Blue Tang to big for 55?
- Thread starter cnl83
- Start date
Baltimore Bryan
New member
Both the blue hippo tang and the naso tang will get way too big for a 55.
GoingPostal
Active member
Read the sticky
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=739380
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=739380
velvetelvis
Active member
I also see from your profile that you have about three weeks' experience in marine aquarium-keeping (joined in August 2010). If that's the case, your tank hasn't even finished cycling yet! The last thing you need to do is add more fish, especially active fish with fast metabolisms who grow large, eat a lot, and produce lots of waste.
duncaholic
New member
All right confession time. I've been keeping marine aquariums for a little over two years, and I find myself in a situation similar to yours. I have several tanks now, but my main reef tank is a 75g and it is stocked with:
5" yellow tang
4" Hippo
3" six line
3" gold stripe maroon
and a few peaceful fish 1 bangaii 1 randall's goby/pistol shrimp pair and two blue green chromis.
1st of all, stocking this heavily requires HUGE amounts of maintenance and water changes. 2nd Both tangs, the wrasse and the clown have all grown increasingly aggressive as they get bigger. I'm going to have to move the clown and at least one tang to my 125 FOWLR soon. Even then the other Tang will undoubtedly continue to grow. I know they can get HUGE, but at least I know I can trade in a large healthy specimen at my LFS for premium credit, so I'm not that worried about that.....BUT have you tried to catch any fish out of your tank yet??? They don't like it. They just don't! And they can drive you absolutely CRAZY trying to net them.
Think long and hard on this one. Really on all your additions. Once they go in they are in. I know several people who have torn their tanks apart just to catch one fish.
That being said, check out orchid dottybacks They are extremly colorfull and make a great addition to smaller tanks. Plus they can hang in a moderatley aggresive tank.
BTW what kind of clownfish??? Some of them can be a handfull as well.
5" yellow tang
4" Hippo
3" six line
3" gold stripe maroon
and a few peaceful fish 1 bangaii 1 randall's goby/pistol shrimp pair and two blue green chromis.
1st of all, stocking this heavily requires HUGE amounts of maintenance and water changes. 2nd Both tangs, the wrasse and the clown have all grown increasingly aggressive as they get bigger. I'm going to have to move the clown and at least one tang to my 125 FOWLR soon. Even then the other Tang will undoubtedly continue to grow. I know they can get HUGE, but at least I know I can trade in a large healthy specimen at my LFS for premium credit, so I'm not that worried about that.....BUT have you tried to catch any fish out of your tank yet??? They don't like it. They just don't! And they can drive you absolutely CRAZY trying to net them.
Think long and hard on this one. Really on all your additions. Once they go in they are in. I know several people who have torn their tanks apart just to catch one fish.
That being said, check out orchid dottybacks They are extremly colorfull and make a great addition to smaller tanks. Plus they can hang in a moderatley aggresive tank.
BTW what kind of clownfish??? Some of them can be a handfull as well.
hybridazn
New member
Now i dunno if its just me but i cannot see how ppl can buy a fish knowing the current tank they have is too small and will only keep it until its big and aggressive then" trade it in" at a lfs. Makes no sense to me. I enjoy the fish i buy and love watching them grow. I always thought it was part of responsible reefkeeping to always consider adult size of a fish before purchasing.
milhous3er
Member
I agree with this post. I would love to have any kind of tang or angel in my tank (40 breeder) but I know I would never get a fish knowing that I would have to trade it in later.
I had a purple pseudochromis that was a bully in my tank, and I went through hell trying to get that guy out. I literally had to take my tank apart, and luckily he tried to hide in my last piece of LR in the tank. He swam into a hole, so I just took the rock out of the water, held the net up to the hole he was in and waited for him to come out. Took me around 45 min. to catch this rascal...
cnl83, I just finished reading through all your previous posts and my very first piece of advice for you will to be to seriously slow it WAY down and really start doing some in-depth research for buying another fish. Now its good that you're asking here, that's great and on the right track, but previous posts on here hint to me you don't completely do all your research before adding something (e.g. adding an anemone days after a cycle). Doing more research will set you up for better success in this hobby down the road. 
Now onto the questions here, definitely no on adding any more tangs to this tank. In fact 55 gallon is really even too small for a yellow tang. Look more into nano sized fish, there are many that are suitable for that size of tank, several wrasses, blennies, gobies. Do you still have the damsels? You probably will run into trouble with them in the future, damsels are the absolute devil most of the time.
Now onto the questions here, definitely no on adding any more tangs to this tank. In fact 55 gallon is really even too small for a yellow tang. Look more into nano sized fish, there are many that are suitable for that size of tank, several wrasses, blennies, gobies. Do you still have the damsels? You probably will run into trouble with them in the future, damsels are the absolute devil most of the time.
What a terrible suggestion for animal husbandry. :thumbdown
If you get a baby hippo tang that it 1-2" in a 55 or greater he will be ok. It takes time to grow.
Well, all fish take time to grow. Putting a fish in a 55 gallon that will eventually reach one foot in length is a bad suggestion and buying one to trade in later for another baby is even worse.
How many years will it take for a hippo to reach a foot? Many many years. Why is that worse?
Because buying fish you can not keep long term is irresponsible.
Its not like a shark. There would be many aquarists that would love a foot long hippo tang.
When I look at your other posts, some of which would be consider post padding by the way, I see that you are never going to begin to understand what I am saying.
And what would I gain from having a higher post count? Riches, Fame? And No, I understand what you are saying, but I don't agree with it.
gofor100
New member
I agree with the posts on here that suggest that getting a fish knowing that one cannot keep that fish long-term is irresponsible... and this is why if it is unclear to anyone:
> The "catching and transportation" is extremely stressful on a fish (along with any other livestock in the tank).
> We all know that 90% of the time someone gets a fish that will inevitably get too big for their tank, they typically never do what they say they will (find a "good home" for it), and either are too lazy to try and catch it, so it stays in their undersized tank until it prematurely dies OR they do catch it, but give it up to their fish store which will likely cram it in one of their small holding tanks for the rest of its life (which probably won't be long in a LFS).
> We owe these creatures a little more respect and shouldn't treat them like baseball cards since we did remove them from their natural environment and should at least try to offer the best environment we can offer in our home aquariums.
> The "catching and transportation" is extremely stressful on a fish (along with any other livestock in the tank).
> We all know that 90% of the time someone gets a fish that will inevitably get too big for their tank, they typically never do what they say they will (find a "good home" for it), and either are too lazy to try and catch it, so it stays in their undersized tank until it prematurely dies OR they do catch it, but give it up to their fish store which will likely cram it in one of their small holding tanks for the rest of its life (which probably won't be long in a LFS).
> We owe these creatures a little more respect and shouldn't treat them like baseball cards since we did remove them from their natural environment and should at least try to offer the best environment we can offer in our home aquariums.
