Adding a Hippo Tang? Opinions please.

[SaltyMember]

I have a 6 foot 125g FOWLR tank going now for almost 4 months with a 3 inch Dogface puffer and a 4 inch Foxface as the only inhabitants. I have about 100lbs of rock, wet/dry, small refugium.

I was planning on adding a Bluejaw Trigger to the tank but I have not been able to find a good one locally. Of course, I see the beautiful Hippo Tangs in my LFS and start to wonder if he would fit in well. I know about the Ich Magnet reputation.

Would it fit in with the dogface puffer? Are they worth the effort? and risk of disease? Any suggestions?

 

[XtrmCHoPZ]

If you can resist it dont add it. IN my experiences with them they are prone to ich. But then again others keep them with great luck. If you do definitely quarantine.

 

[VSpeck]

mine has been awesome and they definately can be just make sure it is eating and has plenty of places to hide. dont buy it thinking it will eat later! once they start eating they are great keep them stress free. if anyone is picking on them pull them immediatly.

 

[SaltyMember]

thanks for the responses,
I learned my lesson in the past and I quarantine all fish now. Is hypo during quarantine necessary or recommended for this fish?

If you use hypo will that take care of any ich?

 

[Deacon]

We had a tank-raised hippo tang and that fish was tough as nails. Never a spot of ich and it ended up being the only survivor of a tank crash. I ended up bringing it back to the LFS when we had to take that tank down.

Get a tank-raised hippo if at all possible. good luck.

 

[fishykid9212]

Yeah I find mine to be very hardy, It has only got ick once, from another fish, and I have never seen a fish have so much ich. He came out to be fine though, its a great fish

 

[SaltyMember]

fishykid/Deacon,

Did you guys quarantine your Hippos first or treat them in any way(hyposalinity or copper, etc.) before adding them to your tanks?

 

[Deacon]

At the time I did not quarantine the hippo. However, considering the research I've done since then on the life cycle of ich, I think I would quarantine all fish before adding them to a display tank.

I'm still convinced that the reason our hippo was so tough was because it was tank-raised. It basically never had the stress of being removed from the ocean. (they get collected in the larval stage and then are raised in captive tanks).

 

[fishykid9212]

I dodn't quaranteen the hippo either but I would have if I knew more about quaranteening at the time.