Blue Tang Behavior

deadmoose

deadmoose

New Member
Okay, so I got up this morning and our blue tang was lodged in between the heater and the glass. So I'm thinking "happy thanksgiving to me, the tang is dead"
I come back 5 minutes later to fish it out, and it's swimming around...
Is this normal? I know blue tangs do some weird stuff - the fish has been swimming around and is eating... TIA
 
elfdoctors

elfdoctors

Active Member
Mine likes to wedge himself against my heater also. (I think he thinks he is hiding). The water temperature next to the heater will never get so hot that the fish will get burned. If it gets too hot he will move. Mine eventually learned to hide near the upper end of the heater.
 
deadmoose

deadmoose

New Member
I'd be pretty surprised if the tank was too cold.
I had an angelfish (freshwater) that used to do this once in a long while. It didn't freak me out any less...
 
elfdoctors

elfdoctors

Active Member
I also would doubt that the tank is too cold. I keep my tank at 80 degrees and most of the time the heater isn't even running. The tank where the hippo hid is in a quarantine tank. There is very little except a few pieces of PVC pipe in there so there are few places to hide. I would wonder whether deadmoose doesn't have much live rock or other places for the tang to hide.
 
jrpage

jrpage

Member
I really want a Regal Tang. I had thought maybe you needed a really large tank to house one. I noticed that you have a 45G (same as mine) How is it working for you? Have you had the fish long?
 
deadmoose

deadmoose

New Member
I have a very large piece of dead coral in there that the tang prefers. The hiding behind the heater hasn't happened again since my first post. I'm thinking that it may have to do with the tang becoming stressed - we got a cleanup crew and many of the critters "invaded" the tang's coral
We've only had the tang for a few weeks, and yes my tank is too small. When we got it, the tang was looking like it had head and lateral line disease. Remarkably, it's doing much better and it's color is returning nicely. This was really not a fish that I wanted (nor did I purchase) in this tank being the suggested size is at least 70 (or 75 gallons).
This is my second go around with saltwater. We've been discussing a larger tank purchase and a reef setup possibly. In that case, the tang will have a proper home. Otherwise, we will have to find someone who has the right size tank. Right now it's a very tiny fish, so I'm trying to make myself feel better about the situation using that and it's rather quick recovery from the dietary deficentcy.
 
bheron

bheron

Member
I'd like to jump in here. Am building me new 75g FOWLR+simple inverts. I love Tangs and want to include one/some in my stocking plan - which i'm working on now.
1) I know some tangs are best to keep alone. if I wanted to have more than one, which is a good combo to have?
2) also, I'd like a trigger. i hear they can get along. also, any good combos?
Here's the tangs and trigger on my short list:
Blonde Naso Tang
Blue Hippo Tang – I heard you cant keep in 75G b/c they get too big?
Purple Tang
Sailfin Tang
Scopas Tang
Sohal Tang
Yellow Tang
Clown trigger
Picasso Trigger
what do you guys think?
 
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