Hippo Tang Info

[bigeyedfish]

Last night I visited the LFS to pick up some water and saw the coolest little hippo. He's about the size of a quarter. They were asking $18 for it. Looks like its in good health, no scratching or heavy breathing. I left it on hold till sunday to do some research. What i would like to know is anyones experience with them. yes yes i know they are ICH Magnets. But before i buy i'd like to know how hard they are to keep, diet (what kind of veggies to feed it). compatability with a mean clown and two anthias. I have a 55 gal (a little small i know, will be upgrading towards the end of the year, over 100 gallons). 65 lbs of LR. getting more and am almost done with my sump/fuge which will hold another 15 gals. what do you think?

 

[jim672]

Salty,
Let me be the first to suggest you not put a tang in a 55. If you're really going to buy that 100, soon, okay. The hippo should be fine there.
The hippo I had ate everything! Loved Seaweed Selects and brine shrimp. They do get big fast though. (Mine died of ick, BTW.)
Jim

 

[bigeyedfish]

urgh, i just read the other post about tangs. probably going to get more no's than yes's which is cool.
so far i've been pretty good about taking things slow. i think the tang is a big step. the tank's been up since december by the way.

 

[bigeyedfish]

definitely getting a bigger tank this fall when i move out of my parents house. got my sites on a 180 all-glass with twin over-flows. so hard to decide!!!

 

[von_rahvin]

if you are going to go for the upgrade (I'm all for it BTW) then i would run wiht he hippo, you tank is already up and running and if you are careful you should be ok. A thought for ick prevention, buy some Skunk cleaners as they are great for keeping fish healthy, and once a week of soo feed the fishes food soaked in garlic as this sems to help them fight off the ick. I feen mine garlic soaked food twice a month as a preventive measure.

 

[kris]

Aside from size, space and ich, another factor is they require pretty good w.quality and I heard those cute little "baby" ones have much less chance of surviving, meaning the older the hardier in this fishe's case. Some species it's the opposite, but tangs and triggers i was told to buy them bigger, and not juvi or "baby".
I'd still wait for the bigger tank though.
Good Luck

 

[bigeyedfish]

thanks again, keep the opinions coming. on the water quality note. i have an aqua C urchin that hasnt been installed yet. so my quality should only get better with the addition of that an the refugium i'm working on now.