Convict Tang

[IUfan]

Looking for more information on these fish. I've tried twice now with this fish and lost both during first week of QT.

Both look super healthy, but don't seem interested in food at all, then suddenly drop dead.

Anyone had any luck with them, is there some particular need that they have?

 

[Stevenliu9]

I have never kept them at home, but thought I'd share what I've observed in their natural habitat- while snorkeling in Hawaii, convict tang is one of the most common fish to be seen. There are two things that stands out: 1. They are the only tang I have observed to travel in large congregations even at shallow water- as shallow as 1' deep near the beach. So they like shallow, well lit environment. And they love to travel in numbers. 2. their heads are always down, constantly grazing. While many other tangs fight over each other and territory, the convict tang has power in number so other fish don't bother them, and they spend all the time doing nothing but grazing.

 

[BlueMac92]

Looking for more information on these fish. I've tried twice now with this fish and lost both during first week of QT.

Both look super healthy, but don't seem interested in food at all, then suddenly drop dead.

Anyone had any luck with them, is there some particular need that they have?

Good info above. They do well in numbers. It's also all about where they come from. When we use to order convicts, it was a 50/50 shot wether they came looking great, or emaciated and in poor condition. Either way though, always got them to eat. But the latter would never make it two weeks, due to poor collection practices. Maybe ask to switch wholesaler? They eat a lot, crazy fast metabolisms....

 

[IUfan]

Any tricks to get them to eat? Just used my usual prepared foods, frozen spirulina brine etc even tried live brine.

 

[IUfan]

I was also thinking about getting a pair next time. They seem extremely shy in QT, a pair may make them feel braver.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Even though they are social in the wild, in captivity they quickly become aggressive toward one another.

They have a super fast metabolism and seem to prefer grazing on live rock until they figure out eating prepared foods. They will generally take pellets relatively quickly.

Deworming in qt is a good idea as they frequently have internal parasites.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Looking for more information on these fish. I've tried twice now with this fish and lost both during first week of QT.

Both look super healthy, but don't seem interested in food at all, then suddenly drop dead.

Anyone had any luck with them, is there some particular need that they have?

Have you tried starting them out with coral foods like cyclopeeze or Real Ocean Eggs (R.O.E.)? If you don't run copper in QT you can also try live brine shrimp.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Deworming in qt is a good idea as they frequently have internal parasites.

+1 and PraziPro works well.

 

[ca1ore]

The Convict is a trickier tang than folks think. I've kept a few over the years and they have all arrived very thin. I always QT them in my invert QT tank because it has plenty of live rock for grazing. That way you can get them into prepared foods without them starving. Ich is problematic, because then you have to put them into a HT and none I had survived that. Absent ich (or anything worse), you can gradually get weight on; though it's nori that really does the trick.

BTW, lots of Tangs move in large aggregations in the wild, yet tolerate their fellows poorly in our tanks. Never tried a group if convicts, but I imagine it would require a very large tank.

 

[IUfan]

Good to note, that's a bad idea then.

I actually have my QT set up with live rock. Can't say there's much algae growth on the rock though.

Sounds like I should add nori from the start and keep supplying it, I was also thinking about using some kind of coral foods seeing if maybe that helps.

My first one was doing well, and then I added prazi pro, and next day it was dead was so strange, I thought prazi was gentle, but the convict tang reacted very badly with it.

 

[ca1ore]

Took my convict a few weeks to work out that nori in a white clip was food. Now it goes bonkers whenever I approach the tank with the clip. I'll have to take a video - it's actually quite funny.

 

[BlueMac92]

Well, let me put it this way.

initially we kept them by themselves. But after watching videos of their behavior In the wild, we switched it up. Our holding tanks were ~35-40g. We'd keep them in groups of three at a time. . Also had a Three adults in our 220 display that did well. No saying this works for everyone, but that seemed to work for us. It was also one week at a time in the holding tanks, but the three seemed to do well In our DT.

As far as food goes, the same stuff you're feeding is what they readily accepted for us. Would also always keep nori In the tank. If they won't take it from a clip, try attaching it to a piece of LR and setting it on your existing structure....

 

[Moort82]

I have a Fiji convict and like most peoples experience it was thin to begin with and initially hard to get feeding (took 2 weeks). I dewormed straight away before QT in a tank full of macro and liverock. It was a constant pecker but not interested in prepared food. Took 2 weeks to start taking nori (tied to a rock so looking more natural) but quickly progressed to taking it from a clip, it then recognised the clip as a source of food and began to except other foods on it. Haven't looked back from there and I put the deworming down to why it didn't wither away after a short time.

I have heard, and not sure if it is true of Hawaiian convicts (don't really get them over here) but the problem with their weight is partly due to a high metabolism but also because their intestinal fauna can be destroyed during the treatment phase of handling. This means they can't properly retain everything they eat and gradually fade away as tangs are inefficient at the best of times.

 

[IUfan]

I lost both of mine within first 7 days, not sure if this was starvation or something else.

They were also the 1" size, so this is probably making it trickier.

How did you deworm before QT?