Hippo Tangs

[neowind]

Ok please bare with me because i am very new to aquariums and need a little help. This is gonna sound funny also but is this the tang that is in the movie Finding Nemo? Also how hard are these guys to keep healthy and do they get really big? Thanks in advance

 

[nas19320]

The character "Dory" in the movie was a Hippo Tang also know as a Regal Tang. They are easily stressed which makes them easily subscepitable to diseases such as ich. They also require a minimum of 100 gal tank as they like a lot of room to swim. HTH

 

[808smokey]

Originally posted by Neowind
This is gonna sound funny also but is this the tang that is in the movie Finding Nemo?
Yep that's the one, They're called "Blue Hippo Tangs".
Also how hard are these guys to keep healthy and do they get really big?
I've never had one, I've heard from several people and LFS that you need a large tank, 75gal (I think, maybe larger) and the tank should also be well established 6-12 months old. I think they're a little more difficult than the average fish but I would like to get one. This site has them marked as "Moderate" for difficulty

 

[wyldgunz]

They are Very easily stressed and not for a beginer. Fisrt they get sick you need to quaruntien them which streeses them out more and makes them sicker. mine has been through ich and even marine velvet which was horrible in a reef tank i had to take out all my fish and set up a 55 gallon q-tank for a month to kill the marine velvet that was released into my reef. most my fish made it and now the tang is doing good but id throw caution to someone getting one for the first time.

 

[ajroc31]

My two cents: they are also the stupidest fish around. My has ich, and all he has to do is ger cleaned by of my 6 shrimp, but no, he wants to stay sick and get me mad. No other fish in my tank is infected, just Philip, but he won't get cleaned. That fish if it swims from one side of the tank to the other, it will forget why it was swimming there in a first place. The movie does a great job of showing their short term memory.

 

[neowind]

Oh I am so upset now :sleepy: I wanted to put one in my tank so bad but its a 36 gallon corner tank. Guess thats out the door.

 

[reefnoob]

well, I have 2 cents worth of good news maybe... If you look at reccomended tank sizes for 'most' fish, anythig less than a 70g tank woud have almost nothing but inverts in it.
While I am new to the hobby.. a guy down the street from me has been keeping a saltwater tank for years. He has everal very large tanks with different kinds of environments. This is what he does and what I plan on doing as well. I have a 55g btw...
Buy the fish small, keep them in your small tank and enjoy them while they are still in a tank that is plenty big enough for thiem to live in comfortably, then give/sell them back to the pet shop or some other aquarium source. That way you also get to enjoy a wider variety of fish as well as opposed to reaching your bioload and starting a new tank because you want different fish.
Just a suggestion, hope I don't get flamed for saying that.. but it seems to be an option.