Two new tangs and a question...

[ktwheet]

Well life is grand in my neck of the woods. After having nothing but damsels in my tank for almost a year, I have started to stock some pretty fish. I bought a coral beauty about 10 days ago and she is eating like a horse and happy as a clam. Sunday, I was at the lfs with some birthday money and spotted a kole tang and yellow tang in a tank together (they are both huge). Curious about the two tangs in a 30 gal display tank together, I inquired about them. It seems that the two are best friends (surprise surprise) so I bought them both, since I have wanted more than one tang, but didn't want fighters. They are so happy in my tank! I am thrilled! Here is my question: I am not hugely familiar with Kole Tangs and mine won't eat. It has only been a few days, but the yellow was eating within two hours of being introduced. Do they eat the normal tang foods or is there something else I need to be doing? Any personal experiences with Kole tangs? Also, this website doesn't have a "bio" on Kole tangs... do they go by another common name?

 

[reptilicus]

Hi,
a 30-gallon is definitely not big enough for 2 tangs, in fact it is not big enough for one tang. 50 gallons is the absolute minimum for tangs, and even then make sure it is a small, quiet species.
Tangs are big, active fish with large territories and do not mix well with small tanks.
Regards,
Tom

 

[jimi]

Tom is right 30gal is way too small for two tangs especially two huge ones. Did you ask your lfs to feed the fish in front of you? If you didnt you better in the future. Kole tangs love algae so you could try sheet seaweed or spirulina flakes but they love to eat the algae off of live rock and glass.

 

[veskas]

Kole (yellow-eye) tangs are very shy. We've had our 3 months & it still hides most of the time if we're around. Loves to eat algae off the glass. Also try brine shrimp. Nice fish, but we have her in a 55 gal reef setup. Seems ok in there with her buddies flame angel & 2 banggai cardinals.
good luck

 

[ktwheet]

Well, I have bad news. The Kole tang died yesterday. To clarify my earlier post, the display tank at the lfs was 30 gallons. My tank is 75 gallons with only two damsels and a coral beauty in it before the tangs. I took the fish back to the lfs (7 day guarantee) and they said that I had a spike in the ammonia in my tank that killed him. Isn't this normal when adding new specimens? I was under the impression that when you add new specimens, the biological filter has to compensate and that takes a few days. I don't think that a spike in my ammonia should have killed the fish. The yellow tang and all of the other tank mates are fine. They will give me a store credit once my tank levels are okay (I have done a water change), but I still think that something else must have been going on with the Kole tang for it to die so quickly. The only sign that there was a problem was some heavy breathing a few hours before death. He also wasn't eating, but he had only been in my tank for 60 hours before he died. It took the coral beauty a week to start eating after being added. I am confused about this. What else could have killed the fish?