So tell me about Tangs!

[JeF4y]

Having always had a smaller tank, I've never had a tang, but now that I have a 5' tank I'm looking at a few.

Most notably, a Yellow tang and a Powder Blue tang.

Right now all I have in the tank is 1 mature female clown, 1 cardinal, 1 Sunshine chromis, 1 lawnmower blenny and a Mandarin.

While I'll likely pick up another clown & some more cardinals, I'm thinking I might add a tang in about a month. What can you tell me about them from a health/care/aggressiveness perspective? Anything special I should know about these 2 species? Any other species I should be looking at?

My 3 "large" fish for this tank are tentatively a powder blue tang, yellow tang and a harlequin tusk. I'm still not 100% sure though as the PBT and the Tusk seem to have some caveats per what I'm reading, and that's where you might be able to help me fill the gap.

Yes, I have read a good bit about all of these fish, but I'd like to hear from your experiences on what might be good/bad with these guys.

Thanks in advance.

[Seth The Wine Guy]

Do you run a UV? If so, how big?
I have a Yellow and Powder Blue. The PBT was the first in the tank other than a Melanarus Wrasse. I think if it weren't for the fact that I run a massive UV unit, I probably would have lost my PB to ich by now. He's almost in the tank one year now. Definitely runs the whole show. He would get quite agitated with any new fish addition and rather aggressive for a few days. If the fish I was adding was close to his size or one sharing any rival characteristics of the PB he would also get some ich spots from stress. They would quickly clear up and disappear completely within a week. I attribute that to the UV.

I give much credit to the UV because I lost my last PB (and whole tank) to ich before I got a good size/quality UV unit.

In the end, I love my PB but he can be a potential terror. I feed heavy and have allowed him to be the largest fish in the tank. I'm about to find out if he will allow a pair of Swallow Tail Angels in the tank. The female kinda shares some similar characteristics to the PB. The two Angels are in QT for a while longer. (The PB already said no to a Watanabei I tried to add)

[gmpolan]

Agreed with Seth, UV is key with some of the more sensitive fish that typically get ich. Id personally think you'd be fine with adding a PB and small yellow thus allowing the PB the dominant fish in the tank. As far as the tusk, im not quite sure on the approach or order to enter it since my readings tell me they can be aggressive as well. You might have a better chance at a PB, yellow, and another peaceful fish versus the tusk.... just my two cents

[JeF4y]

I don't run a UV and wasn't planning on it.

However, after reading on tangs in general, I'm kind of concerned about the ich issue. Obviously I'd QT the heck out of either of them but I don't know if that would be enough to keep it out of the tank.

The tusks are weird. From what I've read from owners, the majority of them are pretty chill and don't bother anything including corals **IF** they are well fed to begin, before introduction. Not sure. Much more research to do.

[Seth The Wine Guy]

I think it's close to impossible to have an ich free tank for a hobbyist. You may be able to pull it off if you dosed meds while you're QT ing. I've seen fish come out of very serious QT done by people with much greater skills and knowledge than I that still developed ich when subjected to stress.
Anyone who disagrees and think your tank is ich free- Run it up to 90 degrees for a day or two. You'll see just how much ich you really have!

[Ripped Tide]

In one tank, I have a prionurus punctatus and a blue regal tang. In my other tank I have a powder blue, powder brown, chocolate, and a yellow.

Ick is easy come easy go. I haven't lost a fish due to ick in a long long time. A lot of myth and speculation follows the tales of ick. It amazes me what people do to their fish.

[falos]

I have a tamoni tang Atlantic blue and 2 band rabbitfish as my large guys in the tank and love them
I haven't had eny issues with them the Atlantic blue was a a hole for the first week but ben a model resident now. The tamoni is just a gorgeous fish a grayish brown with yellow fins and white highlights realy peacefully fish. The rabit is one of my favorite fish more personality then most people I know he's hand fed and will give you five. Don't let there poisonous dorsal and pectral fins scare you off there a puppy in a tank
I don't like the collection of The powder tangs there way to stressful both to them welts and the keeper

[JeF4y]

Thankfully (knock on wood), in 3+ years I've never had a run of Ick in the tank that was evident enough for me to see. I've lost fish to malnutrition, carpet surfing and hungry anemones (or aliens) but not to ick so far.

I just don't want to set myself up for failure.

The yellow tang seems pretty hardy & resiliant from what I can tell, and would probably be the best first addition for a tang species in the tank. Maybe I'll start there and see how things go.

[Ripped Tide]

Originally Posted by falos

I have a tamoni tang Atlantic blue and 2 band rabbitfish as my large guys in the tank and love them
I haven't had eny issues with them the Atlantic blue was a a hole for the first week but ben a model resident now. The tamoni is just a gorgeous fish a grayish brown with yellow fins and white highlights realy peacefully fish. The rabit is one of my favorite fish more personality then most people I know he's hand fed and will give you five. Don't let there poisonous dorsal and pectral fins scare you off there a puppy in a tank
I don't like the collection of The powder tangs there way to stressful both to them welts and the keeper

I completely agree. If I felt like breaking my tank down to catch him, the powder blue would be gone. He is the meanest fish.

[BASSCYN]

I have dang near a Tang tank.
The Tang police have been after me for years. .

In my 175 I have...

1. Naso
2. PB
3. Yellow
4. Tomini
5. Hippo

The PB was added late in the order. I figured this might help with the aggression. It did...for a while but she soon established herself as leader of the tank. She can be quite aggressive at feeding time.
Perfectly beautiful fish. I just love her!!

In the last 2 years I have seen one little spot on the PB I thought was ICK. It went away...never saw it again. Never seen ick on any other fish.

I feed heavy and use Vita-chem and Selcon on my frozen goodies.

This may help them fight it off.

[JeF4y]

Didn't take a lot of reading so far to really change my view on the PBT. I'm thinking that adding one may not be the wisest move.

Edit: The blonde naso's are awesome too, but I fear one may get too big for my 150.

[falos]

I know a reefer with a naso in a 90 cube there slow growers if you git a baby it will take years before its to big my tomini I've had for 6 months and still seams to be the same size

[Miami Dolfan]

I can be arrested fir the number I have in my 300:
Powder Blue
Achilles
Tomini
African regal(yellow belly)
Vlamingi
Red Sea sailfin
Purple
Chevron
Clown
Blonde Naso
along with 2 mandarins, 2 picasso clowns,a diamond goby,2 blue reef chromis,a midas blenny and 2 firefish
OHH NOOO! I've said too much!

[bruce 1]

I love all the Tangs. I have got to look and see what all I am putting in my new 227 gallon.

What kind of UV are most running that have a lot of Tangs??

[Miami Dolfan]

36W Turbo Twist with the water running slowly

[Ripped Tide]

40w lifeguard

[bruce 1]

I have the same UV on my 150 right now do you think it will be OK for my 227? I should be able to start adding fish in 2 to 3 more weeks.

Edit: Ripped what size tank please?

[Ripped Tide]

It's a 210. The 40w seems to do the job.

Edit: In hindsight, I wish I had gotten the 80w instead of the 40w. At the time of purchase, money/space was an issue.

[Seth The Wine Guy]

I like to go big and have the freedom to throttle back rather than going small and needing to have perfect flow rate and bulb efficiency to be effective for all pathogens.
I run an Emperor Aquatics HO 80w
200g total volume
It's rated for a 600g per hour flow rate and still kill ich. I run about 400g per hour through it and have it shut off when the lights shut off so that I don't blast the pods apart. This allows me to still average turning the entire system volume once per hour over the course of a day.

[bruce 1]

How does one tell the correct size?