How big of a tank is needed for a sohal tang in a mixed reef

[Pericyte]

I was just curious what people legitimately thought the minimum tank size, for LONG-TERM (fishes entire lifespan) success, of a sohal tang was, in a mixed reef with other tangs. Most things I have read suggest that they turn into terrors at a certain size. The best "success" stories I have heard are in tanks of 600-20,000 gallons. Any other experiences out there?

 

[Gweeds]

I have my own way of working this out... based on natural behaviour. IMO it's not gallonage we need to think of, but swimming and territory space. So for a sohal, territory isn't really a concern but swimming space is. I wouldn't keep anything that is effectively pelagic with less than 10 times its own length. This allows the fish to get up to full cruising speed and maintain it before having to slow down to corner. The wider the better IMO for tank width so I'd say nothing smaller than a 15' X 3' for a fully grown adult. Obvs once you're at this size, pretty much any other tang will go in with it as there's plenty of room to get out of the way... I wouldn't want anything less than 3' tall either so the tangs have room to swim above or below each other. So to go back to gallonage, that would make it 1010 US gallons.

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[Gweeds]

Or another way of putting it... very, very big!!

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[ca1ore]

Not worth it IMO. I kept a Sohal years ago in an 8' 350. Once it got past about 7-8", it became a holy terror ..... and shortly thereafter, the only remaining fish in the tank.

 

[pinnatus]

Not worth it IMO. I kept a Sohal years ago in an 8' 350. Once it got past about 7-8", it became a holy terror ..... and shortly thereafter, the only remaining fish in the tank.

This

 

[jmm]

I kept a 10" in an 8 ft, 510 gallon tank for many years. It was always peaceful. There were other tangs and they all got along (powder blue, sailfin, yellow, regal).

 

[Pericyte]

I read just about everything I could find on sohals and this seems to be about what I had previously found. People start having luck 500-600 gallons, but 1000+ seems to be better. Thanks for the feedback everyone!!

 

[humaguy]

beautiful fish but I also pulled mine out of the dt after a few years due to increasing aggression, and he was in with some very aggressive and large fish.

 

[OrionN]

My LFS have one (3 inches) for about $100. I though about it but decided against it from reading other people experiences with this fish.

 

[scooter31707]

I would say a 10ft tank for a juvenile. Probably around the 7-8 inch mark, the ocean may be the best tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

Territorial behaviour of Acanthurus sohal and Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on the fringing Egyptian Red Sea reefs

"Synopsis

We studied territorial behaviour of the acanthurid surgeonfish Acanthurus sohal and pomacentrid damselfish Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on fringing reefs in Ras Mohammed National Park, Red Sea, Egypt. We investigated trespass times, the number of agonistic acts, their intensity and the agonism elicited (number agonistic acts/total trespass time) for all intruders. Five families (Pomacentridae, Chaetodontidae, Acanthuridae, Labridae and Scaridae) were dominant among the 14 we recorded in our study sites. Seven species belonging to four families were resident inside A. sohal territories. Of the other 66 species we observed, 45 are intruders. The territory-holder did not react equally agonistically toward all these intruders. A. sohal showed a high number of agonistic acts against conspecifics and the parrotfish Cetoscarus bicolor. The intensity of the agonistic encounters, however, showed a different picture, with a low level for conspecifics and C. bicolor, respectively. A. sohal showed a high degree of agonistic intensity toward only one parrotfish, Chlorurus sordidus. The highest values of ‘Agonism elicited’ were recorded against Scarus ghobban, followed by Siganus rivulatus and Zebrasoma desjardinii. Despite these high values, the intensity was relatively weak. The territories of A. sohal were large (average 12.5 m^2); those of P. leucozona were ca. 20 times smaller (average 0.6 m^2). A. sohal spent most of their time swimming (patrolling) along the territory border, stopping briefly to feed on algae. On the other hand, P. leucozona spent most of their time swimming and sheltering."

So you would need a tank with a footprint of roughly 3.5 m x 3.5 m (or roughly 12 ft x 12 ft) to meet the fish's territorial needs. And you will likely need at least a meter height. So the tank volume would be at least 12,500 liter (3,300 US Gallon).
And that's just to keep the Sohal happy!
If you want to add other fish you need a significantly larger tank.

 

[zchauvin]

Territorial behaviour of Acanthurus sohal and Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on the fringing Egyptian Red Sea reefs



"Synopsis



We studied territorial behaviour of the acanthurid surgeonfish Acanthurus sohal and pomacentrid damselfish Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on fringing reefs in Ras Mohammed National Park, Red Sea, Egypt. We investigated trespass times, the number of agonistic acts, their intensity and the agonism elicited (number agonistic acts/total trespass time) for all intruders. Five families (Pomacentridae, Chaetodontidae, Acanthuridae, Labridae and Scaridae) were dominant among the 14 we recorded in our study sites. Seven species belonging to four families were resident inside A. sohal territories. Of the other 66 species we observed, 45 are intruders. The territory-holder did not react equally agonistically toward all these intruders. A. sohal showed a high number of agonistic acts against conspecifics and the parrotfish Cetoscarus bicolor. The intensity of the agonistic encounters, however, showed a different picture, with a low level for conspecifics and C. bicolor, respectively. A. sohal showed a high degree of agonistic intensity toward only one parrotfish, Chlorurus sordidus. The highest values of "˜Agonism elicited' were recorded against Scarus ghobban, followed by Siganus rivulatus and Zebrasoma desjardinii. Despite these high values, the intensity was relatively weak. The territories of A. sohal were large (average 12.5 m^2); those of P. leucozona were ca. 20 times smaller (average 0.6 m^2). A. sohal spent most of their time swimming (patrolling) along the territory border, stopping briefly to feed on algae. On the other hand, P. leucozona spent most of their time swimming and sheltering."



So you would need a tank with a footprint of roughly 3.5 m x 3.5 m (or roughly 12 ft x 12 ft) to meet the fish's territorial needs. And you will likely need at least a meter height. So the tank volume would be at least 12,500 liter (3,300 US Gallon).

And that's just to keep the Sohal happy!

If you want to add other fish you need a significantly larger tank.

+1 to this. I always laugh when tang police say that a 8' tank is any better than a 4' tank for a tang... they seem to not remember that they took a fish out of the OCEAN and put it in a box. I want to see people now argue that this publishing is incorrect.


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[Pericyte]

Territorial behaviour of Acanthurus sohal and Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on the fringing Egyptian Red Sea reefs

"Synopsis

We studied territorial behaviour of the acanthurid surgeonfish Acanthurus sohal and pomacentrid damselfish Plectroglyphidodon leucozona on fringing reefs in Ras Mohammed National Park, Red Sea, Egypt. We investigated trespass times, the number of agonistic acts, their intensity and the agonism elicited (number agonistic acts/total trespass time) for all intruders. Five families (Pomacentridae, Chaetodontidae, Acanthuridae, Labridae and Scaridae) were dominant among the 14 we recorded in our study sites. Seven species belonging to four families were resident inside A. sohal territories. Of the other 66 species we observed, 45 are intruders. The territory-holder did not react equally agonistically toward all these intruders. A. sohal showed a high number of agonistic acts against conspecifics and the parrotfish Cetoscarus bicolor. The intensity of the agonistic encounters, however, showed a different picture, with a low level for conspecifics and C. bicolor, respectively. A. sohal showed a high degree of agonistic intensity toward only one parrotfish, Chlorurus sordidus. The highest values of "˜Agonism elicited' were recorded against Scarus ghobban, followed by Siganus rivulatus and Zebrasoma desjardinii. Despite these high values, the intensity was relatively weak. The territories of A. sohal were large (average 12.5 m^2); those of P. leucozona were ca. 20 times smaller (average 0.6 m^2). A. sohal spent most of their time swimming (patrolling) along the territory border, stopping briefly to feed on algae. On the other hand, P. leucozona spent most of their time swimming and sheltering."

So you would need a tank with a footprint of roughly 3.5 m x 3.5 m (or roughly 12 ft x 12 ft) to meet the fish's territorial needs. And you will likely need at least a meter height. So the tank volume would be at least 12,500 liter (3,300 US Gallon).
And that's just to keep the Sohal happy!
If you want to add other fish you need a significantly larger tank.

That's crazy, but I believe it. I have seen videos of how aggressive they are in the wild.

Not to go too far off subject, but this has always been one of my favorite videos with a couple sohals in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pxTBHtnl-s

 

[RealReef7]

I had one 2 years ago in my 8' 300g sps tank, started out as 2.5" peaceful fish then right around the 6-7" mark he started to go after my other tangs. He was not even the biggest fish in the tank and new additions were not an answer because he would grab the fin with his mouth and drag the new addition around the tank like a rag doll. He's now the only fish at my LFS 10' frag/coral tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

That's crazy, but I believe it. I have seen videos of how aggressive they are in the wild.

Not to go too far off subject, but this has always been one of my favorite videos with a couple sohals in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pxTBHtnl-s

That tank is about what you need - and with so many fish that you need to add oil. That way there is no easy way to single out individual fish...