alright, tangs become a nipper

rtbm

rtbm

Member
So I have a regular blue tang about 3 1/2 inches or so. I have had it since it was the size of a quarter. Today I noticed him indiscriminantly nipping sps polyps swimming from coral to coral doing so. He is not causing any serious damage for now but I am wondering if this is something I should address. Or if not is there anything I could do other than put some seaweed on a clip which I have already done? I should add this behavior comes about three weeks after hooking up a phosban reactor and the pickins are slowly getting slimmer for him. Anyone else have tangs that nip polyps?
 
I had a purple one and a small yellow one that started doing it not long after I put them in the tank. Needless to say they continued to nip and started doing alot of damage. So I had to trap them both out.
 
START FEEDING MORE..... ALSO PUT ALGAE ON A CLIP IN THERE 24/7....GIVE HIM ALTERNATE SOURCES TO NIP AT AND KEEP HIM WELL FED AND FULL.
 
I managed to get him out and into another tank. For what its worth I had been feeding three times a day. I fear he could have done some real damage when he got bigger after what I saw today.
Thanks though
 
FWIW I was feeding mine a good bit too. They were very fat and even after they ate, they would nip my sps. The purple tang even killed a 5 in crocea clam. In my case, feeding alot more didn't help.

rbtm, glad to hear you got him out. Your sps will thank you.
 
I've heard of alot of Tangs picking on Acro's A LFS owner had A Red-Sea Sailfin destory his Display before Tearin' it apart and getting it out.
 
I have a problem with my Pacific Blue Tang eating my Zoas. I need to get him out. How are you Guys catching your fish.

Patrick
 
a Fish Trap! They are about 30 bucks and most larger fish stores. Or you can get them from most online vendors (e.i. Mainedepot.com)
 
I had this same problem with a sailfin tang and a powder blue tang. And it wasn't because they were being underfed. I add enough nori to my tank daily that it is not all eaten until shortly before the lights go out. The nipping was going on while there was plenty of nori on the clip. Obviously, the fish were removed. People may say... my fish is nipping my corals but it isn't doing much damage... I disagree. Every polyp that is eaten off of an acro needs to be regrown. The coral will have to exert all of its energy for tissue repair before it can start pooling extra energy reserves that it can use for growth. Corals that are being nipped at are going to grow much slower, if they grow at all.

Here is a fish trap I made that worked very well catching several fish out of my display tank:
http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/website/DIY/Fish-trap/fish_trap.htm
 
I catch all my fish now with a barbless hook. Try to get the smallest sized hook you can (size 14 or so) and bait it with some shrimp or squid. If you cannot get a barbless hook, buy one with a barb and simply cut or shave off the barb. I caught my fish within 30 seconds!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7429583#post7429583 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Maximus
I catch all my fish now with a barbless hook. Try to get the smallest sized hook you can (size 14 or so) and bait it with some shrimp or squid. If you cannot get a barbless hook, buy one with a barb and simply cut or shave off the barb. I caught my fish within 30 seconds!
Click to expand...

That I gotta try!
 
After reading this, I'm crossing out a yellow tang from my tank. I just got rid of some sexy shrimp in my tank because they kept bugging my sps and nibbling slime off of it. They would also do the same thing to my zoanthids so once I saw that, they were banished.

I definately wouldn't want to deal with a tang that did that. They are pretty hard to catch.
 
mikekman, honestly I don't think there is any reason to not add any particular tang to a tank. The chances of them nipping on sps corals is very RARE. I know I experienced it with 2 tangs and a couple others in this thread have also experienced it. But I bet I could pull up over 1000 posts of people that have tangs that are model citizens. In this case, the benefits and beauty of a tang outweigh the costs of the 1 in 1000 chance you may have to remove the fish later down the road. BTW, the regals seem to be the "naughtier" tangs. I hear lots of complaints from people about regals doing naughty things like rearranging corals and small rocks.
 
I have a yellow eyed kole tang that picks at my acan lord sometimes but thats it..I moved the acan and the tang leaves it alone now....MY blue tang is a model citizen....
 
How do you guys keep the nori on there?
My tang TEARS off large pieces that end up floating away cause they are too large for it to eat and it's gone in less than a day
 
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