New Tangs ... Opinions Please

[Berggy]

OK, you people know everything ...
I have a 46 bow front reef setup with 2 clowns, yellow tail damsel, royal gramma, pigmy angel all 1.5 - 2" in size +.... shrimp, snails etc etc. leather finger, mushrooms ... the live rock takes up about 1/3 of the tank.

The wife wants a yellow tang .. (who doesn't ) and the kids want a blue tang ( gotta have dory to go with nemo .. you know the drill )

What are your thoughts?

Can I have any tangs? ... just a little one?
Tank too small?
Tank too crowded?
One tang only?
2 tangs fight too much?
Need a bunch of tangs?


Whaddaya' think?
Thanks!

[forenpa1]

by no means an expert, but I believe that blue tangs like tanks 75G and up and yellows like 60G and up. We had a blue in a 72G who looked ok but is now much happier in a 120G.

[Geoff]

i would not recommend getting a tank for any tang that does not have at least 48" of swimming length. they tend to get stressed in tanks where they are not able to swim a lot. in the wild they are large area grazers so they are used to swimming large distances during the day to find food.

are you planning on upgrading to a larger tank in a year or so? if so than you could conceiveably get a small yellow and when it gets bigger, you will have the larger tank setup for it.

G~

[smeese]

I would say for the better of the fish, make another choice till you get a bigger tank.

[Loverotties]

Hay why not get a 125 and have both!

[Berggy]

My LFS guy said to either have only one or have 6 or more ... figuring 2 would fight each other too much and more would school ....

The new tank idea sounds tempting ... I have been reefing for 10 years now and think I know what needs to be done better than before. This tank was originally a fresh water and filter setup and thus has no drilled holes. I skim/siphon over the sides ... never seems to be enough flow even with dual 1.25" piping ... which looks terrible. The sump pump and skimmer makes too much hum noise in the living room, plus the sound of the down flow water.

Algae on the glass is always a problem. I have a solar house facing due south with 400 sq ft of glass on the front. There are no rooms that do not get full sunlight at some point of the day at some point of the year except the bathroom and the furnace/laundry room in the basement.

My biggest space between windows is 39" and that is why I have the 46 bow ... it is only 3' wide. To get a 4' tank anywhere I would have to block a window or go down below it but that would be too low to the floor I think.

What's a reefer to do?

[monkeyreefer]

all depends on animal husbandry, and how long they will live in that small of a tank. if you buy a very samll blue or yellow they will be fine for a while in a 46, but rest assured you will need to upgrade or pass the fish on when it gets big enough. Keep in mind that the territory sizes mentioned by many tang "experts" are for the adult fish, not the juvi. That said, i held 3 tangs in a 90 temporarily til i finished my 300 gal upgrade, mind you i also had a 100 gal rubbermaid sump

[Hardhead Cat]

I agree - tangs are very unhappy in smaller tanks, they get so stressed, it's just not worth it. You could start with small small ones and hope you could upgrade by the time they grow up - - but it seems in my opinion you have a lot of fish for a 46gal already. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

HHC

[zxcv123]

IMO, a Tiny little blue hippo tang (dory) would be all right for a while.. but would need a larger home eventually.

[zxcv123]

ok I take it back- your bio load is high..... adding a big fish like this can cause problems. add something small like a goby or blenny

[Twitterbait]

Definetly upgrade. with your current bio-load look at 100gallon or more. if you get both just make sure you add them at the same time and that they have 6' of swimming length to establish their territory in. I have seen both in a tank with no problems, but they had enough hiding and swimming room. As far as the algae problems... if you work on exporting your nutrients with a bigger skimmer and water changes... the full sunlight should not be a problem. your algae is from dirtier water not the sun. look at a good skimmer.

[garvondavis14]

yeah, i would definitely say no to adding a tang to that tank...a large bio-load already, tangs are definitely needing somehting MUCH bigger...i feel that even the stated minimum of 75 and 60 for the yt's are pushing the limit size-wise...also, there are so many things that prevent you from your tank upgrade taht it's not worth the trouble until you already have a large enough tank set up.

[kevinnq]

I bought a skun cleaner shrimp and introduced to my tank, guess what, my yellow tang chasing the shrimp really bad. later on at nite, my beatiful shrimp died
I guess i cant have any shrimp in there. I have 90 AGA RR with softies and SPS in there. I love to skun clean shrimps!

[Nyles]

Your tank is fine for smaller fish but the environment is not adequate for the tang, as someone said a young fish maybe but you really need to consider an upgrade to at least a 120 gallon. I have 3 tangs but hold them in a much larger tank, if you decide tou want another fish I would go with something smaller, but be careful of the yellow tail damsel he will get aggressive to new introductions 100% for sure.

[robsmith32]

Kevinnq, your issue there, was a yellow tang is going to go after ANYTHING you try to add after it. At least untill the new addition realizes it can fend for itself.... only took about 30 seconds for the rusty angel to turn the yellow away.
IF you put in anything after that yellow, they need to be able to fend it off.