My Purple Tang, and my thoughts on care and tank size...

[Pallobi]

From prior experience, I thought purple tangs were fairly docile. I have a massive (grew from about 2 - 5 " in 2 years) mean purple tang. I only feed once or twice a week and it's doesnt' slow that bully down.

ok, i dont mean to be a jerk, but the intention of this thread was to inform all about what I DO WITH MY TANG... so i am gonna tell everyone, with no offense to jimmy whatsoever, as much as i can help it.. DO NOT FEED YOUR TANG LIKE THIS, THIS IS NOT GOOD PRACTICE... tang's NEED so much more nutrition that this... imo, you need to feed much much more, not sure why you dont, but you will only destroy your tang's health in the long run regardless...

sorry jimmy, but i had to say my opinion

 

[Korrine]

that is very intreresting, i did not know that... not saying its a good thing, but interesting... at some point lionfish, which are not native to the florida waters, or anywhere near there, where introduced, and now overpopulating certain areas, and destroying other smaller fish and invert species populations cuz they have no real predators to the lionfish, as there are any really anyway... hence their posion spines...

Yes. I read about the purple tangs in Florida on RC. I believe it might have been Copps that posted about seeing them there while diving? Could have been someone else, but I remember it was someone that's reputable.

 

[geaux xman]

From prior experience, I thought purple tangs were fairly docile. I have a massive (grew from about 2 - 5 " in 2 years) mean purple tang. I only feed once or twice a week and it's doesnt' slow that bully down.

feeding a fish 1-2x/week is really inhumane. at sea, these fish are constantly eating.

 

[Pallobi]

i completely agree with you xman...

ok, guys, enough on that particular post, lets keep moving forward

 

[jimmy n]

ok, i dont mean to be a jerk, but the intention of this thread was to inform all about what I DO WITH MY TANG... so i am gonna tell everyone, with no offense to jimmy whatsoever, as much as i can help it.. DO NOT FEED YOUR TANG LIKE THIS, THIS IS NOT GOOD PRACTICE... tang's NEED so much more nutrition that this... imo, you need to feed much much more, not sure why you dont, but you will only destroy your tang's health in the long run regardless...

sorry jimmy, but i had to say my opinion

No offense taken. You're system is much more sterile appearing than mine. Mine is over 2 years old at present, much larger than your tank and has a 70 gallon refugium, more rock and more macroalgae than I care to have. I should have said that I supplement twice a week.

I'll try to add a picture of my fish (iphone, sorry) to prove he's not starving. He was my first addition (big mistake) and I've had him around two years. This rendition of my tank was started in February of 09.

 

[jimmy n]

feeding a fish 1-2x/week is really inhumane. at sea, these fish are constantly eating.

Who's feeding them? :hmm5: That picture was taken today. I haven't a clue how old he was when I got him, but he was around 2". He's around 5" long long and thick. I know two years is not a long time, but longer than a month or so. I've never lost a fish in this tank, but I'm struggling with corals.

 

[Pallobi]

good feedback jimmyn... my system is more sterile in that i keep it very clean, and i dont house rock in my display... it is a year old as a whole, even though i changed tanks, the bio is well established... your fish does look great... it can definitely be said, that a established, properly done with the proper amount of rock, over time as grows many micro organisms and algae of all types, can be an excellent source of food... i will say, i was under the wrong impression, however, your circumstance is not the norm, and we wouldnt want any less experienced folks thinking they can do things your way necessarily... i think we can both agree on that... youve have a great looking fish as well, and your system is clearly very well established... noobs, please dont try this at home

 

[jimmy n]

good feedback jimmyn... my system is more sterile in that i keep it very clean, and i dont house rock in my display... it is a year old as a whole, even though i changed tanks, the bio is well established... your fish does look great... it can definitely be said, that a established, properly done with the proper amount of rock, over time as grows many micro organisms and algae of all types, can be an excellent source of food... i will say, i was under the wrong impression, however, your circumstance is not the norm, and we wouldnt want any less experienced folks thinking they can do things your way necessarily... i think we can both agree on that... youve have a great looking fish as well, and your system is clearly very well established... noobs, please dont try this at home

I agree! I would also warn newbs that they should not feed their tank 5 times a day to avoid overloading a new system. On top of that, how do you find the time to feed a tank 5 times a day?

 

[Pallobi]

agreed again jimmy! lol... yes, if your jus starting out, dont feed your fish as much as i do, or feed them as little as jimmy does

good advice for sure lol, everyone must learn their system and its limits and boundaries, and what exactly you can get away with, and this takes quite some time, and ALOT of paying attention and patience...

 

[Pallobi]

as far as feeding so often, im actually laid off at the moment, which is never a good thing, however i have had alot more time to spend with my system... i literally feed him 5 to 7 times a day... he gets alot of good stuff and vitamens... i feed him every couple hours whenever i am around, think of it or not out doin whatever... so basically everytime i pass by lol... this wouldnt be a wise thing to do if i had alot of fish to feed... i basically dont feed the 6 line as he is fat and happy on the endless pods i have... though he does nip at the flakes and mysis, should i happen to feed that... but the tang gets spectrum pellets, lots of nori, and formula 2 pellets like its goin out of style lol... but pretty much my system only has to handle one fish who gets fed extra prepared foods... the coral beauty is very new to my system, and he grubs on the live rock all day, but does get and will eat pellets and flake daily, but only like once and not alot... or at least no where near what the tang gets and devours all of in jus one single feeding...

i cant even begin to explain how much he eats... its no joke lol

 

[Pallobi]

ok so a thread in the reef fish forum about fish who nip you or attack your hand and what not made me think of my tang and i realized i hadnt shared this here yet... my purple tang actually nips my hands, and will swipe me with his tail and spur when he really gets annoyed with me in his "territory" or should i say, his tank lol... really is pretty crazy of him, i never seen or had a tang do this, only blennies and clown fish who would bite my hand... but he will actually try and cut me with his spur, which he has done twice, by trying to back me off of his space lol... it will actually cut too, like a razor, but small, so no real damage done... for now lol... he was actually doing it earlier tonite when i was doing some thing and moving some frags... he is not shy at all, and will come right up to my hands with no fear lol, its actually pretty awesome, and shows his personality and his interaction with me and not being fearful... I am working on getting him to eat nori out of my hand, but he is still on guard about that, but ill get him to do it eventually, and that would jus be awesome... i used to have a trio of yellows and a convict tang in my old 150 who would eat anything out of my hand... that was cool too

 

[sanchoy]

Over the last 5 or so years I was never able to get my purple tang to eat nori out of my hands just fyi. He was always on the alert. He would come up near the offering, but would never have the courage to eat out of hands like the Sohal,blue hippo,horse shoe did.

 

[Pallobi]

he may not, but ill keep trying lol

 

[Pallobi]

some pics of mine again, the first you can see an actual decent close up to show his how his healing has come along...

<a href="http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/?action=view&current=IMAG0358.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/IMAG0358.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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<a href="http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/?action=view&current=IMAG0365.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac268/Pallobi11/IMAG0365.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[Korrine]

so pretty :inlove:


(and your frags too)

 

[Pallobi]

thanks most all of the sps right there i got in rough shape, so they are in the "nursury" for now lol

 

[crushnburn46]

Call me a fool, but i do have 8 tangs in my 90 gal. Reef tank, and 6 of them were 2 1/2 years old. My pilosophy... Simple, billion of billions of fishes were getting killed by larger pedators and human consumption everyday, what makes them different anyway with any other fish? As for me they were lucky, cuz i fed the twice a day and in return they fed my 43 sps with their poops... They didnt grow much but they were colorful compare to my fellow reefers that i have seen so far which is kinda bored scenario, mines were happy and theyre like dogs playing chasing all around and best of all they dont hurt each other. Ill probably set a video this weekend if theres a chance. Oh and my new rlss db10 did a good job, cuz i used to wc 15% twice a week down to 10. With good parameters