Trading in and trading down....

Kirkfrey · May 8, 2022

I have a 240G and am going to be trading in a few of my tangs that have collectively outgrown the tank for smaller versions. Its taken a few years to get to this point. I will be trading in my purple, blue and maculiceps tangs and getting a small purple, blue and yellow (can't source a maculiceps). I have a couple questions:
1) my plan is to take the existing ones all out at once and put the new ones in all at once. Does this make sense?
2) I have a few other fish that will be staying, will the fact of removing the existing ones and replacing the new ones right away be enough disruption to avoid the new ones being picked on? I have an Emperor Angle and long nose hawk fish which are the ones I am the most worried about. I do have a reasonable size acclimation box I could put the new ones in though it would be a bit tight with 3 fish in it.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

i cant think · May 8, 2022

Kirkfrey said:
I have a 240G and am going to be trading in a few of my tangs that have collectively outgrown the tank for smaller versions. Its taken a few years to get to this point. I will be trading in my purple, blue and maculiceps tangs and getting a small purple, blue and yellow (can't source a maculiceps). I have a couple questions:
1) my plan is to take the existing ones all out at once and put the new ones in all at once. Does this make sense?
2) I have a few other fish that will be staying, will the fact of removing the existing ones and replacing the new ones right away be enough disruption to avoid the new ones being picked on? I have an Emperor Angle and long nose hawk fish which are the ones I am the most worried about. I do have a reasonable size acclimation box I could put the new ones in though it would be a bit tight with 3 fish in it.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I don’t think it should be an issue, the issue will come with 2 zebrasomas and same body shapes. You got away with the maculiceps and I assume powder blue due to different colours and body shapes. The purple and yellow will most likely fight eachother constantly due to the same body shape but also if I remember correctly they’re extremely close in relation to eachother. IMHO it would be best if you went for a seperate tang or add a third zebrasoma so that it’s not 1v1 and becomes 1v2 and disperses aggression.