Are Tangs important in a Reef?
- Thread starter JEBrown2
- Start date
jamie1981
New member
Would disagree with that, they are naturally algae grazers in the wild. My tangs are constantly picking at algae on rocks all day.
reef_aholic
New member
I can attest to that, my white tail and yellow are constantly grazing.
I would say no. There are other ways to control algae. Critters that eat algae only poo the phosphate back into the tank in about the same amount. If you remove the phosphate, you remove the algae. In general, tangs like any large species tend to have a list of requirements, and unless you are utterly keen on having one for its own sake, I'd say no. Get a fish that pleases you and fits your tank situation.
inktomi
Aviator
Tangs are nothing but poop machines
What comes out has to go in sometime :strooper:
I've found fox faces to be better algae control critters than tangs. My personal experience only covers a kole tang and scopas tang, but I've also never heard anyone rave about their tangs munching all forms of algae like foxface owners do. My foxface ate anything that looked like a plant in the tank. It mowed bubble algae that the tangs wouldn't touch.
Now..would I use them as part of a CUC? No. I will, however, have a foxface in every tank that will support one. You won't find one in a 30g tank in my house, but you will in my 120g. The same goes for tangs. I'll add one to an appropriate tank, but would not try to shoehorn one into a tank that is too small.
Now..would I use them as part of a CUC? No. I will, however, have a foxface in every tank that will support one. You won't find one in a 30g tank in my house, but you will in my 120g. The same goes for tangs. I'll add one to an appropriate tank, but would not try to shoehorn one into a tank that is too small.
CStrickland
New member
For little tanks, starry blennys and lawnmower blennys can fill that herbivore niche too. Like others said, they just poop most of it back out, but they do seem to really yank it from the roots and they are good at getting into tight spots that are hard to reach by hand if you are having an outbreak. Then they poop the phos into your water for the gfo and algae to compete for. That's basically all a CUC does for algae anyway.
Pet Detective
New member
Zebrasomas are very good grazers in a reef tank, they are also one of the more aggressive of the Tang species. The pointier the snout, in my experience with tangs, the more they graze on algae & far less on corals, for example my current reef has a yellow & purple tang & they constantly are picking at any algae growth & not corals, when I had powder blues & browns & achilles tangs in there, they tended to pick at the corals a bit more, of course this is just MY experience.
I feel like the ich thing with tangs is a tad overblown. Yes, they are more susceptible due to their think mucous membranes, but if you keep them healthy and happy and limit stress, they'll fight it off just the rest of em.
A lot of people kind of make seem like if you get a tang and don't quarantine it, it's just going to get ich and/or die, and that's just simply far from true.
e048
New member
+1
Depends on the tang and the algae you're trying to control
Most bristletooth tangs work wonders as cuc tangs some of the others not so much... My kole is pecking at rocks almost all day while the yellow tang only pecks at the algae clip
In a reef tangs eat a variety of things, micro and macro algae, diatoms, sponges, small worms, small crustaceans, etc etc. their diet is varied.
I've seen while scuba diving schools of Atlantic blue tangs clean sea turtles and manatees of algae and parasites it's really cool to see
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