Issues with Blue tangs lately

[steallife904]

I had a blue tang for nearly 10 years. When I moved a year ago and slacked a bit on the tank I lost her and a few other fish plus coral. I have got the tank back in order over this year and really wanted to get a blue tang back in there. first off I found that because of the indo ban they are apparently not coming in as much now according to my LFS's and the price has jumped on them. I have purchased 3 in about a 8 or so month timeline now from 2 different stores and each time they didn't last more than a few days??? I have been doing this over 12 years, I know to acclimate and I check all my parameters. I have introduced other fish in this time frame as well that are fine. Is it time to give up on the blue tang, are they weaker now coming in or anything or just my luck? I will say the ones I got where on the smaller side and had only been at store a few days. They are only getting small ones in and if you don't get them within a couple days they are gone

 

[ThRoewer]

These days you can get captive bred Blue Tangs.

 

[BrianD]

Wild-caught Hepatus tangs have always had a fairly high mortality rate in the hobby.

 

[steallife904]

I have no clue if there's are wild or captive? I could ask but who knows if the answer I get will be accurate??? I know they got 2 in yesterday and offered to give me one discounted since last one lasted 2 days..... may try 1 more time.

 

[BrianD]

Vast odds are they are wild caught. Captive bred are heavily marketed as such.

 

[HumbleFish]

I've probably quarantined/sold 15-20 wild caught Hippo Tangs so far this year. I have a pretty good success rate with them. I do try to get them more on the smaller side, if that makes any difference. No idea how they would fare if they weren't quarantined and had to deal with ich, velvet, etc.

 

[ThRoewer]

... I do try to get them more on the smaller side, if that makes any difference. ...

In my experience that makes all the difference with almost every fish.
I found that especially finicky fish like Regal Angels are doing a lot better long term if you got them as babies and they pretty much only know tank life.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[HumbleFish]

In my experience that makes all the difference with almost every fish.
I found that especially finicky fish like Regal Angels are doing a lot better long term if you got them as babies and they pretty much only know tank life.

See, I've actually had the opposite experience with Regal Angels. The 4-5" specimens seem to do best, even the grey bellies.