Going to try a Powder Brown Tang

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Dummyforclownfi

New member
Ok guys. I have read so much before about how hard the powder brown tang can be to keep alive, how easily it can attract ich, I have read it all. So before I go on with this post just please keep in mind that I have decided to try my hand at keeping one and am not looking for those of you on here who want to tell me not to buy a powder brown tang because it will die. Rather I am looking for some advice as to how you who have had a powder brown tang in the past, have kept it alive and healthy? First thing is first, I do have a 29 gallon permanent QT tank which has live rock and live sand. It has been established for 8 months now. This is just used for observation. I have a 20 gallon hospital tank which can be used to treat diseases. I currently have a 125 gallon 72" custom tank. It's parameters are super stable. The tank has been setup for 8 months now. I have plenty of rock with tons of hiding places. I have good flow, good filtration,and good lighting. My parameters never seem to fluctuate. I currently have a yellow tang and a tomini tang residing in the tank along with an ocellaris, goby, royal gramma, and a flame angel. The flame angel is my newest fish and would be the one I would be watching for any signs of bullying. The other tangs are very passive. My yellow tang is 2.5" and has been in my aquarium since February and my tomini tang is 3" and has been in my aquarium since March. Besides doing a good quarantine period, what else must I do to ensure good health of the fish and increase the probability of successfully keeping the fish. I have never had ich in the aquarium either and I started with all new sand and dry rock so I shouldn't have any traces of it either. Thanks in advance.
 
Sounds like you are doing the proper planning, good job! Powder browns are very similar to powder blues as far as care goes, and of course they are very suceptible to ich. For this reason, I choose to treat whether symptoms are visible or not. Good water movement and proper diet are other important factors (after QT). I feed different varieties of nori and a homemade frozen mix daily to keep my tangs fat and happy. When it comes time to introduce the PB to your display, count on the yellow being aggressive. They can be a nasty fish to new additions once established, so use an acclimation box if possible.
 
finding a healthy one will be a good start. over the years I saw different shipments came in to the LFS. Some are in great shapes and others are not. I have restrained myself not taking chances on less promising ones.
 
As mentioned, find one that is eating and not too skinny. Mine met both of those when I bought it, however it did have intestinal worms that Prazi-pro didn't touch. Its stomach got quite the bulge, but otherwise it got thinner and thinner. Treated it with API General Cure and it has been great since. Mine eats absolutely everything, and literally goes into my feeding net to grab what it wants. Not shy at all.

Since I know I have Ich in my DT, and the PBT was not showing signs during the 12 weeks it was in QT/HT, I chose not to treat it. It does "have" Ich, and it gets a few visible cysts every couple of weeks. Nothing that has me at all concerned. However, if you don't have Ich in your DT now, then definitely treat it. I would do tank transfer personally.

Note that your established Tangs will not like the new addition (as you probably guessed), nor your Flame Angel. Use an acclimation box if you can. Release it at night just before the lights go out. Use a mirror if needed to distract any fish going after it.

Once it is established, it will be the dominant fish in the tank as you probably guessed. It will be very difficult to acclimate any new fish. However it can be done.
 
Thanks guys. I will definitely treat it for ich with a hypo salinity treatment in the QT. How long would you guys suggest I keep the salinity low before I start raising it? I just worry that a fish so delicate may get more stressed through the QT process but there is absolutely no way that specific fish would ever go straight into my DT.
 
Hypo in my opinion is the least effective treatment for ich. Cupramine and tank transfer are the 2 "money" treatments and have been proven to be most effective. People have had their salinity during hypo down to 1.008 for weeks and the fish still showed signs of ich. Just my 2 cents. :) Good luck in whatever you try!
 
dinger28 said:
Hypo in my opinion is the least effective treatment for ich. Cupramine and tank transfer are the 2 "money" treatments and have been proven to be most effective. People have had their salinity during hypo down to 1.008 for weeks and the fish still showed signs of ich. Just my 2 cents. :) Good luck in whatever you try!
Click to expand...

Remember this would just be a preventive measure. I do not currently have a fish with ich and we are talking about buying a new fish and just treating eben though it shows no signs of ich. With that being said, I'm sure if it started showing signs on any disease, I could take more drastic measures to treat it. Thanks for the input.
 
Going to try a Powder Brown Tang

after seeing how easy tank transfer is, I'll never do anything else. I just finished doing it with 2 tangs, and I can't believe I ever tried hypo. I'm going to do it to all fish signs or not moving forward because it's that easy.
 
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