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A Tang Too Many?


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I like Tangs, besides Triggers they are probably my favorite fish. Since Triggers are not real good in a reef tank I am thinking of adding more Tangs - but...

 

I have a Yellow (4 inch) and a Sopas/Braonw Tang (almost 5") in a 75G Reef Tank. This is the tank I bought from Bethesda Jim set up Friday and all water paramaters are normal (although salinity is falling by .001 a day for the past two days).

 

There are also two clowns, a blue chromis, a coral beauty, and a bi-color.

 

I know nothing good happens fast in this hobby, so I am trying to plan...

 

I would like to buy either a Hippo Tang/Royal Blue and a Purple (from the BZA Group buy)

 

Eventually a Mandarin, not sure what else.

 

My Brown Tang is being a bit aggressive towards the yellow. He tends to follow the yellow around.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Eric.

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I would say yes. Your done. I had three tangs at one time in my 75g, but they all added up to a little less than the size of both yours put together. Hope that makes sense.

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You'll get opinions from both ends of the spectrum on this board about tangs. I fall into the "two tangs in a 90g is too much tang" category. I had a yellow and sailfin in a 90g and it was too much. Both were 6"+. Both hated each other, and constantly harassed each other. Others have been lucky and were able to land tangs that had different personalities that were able to get along (perhaps younger tangs?). Others on this board have crammed many tangs into a tank your size (smaller tangs) with little or no problems. So my answer is, "it depends." It depends on their size, how young you get them, what else is going on in the tank, their personality/disposition, whether you get them all at once or one at a time, whether there's enough food/overfeeding to keep everyone happy, etc etc etc. Some believe tangs are like cichlids. If you get many in one tank it spreads the aggression out so no one tang is picked on too much. I would suggest doing research on www.wetwebmedia.com and then just use your best judgment. If all else fails, you will almost always find someone on this board willing to buy an extra tang or trade for it. :)

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(edited)

Like Chris giving a hint on above. To heavily stock all your favorite fishes in a tank, we will need help to skim all the waste output from the bioload of fishes.

 

Best way is to oversize our skimmer and bigger sump to add water volume.

 

I'll take my tank as an example: 26/27 fishes in a 150G tank with lots of rocks and corals. Majorities are small fishes such as green chromis, anthias, wrasses, flame angel. Big fishes are: majestic angel, 2 yellow tangs, 1 black tang, 1 hippo tang, 1 foxface. And they all in good health with the help of a Deltec 851. The tank has 72" length, that helps for the tangs to swim around and not get too much stress from fighting for own territory; however, I can see they will be a lot happier if there is more room for them to swim.

 

Your two tangs are very big, adding a small tang probably will not survive the aggressiveness of the Zebrasoma tang species.

 

Even with a bigger skimmer, space will be your issue if not already.

 

I'd say save up, upgrade to 300G and will be able to stock all your listed tangs.

 

HTH,

 

KLee

Edited by vaironman
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I love tangs too and am trying my best to resist! Right now I have a 125G with:

 

Powder Brown Tang (5+")

Purple Tang (4+")

Hippo Tang (4+")

 

The PBT definitely chases the other two around. When I first put them together the PBT was super aggressive. Now they follow each other around and rarely fight. I say I am trying to resist because I want one more!!!! :( Id love to add a Naso or Yellow to my tank. All my other fish are small:

 

(2) Purple Firefish

Green Mandarin

Randall's Goby

Midas Blenny

TailSpot Blenny

(2) Clowns

Lawnmower Blenny

6-line Wrasse

 

Im running a modified GSA Shorty.

 

Eventually Id like to add another wrasse to the mix... but like others here say, must do things SLOW. Those fishes look super nice, but my tank is also running the best it has ever been and I dont want to chance anything. This time around I started being extra careful (QT, good husbandry, etc).

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That was what I figured. I do not want them beating up on each other - although I know they were happy together before I bought and moved them to my house. I assumed the Yellow Tang was th empre aggressive of the two, so I put the Brown in the tank first for about 12 hours. No one seems to of set up territory yet. There are lots of tunnels but no true caves. I may actually push the rock back and cut down on the open space in the back which would create a few caves and give me more open sand area.

 

 

Thanks again,

 

Eric.

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I thought Wrasses grew pretty big. Maybe I can drill a hole between my 75G and my 55 FW (make that SW - hmm) and let them run between!! Kinda like those old habitrail systems.

 

I love tangs too and am trying my best to resist! Right now I have a 125G with:

 

Powder Brown Tang (5+")

Purple Tang (4+")

Hippo Tang (4+")

 

The PBT definitely chases the other two around. When I first put them together the PBT was super aggressive. Now they follow each other around and rarely fight. I say I am trying to resist because I want one more!!!! :( Id love to add a Naso or Yellow to my tank. All my other fish are small:

 

(2) Purple Firefish

Green Mandarin

Randall's Goby

Midas Blenny

TailSpot Blenny

(2) Clowns

Lawnmower Blenny

6-line Wrasse

 

Im running a modified GSA Shorty.

 

Eventually Id like to add another wrasse to the mix... but like others here say, must do things SLOW. Those fishes look super nice, but my tank is also running the best it has ever been and I dont want to chance anything. This time around I started being extra careful (QT, good husbandry, etc).

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(edited)
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On the water bridges, is the water stagnant? How would you clean inside the tubes?

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