The River Reef
Non-member
Here is a good read closely related to our discussion:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=238631&hl=lgreen+tang
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=238631&hl=lgreen+tang
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Tang to tank size
- Thread starter johnnyb
- Start date
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
I agree that would be like saying its ok to mistreat a dog bought from a puppy mill but not one from a breeder. Also I got most of my tangs from other hobbiest but my blue hippo in my 54 gallon i got at jays. Jay gets them from a breeder that breeds them in ocean pens. (or at least the last few batches he got came from there). I like strange pets. I have a 250+ gallon ocean. I have a saint bernard and a itailian grey hound my son has 2 sugar gliders. I am in the process of buying an f3 savanah kitten. I spend a ton of money on my animals. I am not fighting for the right to abuse pets. I just feel there isnt enough know about fish in captivity for one person to say what i am doing with my fish is right and what you are doing is wrong. We may all be putting fish in situations that is shortening their life. Everyone agrees we are not extending their life by putting them in tanks right? So instead of blasting some one because they put a 2 inch tang in a 75 gallon tank how about we say "hey when that fish gets to be four inches or so you should upgrade or trade that for another small one before it gets stressed" maybe then people would listen instead of giving you the "I bought it ill kill it if i want"
acrofragger
Non-member
im sorry but anyone who says ill kill it if i want cus i bought it ,doesnt even deserve a piece of my mind .on top of that yes all of them should be left in the ocean ,but that doesnt mean people can start cramming fish into small systems just cus they dont belong there ne ways .
i once stated to you to move your other hippo not sure if you did or didnt ,got ridd of him or not , but you dont fall in this category you had a 180 right next to the fish .im just saying so you dont think im the tang police lol ,and just incase im the reason this thread started
but i ,me and me only feel that tangs in general .............are getting killed by newbs ,the i bought it so its mines ,and numero uno the streeeeeeeeeessssss
and not alot of people are doing anything about it ,except buying more fish sad
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
That article can apply to any fish though. Read it again and insert clown fish where it says tang. I have a 6 inch clarck clown that swims back and forth across my 180 all day long. My tangs look at him like he is tiring them out. I have lost clown fish to ich before and my tangs made it(mistake adding fishfrom before i had my qt) tangs dont grow any faster I have had my tangs grow half an inch in the same time my clown grew 2 inches. aggression? every fish you put in a tank can be agressive. Ever seen a damsel destroy a fish twice its size? No one can have a wrasse according to this outline. If you want to take the max length a fish can reach nobody with under a 1000 gallons should have a tang. Diet? i think there is more than enough supplements out there you can put in a tank to feed. what about manderins? Everone with a manderin should give it up now according to this because you will never have enough food generated in any tank for them. and how do you make an argument that they need room to grow and swim then advocate a shorter tank with more volume? Thats the most ridiculous.
F3 savannah cats are illegal in massachusetts. You need to get an F4
OP
OP
johnnyb
Non-member
I hear ya and im not advocating for them i just dont like the people getting blasted for putting up a picture of a tang. We dont know there futur plans we dont know what they will do as the fish grows. I did move the hippo to the 180 and he was doing great then I bought my new little hippo and put him in the 54.The next day my large blue hippo was on the floor dead behind my tank. I then picked up a blue hippo from a guy on here with a scorpus tang. I put the scorpus in the 180 and the blue hippo in the 180. My purple tang for some reason got ticked and started killing them both. I moved them back to my 54 and they are recovering. I am trying to decide what to do now. I will probably keep the scorpus and the 1 inch hippo in the 54 and give the 4 inch hippo to my son in law for his 180. But i am going to keep them where they are for now as they are healing still. I dont want the stress of another move on them.
I want a big cat, so a F4 will still get very big right? How much are they go for if anyone don't mind I asking.
Now get back to fish, there are ORA mandarin fish that are tank raised and eat frozen.
acrofragger
Non-member
wow i hear ya .......im sorry about that .you really never know whats gonna happen ,as far as tangs they are quite peacefull but then againg they have razors for something right . yellow and the prps have gotta be one of the meanest tooo. as far as this thread though u are right we shouldnt be keeping fish in boxes but if we do choose too ..........................have common sense thats all..... dont go putting naso tangs in 50 gallons and so on
The River Reef
Non-member
Well on the flip side... in the wild there are allot of stresses on small fish that do not exist in most aquariums. So some might argue we are giving a higher quality of life than if left in the wild to be fish food...
Aside from the bashing blabber this has been a great topic... I hope some more chime in and some facts can be found... TOTM
Aside from the bashing blabber this has been a great topic... I hope some more chime in and some facts can be found... TOTM
Matt L.
Non-member
Like being eaten at any given moment.Well on the flip side... in the wild there are allot of stresses on small fish that do not exist in most aquariums... TOTM
But the answer as to what constitutes an adequate tank size for a tang will never be answered IMO,
Matt
acrofragger
Non-member
Like being eaten at any given moment.
But the answer as to what constitutes an adequate tank size for a tang will never be answered IMO,
Matt
hmm no i can answer that ..............about 3000 gallons ,10.000 dollars ,a house oh and a understanding wife ...lol nah i cant get that so my 125 will have to do for now , and i agree great topic
ShadowACE
Non-member
I think the nano craze, however fun and interesting is causing many newbies to start much smaller than they should. Once they start seeing pics and videos of larger tanks it starts the bug going to introduce fish that should only be kept in larger tanks. (Guilty from past years experience 
)
It is not about gallons as much as is about swimming distance/length. If you have every snorkeled and come upon a tang in open water. They are fun to follow around. They are not territorial IMO, unless their environment closes in on them. We all see beautiful pics of shoals of Power Blues and Yellow tangs in Hawaii. We can't see an territorial issues in the shoals, or health related issues. So we can assume that there isn't much or they wouldn't have all stood still for the picture.
I do think long term studies are that crucial for the hobby unless you are a marine biologist. I just live by a guideline of 12x the max potential length of the fish should be available laterally in the tank. If, for example, a Hippo tang can get to be 6 inches long then a minimum length should be 72 inches. Depth is good to consider also that is why I focus on at least 24 inch depth or more.
I have a 90 gallon mixed reef. 4 feet long x 24" tall X18" width.
my occupants include
4 Lyretail Anthias
3 PJ Cardinals.
1 Golden Head Goby
1 Scopas Tang
1 Royal Gamma
2 Black percula clowns
1 Purple Fire fish
1 Scooter blennie.
3 Clams
1 appropriately sized clean up crew.
All living quite happily among my reef structure of;
cabbage leathers,
monitporas,
aroporas,
small acans
zoas,
pulsing zenias
torch,
hammerhead,
duncans
large gorniopora,
Kenyan tree corals,
one large florescent toad stool mushroom.
Some day I will post some pics.
How do I know they are happy?
No stress related diseases like ich.
No Tattered fins from nipping or scrapping
No labored breathing
Not to sound goofy, but they all maintain own fishonalities.
I have been in this hobby for 24 years. and I stick to my guidelines. Maybe senior reef keepers are a good source of information.
There are tangs that I want add, like today I may get a small hippo (1.5"). Not to be a hypocrite I do plan on upgrading to a longer tank (maybe a 180) in the next 5 years and by then he/she will be ready for it.
These are my opinions. As for my guidelines, they are from reading over the years and have no doubt contributed to my long term success in the hobby. If you are concerned about avoiding a habitat that may emulate a prison riot in an over crowded prison block, don't over due it. If you are a person with a dog that is too big to be in the house (So you lock him in a 4x8 kennel out side, all day long. so he can bark for attention. ARGH!) or bird owners of large macaws who buy them on impulse and do not buy cages large enough for them. please consider another hobby.
:w
)It is not about gallons as much as is about swimming distance/length. If you have every snorkeled and come upon a tang in open water. They are fun to follow around. They are not territorial IMO, unless their environment closes in on them. We all see beautiful pics of shoals of Power Blues and Yellow tangs in Hawaii. We can't see an territorial issues in the shoals, or health related issues. So we can assume that there isn't much or they wouldn't have all stood still for the picture.
I do think long term studies are that crucial for the hobby unless you are a marine biologist. I just live by a guideline of 12x the max potential length of the fish should be available laterally in the tank. If, for example, a Hippo tang can get to be 6 inches long then a minimum length should be 72 inches. Depth is good to consider also that is why I focus on at least 24 inch depth or more.
I have a 90 gallon mixed reef. 4 feet long x 24" tall X18" width.
my occupants include
4 Lyretail Anthias
3 PJ Cardinals.
1 Golden Head Goby
1 Scopas Tang
1 Royal Gamma
2 Black percula clowns
1 Purple Fire fish
1 Scooter blennie.
3 Clams
1 appropriately sized clean up crew.
All living quite happily among my reef structure of;
cabbage leathers,
monitporas,
aroporas,
small acans
zoas,
pulsing zenias
torch,
hammerhead,
duncans
large gorniopora,
Kenyan tree corals,
one large florescent toad stool mushroom.
Some day I will post some pics.
How do I know they are happy?
No stress related diseases like ich.
No Tattered fins from nipping or scrapping
No labored breathing
Not to sound goofy, but they all maintain own fishonalities.
I have been in this hobby for 24 years. and I stick to my guidelines. Maybe senior reef keepers are a good source of information.
There are tangs that I want add, like today I may get a small hippo (1.5"). Not to be a hypocrite I do plan on upgrading to a longer tank (maybe a 180) in the next 5 years and by then he/she will be ready for it.
These are my opinions. As for my guidelines, they are from reading over the years and have no doubt contributed to my long term success in the hobby. If you are concerned about avoiding a habitat that may emulate a prison riot in an over crowded prison block, don't over due it. If you are a person with a dog that is too big to be in the house (So you lock him in a 4x8 kennel out side, all day long. so he can bark for attention. ARGH!) or bird owners of large macaws who buy them on impulse and do not buy cages large enough for them. please consider another hobby.
:w
+1, I have a 90g and 75g and was interested in getting a tang for one of my tanks, looks like a good guide line to go by..
Interesting, I will like to know who this breeder is and how he breed them in ocean pens. If that is true, it will be a good step forward to the right direction.
There are "tank raised" hippo tangs. They were caught very young and raised in tank enviroments.
emaz
Non-member
For whatever it is worth, with my short time being in the hobby, about a year now. More times often than not you can talk to one person, than another, and another and guaranteed you will have three different opinions. All in which might not be wrong per se. I think at the end of the day we are trying to create a natural habitat in our house. One person might be more educated than another and have more experience, and you will go to another person's house who follows a totally different ideaology on how to run a reef setup at their house and both tanks will look great. I mean I hate to say this because we are dealing with living creatures, but in reality it is a trial and error process some times. You can do all the research you want and even if you feel you are doing the right thing, in mother nature's eye it could be very wrong.
I want to get a Tang for my tank as well, actually I would like to get two. Some say having two is asking for trouble, while others say if you want two make sure you get them at the same time. If you wish to get a tang go for it, but keep its health in mind, if you see something abnormal take him out and bring him back to the store so that it can thrive and live a healthy life. Also a lot in this hobby is common sense. Read about the fish before you get them to see what their traits are in the wild. Obviously things might be different in your tank, but keep it in consideration as instinct is always there.
I want to get a Tang for my tank as well, actually I would like to get two. Some say having two is asking for trouble, while others say if you want two make sure you get them at the same time. If you wish to get a tang go for it, but keep its health in mind, if you see something abnormal take him out and bring him back to the store so that it can thrive and live a healthy life. Also a lot in this hobby is common sense. Read about the fish before you get them to see what their traits are in the wild. Obviously things might be different in your tank, but keep it in consideration as instinct is always there.
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