Anyone Have Experience With a Baby Hippo Tang?

F

FiveGallonSea

New member
Hi everyone,

New to Tangs, but not the hobby. I bought a baby Hippo Tang (about 1.5") 6 days ago from my LFS. Thinking back, I wish I had gotten a bigger one, but I thought it would be nice to see it grow.

Anyway, he hides all day long and when he comes out he swims up and down the corner of the tank. Yesterday was probably the first day he didn't swim up and down, but he barely ever left his new little "home" in a crevice of rock work he seems to love.

When will this little guy be the open space swimmer everyone loves to see in a nice large reef tank? How long does it normally take in your experiences?

Thanks everyone.

Background-
Red Sea Reefer 350
1 Yellow Tang (bought the same day as him)
2 Blue Mandarins
2 Baby Clowns
A bunch of inverts and coral
50 lbs of rock work
Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
Pristine parameters as I am very anal about keeping a clean tank
1.025 salinity
MP40 powerhead at less than 1/2 power
He eats PE Mysis, but won't touch the Ocean Nutrition Green Marine Algae on a clip
 
I hope you plan on getting a larger tank soon, paraacanthurus get about a foot long and need lots of swimming space.
When they are tiny they need to be fed a lot. While Regals are omnivores and eat plankton in the wild too; when they are "babies" they need to be offered nori almost constantly, I have found that typical clips offered in the hobby spooks some fish, try rubberbanding the algae to a small piece of rubble instead.
 
You have two tangs and tangs are very susceptible to getting, having, Ick. They (and all new fish) need to be QTed and preferably with TTM done first.

Second, your tank is no where close to being large enough for those two tangs.

Please reference this guide when thinking of getting a tang. Beautiful fish but not for every tank.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1946079
 
Blue tangs have a HUGE personality. Pretty fun fish. They like to hide most of the time wedge then selves into rock to sleep at nigh. Should introduce him self when it is time to eat. Huge appetites.
 
C.Eymann said:
I hope you plan on getting a larger tank soon, paraacanthurus get about a foot long and need lots of swimming space.
When they are tiny they need to be fed a lot. While Regals are omnivores and eat plankton in the wild too; when they are "babies" they need to be offered nori almost constantly, I have found that typical clips offered in the hobby spooks some fish, try rubberbanding the algae to a small piece of rubble instead.
Click to expand...
He has a 350 gallon system... that's plenty of room for a regal and a yellow and maybe one other of the right subspecies. A 350 is a huge tank. Answer the question or dont post man. There's no reason to be tang police. Give the OP the benifit of the doubt that they know their **** and try to avoid insultng someone's ability to maintain a tank. If you took 5 seconds to read his signature you would have found out that he has much more water volume/tank space than you thought. With that said... a baby regal in my experience needs some time to warm up to its new home. Once it settles in Im sure you will enjoy watching him lap the tank!!! Enjoy!!!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 
Nano_reeferRI said:
He has a 350 gallon system... that's plenty of room for a regal and a yellow and maybe one other of the right subspecies. A 350 is a huge tank. Answer the question or dont post man. There's no reason to be tang police. Give the OP the benifit of the doubt that they know their **** and try to avoid insultng someone's ability to maintain a tank. If you took 5 seconds to read his signature you would have found out that he has much more water volume/tank space than you thought. With that said... a baby regal in my experience needs some time to warm up to its new home. Once it settles in Im sure you will enjoy watching him lap the tank!!! Enjoy!!!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Red sea reefer 350 = 73 gallons. NOT 350gal

Just saying brah
 
Last edited:
C.Eymann said:
Red sea reefer 350 = 73 gallons. I think its you who ma y need to do a bit more research before you assume something before you post.

Just sayying
Click to expand...
What the hell? Well thats my mistake. Do you know why they label it 350 even though it's not a 350 gallon tank? Because that doesn't translate to 350 litres ether its 275.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 
They eat a ton, poop a ton and get in other fishes space a lot witch causes a lot of aggression even if the blue tang isn't the one attacking other fish. I bought one that couldn't have been longer then 1" and the intent was to keep him in my 90G for a year or two until he was closer in size to a friends 8" and then he would go into his tank. At around 7 months he was 3.5" to 4" and I had to remove him early.

They are extremely busy and don't respect other fishes territory when in a small space.
 
Hmm wonder if this will work?

Reefer-Comparison-Specs.png
 
Nano_reeferRI said:
What the hell? Well thats my mistake. Do you know why they label it 350 even though it's not a 350 gallon tank? Because that doesn't translate to 350 litres ether its 275.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

It's done in Litres. Red Sea usually factors in the volume of the included sump as well. This one is 275 plus 70 for the sump.
 
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