. Still what do such places do with all the tangs that don’t get sold I wonder.

 

[dylana407]

The reason I am posting is so other newbs don’t get tempted to buy tangs unless owning a lot of $ and space for a huge tank.

Nah. Got my yellow from LFS for $35. It's in my 20g peninsula tank. Funny little guy. It always show aggression when I go near the tank. It will attack me every time I go to move a frag.
Have a hippo and a PBT in my 120g DT. All are healthy and plum. I have never QT a fish. Buy healthy fish and provide stress free environment and they will do great. May need to rehome the PBT in 6 months. It's getting big.

 

[Nyx101]

Nah. Got my yellow from LFS for $35. It's in my 20g peninsula tank. Funny little guy. It always show aggression when I go near the tank. It will attack me every time I go to move a frag.
Have a hippo and a PBT in my 120g DT. All are healthy and plum. I have never QT a fish. Buy healthy fish and provide stress free environment and they will do great. May need to rehome the PBT in 6 months. It's getting big.

Yeah no doubt it’s getting big but empathy can be a trap to many sweethearts out there. Obviously not your case. I just know tangs are so attractive to hobbyists of all levels that I shared my experience hoping to help prevent this salty experience from happening to someone else.

 

[Reeferguy365]

Actually even though it's not what you should do you can keep a Tang in a smaller tank as long as it's a smaller tang. I had a small yellow tang that my purple tang tried killing in my 180 gallon so I threw it in my 30 gallon BioCube and that's where it lived for 2 years just fine got fat and healthy before I moved it to a bigger tank. Definitely not what I would advise someone but totally doable. Sorry that it didn't work out for you at least u tried to give them a better home

 

[samnaz]

Yeah no doubt it’s getting big but empathy can be a trap to many sweethearts out there. Obviously not your case. I just know tangs are so attractive to hobbyists of all levels that I shared my experience hoping to help prevent this salty experience from happening to someone else.

if you realize that having empathy for suffering fish traps you into buying them and supporting a place that doesn't provide acceptable conditions or care for their livestock, a place that you wouldn't recommend to anyone, why do you go there at all? what about empathy for the fish that replaced the ones you bought? no doubt they suffered too.

if you really care so much, maybe only go to the one store you think is decent... instead of what's most convenient. I live 15 mins from crappy LFSs, but the only one I go to is an hour away.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

At a lfs nearby. Rocks covered in aiptasia and majanos were up priced. All the fish looked terrible. Half the corals were dead. Never seen a living yellow tang in such bad shape.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Nah. Got my yellow from LFS for $35. It's in my 20g peninsula tank. Funny little guy. It always show aggression when I go near the tank. It will attack me every time I go to move a frag.
Have a hippo and a PBT in my 120g DT. All are healthy and plum. I have never QT a fish. Buy healthy fish and provide stress free environment and they will do great. May need to rehome the PBT in 6 months. It's getting big.

A yellow tang in a 20 gallon is a terrible idea. You don't have to be tang police to realize you are making poor choices. Also you are not providing a stress free environment. The aggression it shows is probably indicative of its unfortunate situation.

 

[PatW]

For a short interval, a small sick tang is fine in a 20 gallon. It will need to be rehomed later. I know a LFS that puts small tangs in small tanks for algae control. The tang stuffs itself and is soon moved out. Long term, tangs do need a long dimension to run in.

 

[Stigigemla]

In my neighborhood there is a tang looking similar.
It was saved by bying a complet tank that wasn´t cared for.
Now it has been looking like that for around 6 years.
Certainly is it possible to save fishes looking like that and they learn that they dont swim as well as the other fishes and how to cope with that.
But only fins can grow out again. When the damage goes further it can heal but not recover.

 

[Mariette]

I’m seeing you get some turbulence for your post and not enough love. What you did was try to help. I get it. But you also supported an industry that does not care for its animals. So they have a point there. But you learned and shared your experience to help ppl in a similar situation make better choices. And learn from your mistakes. If that’s not why we’re all here (to learn from each other), i don’t know what the point of this forum is. So thank you for caring, and thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.

 

[Joseph Honaker]

Glad my 7 are healthy