Types of tangs

[EchoTheOrca20]

I wondering how many tangs are. I know there are hybrids and variants such as barcode gem tang vs regular gem tang. More specifically I want to know their names

 

[Zionas]

Zebrasoma (the “sailfin” tangs)- Yellow Tang, Purple Tang, Scopas Tang, Pacific Sailfin Tang, Red Sea (Desjardini) Sailfin Tang, Gem Tang, Black Longnose Tang (generally accepted as the best Tang for a first-time Tang keeper, Yellow / Scopas / Purple are the best, Sailfin an option if your tank 7 foot or longer, Gem Tang and Black Longnose are more rare, Gem can be very expensive, 4 foot tank okay for a Yellow or Scopas, but 5 foot and above is better)

Ctehenocalus (the “Bristletooth” tangs)- Kole Yellow Eye, White Tail Bristletooth, Square Tail Bristletooth, Flame Fin Tomini, Chevron Tang etc. (these are the smallest genus of Tangs, 4 foot tank enough for one of the 6”-7” species)

Acanthurus tangs (avoid, avoid unless very, very experienced and nearly impeccable with quarantine procedures)- Achilles Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Powder Brown Tang, Convict Tang, Mimic Lemonpeel Tang, Blue Caribbean Tang, Lieutenant Tang (could be my rank if I joined the military because Tang is my last name-Chinese), Orange Shoulder Tang, Clown Tang etc.

Paracanthurus tangs (Regal Blue Tang / “Dory” is the only species)- again, avoid unless you have 7 foot or larger tank and nearly impeccable with quarantine procedures


Naso tangs- Naso Tang, Blonde Naso etc. (the largest Tangs, 8 foot or longer tank preferred)



If you are a beginner, an easier alternative to tangs would be Foxfaces, genus Siganus and Lo. If your tank is below 5-6 foot, or just at 5 foot, I would suggest One Spot Foxface because it is the smallest of the Foxfaces. However 4 foot tank is the minimum for any Foxface IMO.

 

[Hemmdog]

Zebrasoma (the “sailfin” tangs)- Yellow Tang, Purple Tang, Scopas Tang, Pacific Sailfin Tang, Red Sea (Desjardini) Sailfin Tang, Gem Tang, Black Longnose Tang (generally accepted as the best Tang for a first-time Tang keeper, Yellow / Scopas / Purple are the best, Sailfin an option if your tank 7 foot or longer, Gem Tang and Black Longnose are more rare, Gem can be very expensive, 4 foot tank okay for a Yellow or Scopas, but 5 foot and above is better)

Ctehenocalus (the “Bristletooth” tangs)- Kole Yellow Eye, White Tail Bristletooth, Square Tail Bristletooth, Flame Fin Tomini, Chevron Tang etc. (these are the smallest genus of Tangs, 4 foot tank enough for one of the 6”-7” species)

Acanthurus tangs (avoid, avoid unless very, very experienced and nearly impeccable with quarantine procedures)- Achilles Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Powder Brown Tang, Convict Tang, Mimic Lemonpeel Tang, Blue Caribbean Tang, Lieutenant Tang (could be my rank if I joined the military because Tang is my last name-Chinese), Orange Shoulder Tang, Clown Tang etc.

Paracanthurus tangs (Regal Blue Tang / “Dory” is the only species)- again, avoid unless you have 7 foot or larger tank and nearly impeccable with quarantine procedures


Naso tangs- Naso Tang, Blonde Naso etc. (the largest Tangs, 8 foot or longer tank preferred)



If you are a beginner, an easier alternative to tangs would be Foxfaces, genus Siganus and Lo. If your tank is below 5-6 foot, or just at 5 foot, I would suggest One Spot Foxface because it is the smallest of the Foxfaces. However 4 foot tank is the minimum for any Foxface IMO.

+1

 

[Zionas]

Foxfaces have that slime coat which makes them much more resistant to many bacterial and parasitic infections. Their slime coats are some of the thickest among all saltwater aquarium fish.

Tangs OTOH are a big more fragile though genus Zebrasoma are the hardiest among them. Should be fine if you wait until your tank has more algae from matured live rock, but many people put a Foxface as among their first fish. Tangs in general can be more belligerent than Foxfaces, so you’d want to add them later anyway.

For both Tangs and Foxfaces I would highly suggest incorporating a strong herbivorous component to their diet as they’re herbivores. Nori sheets, Hikari brand Marine Algae, Algae Wafers, Seaweed Extreme, Julian Sprung’s Sea Veggies, and maybe even fresh or frozen seaweed from the supermarket are all good. Also, Formula-2 flakes and pellets from Ocean Nutrition are good.

Also doesn’t hurt to give them some protein from time to time. Frozen mysis and brine cubes, krill, Formula-1 flakes and pellets from ON, Prime Reef Flakes from ON, fresh or frozen seafood. Personally I also plan on getting bloodworm cubes (Frozen) and caviar, some plankton and other small creatures in frozen cubes on top of their herbivorous and dry protein diet.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Solid tang advice. I love my tangs!!

 

[Timfish]

Irregardless the size of tank a tang is housed in you always need to be ready to rehome it if you see steriotypy behaviour and are unable to correct it. How well a tang acclimates can depend on it's individual personality so even housing it in an arbitrarily determined size tank doesn't insure it will adjust. Other factors will be other tank mates, maturity level of said fish, feeding regimes and activity level outside the tank.

An example of outside activity and feeding is with a Sailfin Tang one of my clients named Elvis and can be seen here. Besides the longer time it took for him to acclimate (see post #13) he also developed stereotypy behaviour he ddin't have in the 90 gallon. After the initial acclimation period he started swimming to repeadedly to each end, make a 180 at teh surface then return to the other end. After discussing it with my clients it the change in his feeding regime was suspected and we added an autofeeder to add food 8 times a day. Fortunately that corrected his behaviour and within a week he stopped doing his laps incessantly.