blue tang

jmw

New Member
i just got a blue tang and had a few questions
1 what do i feed him. will greens and frozen brain shrimp be ok.
2 how big will he get in an 75 gallon tank.
thanks
 

seannmelly

Active Member
to answer your question:
1. I don't know if yours is a juvi or an adult. as an adult I have read that they enjoy mixed meats and greens. We have one that is about 4-5" and we feed mysis, omega 3 brine, marine cuisine, squid, reef formula, emerald entree, krill cubes, and seaweed sheets.
2. saltwater fish do NOT grow to the size of your tank, they will OUTGROW your tank. I have read they reach 14" idk how big they will get in captivity but I assume they will get close to that size.
hope that helps!!!
Melly
 

jam1e

Active Member
Hey, I have a 65 gallon tank and I was wondering if any any, how many yellow tangs I could put in it .. thanks
 

seannmelly

Active Member
I would deff try to encorporate as many greens as I could into it's diet. Try formula 2 or emerald entree and offer seaweed sheets either rubber banded to a rock or on a clip to him. If you have trouble getting him to eat, try kent marine's garlic xtreme we use it religiously!! If you are going to feed brine shrimp, make sure it's enriched brine other wise feed mysis shrimp, it is more nutritous that brine.
Melly
 

seannmelly

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jam1e
Hey, I have a 65 gallon tank and I was wondering if any any, how many yellow tangs I could put in it .. thanks
I would would say one if any at all...the tang police might come out on this one :scared: . If you wanted to have a school of yellow's it is better to have them in odd numbers, either one or 3 or...so on. We have 3 in your 125 reef and they are great! But, IMO I would decide on what kind of tang you would want for your 65 because you could prolly only have one...depending on what it is!!
Melly
 

jam1e

Active Member
yeah I knew I couldn't have two .. I've read many a book on fish but I wasn't sure .. since i have some live rock ... should I get more so that the tang can graze more .. or do I stick with what I have so that it has more swimming room?
 

seannmelly

Active Member
Exactly how much live rock do you have? How many and what kind of fish do you already have? And all you want is a yellow tang?
 

jam1e

Active Member
ok ... right now I have 18 lbs. of rock and I only have a Indian yellowtail angelfish, or Cream angelfish. but I'm going to take it out in a day or two so that it won't eat my coral .. the tank is about three weeks old and the anglefish has lived there for about two and is doing fine. the only reason I put him in there was to get him out of my 90 gallon tank that I've had for about 6 months .. it was eating all of my coral
 

jam1e

Active Member
Originally Posted by seannmelly
And all you want is a yellow tang?
I wanted like 2 yellow tangs and 1 hippo but I don't think they're going to fit ... I also plan on getting a pair of Percula clownfish and after the tank estblishes, a pair of green striped mandarin dragonets
 

seannmelly

Active Member
If I was you, I would defintately get more live rock...at least 1-2lbs/gallon and wait at least 6 months to get any tang. Alot of people say that you need a mature/semi mature tank to have a tang.
 

jam1e

Active Member
Originally Posted by seannmelly
wait at least 6 months to get any tang. Alot of people say that you need a mature/semi mature tank to have a tang.
In my ninety gallon i've had a yellow and a purple tang since day 28 and I recently got an Achilles tang and the yellow beat up on him for a while and he got ich but some garlic cured hime and the yellow is leaving him alone now ... and I don't mean to argue but I've seen no problem with the yellow and the purple from buying them 4 weeks after getting the tank ... I can see your reasoning though since they need lots of algea on the live rock .. but the live rock I have i got from a very established tank .. about two years old . and it looks like there's a good amount of algea on it ..
 

jam1e

Active Member
so you think the maximum number of tangs is just one? in that case .. would a juvenile blue hippo suffice?
 

seannmelly

Active Member
With any tang you are going to need alot more live rock then just 18lbs in a 90g tank. If you already have multiple tangs in your tank, keep in mind they need alot more live rock, not just to feed on but as a filtration factor. IMO you can never have too much live rock. With the achilles, many will agree that they are NOT the easiest tang to care for, I believe that they require alot more live rock they what you have. It may do OK in the beginning but long term, IMO, it is not a good idea. In order to keep all of those tangs alive for long term and for them to florish, I would feed them a varied diet including alot of different varieties of meat and veggies. I would also offer them algae sheets every day. If you are thinking about mandrins, I would advise you not to get them until you have enough live rock to keep them. Most mandrins only eat pods of your very mature live rock. You will get the rare individual that eats frozen. I would worry about your tangs being happy and very healthy before try a somewhat difficult fish like a mandrin.
Melly
p.s. garlic does not "cure" ich or any disease, it is used for finicky eaters, and to help boost the fish's immune system. If he was strong enough to fight ich off, they GREAT!! but even if you use garlic and the fish's immune system is damaged, it might not have the same effect
 

jam1e

Active Member
no ... maybe I miscommunicated ... In my 90 gallon I have well over 90 lbs of rock .. in my 65 I only have 18 and I plan to get more .. my 90 gallon is the one where I already have all those tangs .. I'll take your advice and buy a lot more live rock for the 65 gal. but back to my question .. if I had more live rock in my 65 can I put a juvenile blue hippo tang in with no other tangs? ... and yes .. I was going to wait quite a while before I put the mandarins in my 65 .. and in my 90 with all the rock .. the tangs have doing fine for about 6 months and I think they'll continue to do so ...
 

seannmelly

Active Member
I would say, in your 65 once you got enough established live rock it would be "okay" to put a juvi blue tang in there. The only trouble is, to get it acclimated to captive life. I have had too many experiences working at the lfs with juvi blue tangs to know they are hard to get acclimated. I bought my 4-5" blue hippo and I consider him an adult and it took him a WEEK to become acclimated enough to eat! And let me tell you, I was stressed out that whole week worrying about him because all he did was let my 3 yellow tangs beat up on him!! Now he'll rip an algae sheet out of our 7" naso's mouth!!
If you see the juvi hippo eat at the lfs, I would feel more confident that he would survive in captivity. As I said earlier I would offer him many many greens such as formula 2, emerald entree, seaweed sheets, and even caulerpa!
Also, I would LOVE to see a pic of the achilles, they are one of my FAVORITE tangs!! Please post!
Melly
 

jam1e

Active Member
Originally Posted by seannmelly
Also, I would LOVE to see a pic of the achilles, they are one of my FAVORITE tangs!! Please post!
Melly

ok .. right now it's 1:00 A.M. where I live so all of my tank lights are off .. tomorrow I'll get a pic and send you one somehow .. do you have an e-mail address I could send it to? and thanks for the advice .. how much live rock do you think I need before I put the blue hippo in? and about what size hippo do I need? and how big will it be when it grows out of the 65 gal.? and how long do you think that's take?
P.S. sorry about all the questions ... I've never had a blue hippo before and there's not too many people i can ask about it
 

seannmelly

Active Member
You need 1-2lbs/gallon depending on your filtration system...I would get atleast a 2" hippo that you KNOW is eating. I would say in your 65 depending on your bioload when it gets around 4" it has outgrown your tank(he will let you know, if he gets chronic ich that does not go away, if there are visable signs of stress...etc). It could take up to a year, depends on how well you feed it, what kind of diet it has. Yes send pics asap!! And it is also time for bed lol. Melly3218@yahoo.com!!
melly
 

jam1e

Active Member
ok .. thanks for all your help .. expect those pictures sometime tomorrow after noon or later ... but yeah .. you better get to bed .. I would also but I just had minor surgery today and I've been asleep all day and no longer tired .. but I'm in a lot of pain so I'll try anyway ... later .. .-Jamie
 
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