Purple and Yellow tang together

[dsbdude]

Hi...I have a 150 gallon long reef(first tank) and I was wondering if keeping a purple and a yellow tang together is at all possible in my set-up. I heard it is iffy but i love both of these fish and i can't stand to not have one of them. Right now i have 2 clowns, 2 purp firefish, blue hippo, and a CUC. I have lots of live rock with caves and crevices. Possible.....?

 

[t316]

Well here is some of what I have learned recently, and I have a 280....yellow tangs HATE other yellows, Powder Blues are fine with yellows, Yellows are fine with Nasos, but Powder Blues HATE Naso's. In other words, it appears that Tangs of similar "shape" hate each other, and will fight. If I'm not mistaken, isn't the yellow shaped just like the purple? I did finally get the Powder Blue to get along with the Naso, but the two Yellows were a no go and one had to go, otherwise death was a guarantee. But you can possibly avoid all this if you buy the yellow and the purple at the same time, and make sure they are the same size, and acclimate them together. Otherwise, I would say that the smaller, or the latest to arrive in the tank, will be dead meat.
Hope this helps.

 

[rad]

If I was doing this I would buy the smaller one first, and then the bigger one second. dont get me wrong, theres still a pretty good chance that they will fight, because thats what happens when you add two fish of the same family together to the same tank. But it is still possible. But the real answer to your question is: there is no real answer. All fish have different personalities and you wont know until you try, but there are tricks and techniques to making it smoother. ie: egg crate to separate them for a couple weeks if they start fighting, or adding them at the same time so that none of them are territorial, the size thing I mentioned earlier and some various techniques that are similar to the ones I just mentioned all help, but it is possible. Ive seen yellows, as in three, get along in a 110. and that was with two other sailfin tangs (other zebrasomas) but in the same instance T316's yellows didnt get along in his 250. so what gives

you wont know until you try.

 

[t316]

Originally Posted by rad
http:///forum/post/2687532
If I was doing this I would buy the smaller one first, and then the bigger one second. dont get me wrong, theres still a pretty good chance that they will fight, because thats what happens when you add two fish of the same family together to the same tank. But it is still possible. But the real answer to your question is: there is no real answer. All fish have different personalities and you wont know until you try, but there are tricks and techniques to making it smoother. ie: egg crate to separate them for a couple weeks if they start fighting, or adding them at the same time so that none of them are territorial, the size thing I mentioned earlier and some various techniques that are similar to the ones I just mentioned all help, but it is possible. Ive seen yellows, as in three, get along in a 110. and that was with two other sailfin tangs (other zebrasomas) but in the same instance T316's yellows didnt get along in his 250. so what gives

you wont know until you try.
Good points....

As far as my yellows, I see that I made two mistakes. First, if you are going to add a yellow, make him that absolute last fish to enter the tank, regardless of size. They are very territorial, bold, and should only be added once everything else has had a chance to establish his/her own spot in the rocks. Second, my original yellow was 'ever so slightly' larger than the second one added. If it were vice versa, maybe they would have gotten along, since the newbie would have been larger even though the old-timer already had his spot staked.
I love tangs. They are some of the biggest, colorful, and most interactive sw fish for the home reef. But they can be a pain in the butt trying to make them be friends. Best wishes, and show us some pics when you start adding them.

 

[dsbdude]

Thank you for all the help...it may be a while....busy

 

[jbird0420]

It depends on the size of the tank. I have large Yellow and a X-tra large Purple in my 225 FOWLR and they do fine together. They were placed in the tank a year apart from each other. Take a look at the attached pic.

 

[cyclops]

Right now I have a yellow, blond and blue hippo they get along great but before I added my blond I had the yellow and blue hippo the I added a Achilles tang. My yellow beat up on it and stressed him out Until it got really sick, so I had to take him out and quarantine him for anther 4 weeks then I added him back and the same thing happened my yellow finally killed him I was pissed but learned my lesson and did research and found out that unless they are added together tangs of same shape will fight, so later I added my blond and now everyone is happy.