Purple tang or PBT

[psilentchild]

My tank is 430 gallon. I have in my tank 3 yellow tangs, vlamingii tang, 3 flame angels,annularis angel,bicolor angel,coral beauty, a maroon clown and a magnificent foxface. My wife wants a bule hippo tang and a porcupine puffer. I loved the blue red yellow combo of fish I have.I would like to add one more blue fish. Would the PT or PBT be ok to add as a last fish?

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Either should be fine, and probably both could go in given the size of your tank and your stock list. I think your biggest risk is whether the yellow tangs will have a problem with the purple. The purple tang won't provide you with much blue, though. :lolspin:

 

[betamed]

either should be fine. Both might even be OK. I keep a powder blue, purple and hippo in a 300g and its a good mix. the purple and powder posture a bit and they ignore the hippo.

 

[Vanpire]

Both the PBT and purple are great tangs, two of my favorite. I don't see many purples anymore though. Maybe, it's just me.

I have blue hippos with a purple and no issue. Previously, I also had PBT with the blue hippos and they were fine.

Get both. When I upgrade, I am going to add a PBT again.

Van.

 

[RealReef7]

i love both fish, and i currenty own a purple. Only problem is, in my experience these 2 fish are 2 of the biggest a holes.

 

[jt_milstead]

In a tank that large I would add both. Im sure you have a QT system, because I would never put a PBT in a system without QTing. They are Ich magnets. PT's come mostly from the Red Sea I believe, but there isnt much exporting coming out of the Red Sea area, and when it does its expensive. I see small PT's at LFS for $100 to $120.

 

[Vanpire]

i love both fish, and i currenty own a purple. Only problem is, in my experience these 2 fish are 2 of the biggest a holes.

PBTs and PTs can be very mean. This might just be my experience but I had a mean PBT and a mean PT but after I added a red sea sailfin tang which is much larger than the both of them, they mellowed out. It seems that if there is a dominant tang, they understand their place and loose their agression, even to other tangs.

Luckily, the red sea sailfin is just one easy going fish.

I wonder if I was just lucky and this is rather a one-time thing or do others have similar experiences?

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

I'd do both at the same time in a tank that size. You can wait about a year and put a sohal half the size of your biggest tang and watch them keep away with good reason.:beer:

I have all 3 together with yellow and blonde naso

 

[psilentchild]

I have read a lot about the powder blue being ich magnets. I have always wanted one but hasn't got one cause of ich. I have never had ich(knock on wood) and don't plan on getting it.

 

[moonpod]

PBT need to be quarantined. They are up there with hippo tangs re:ich. Purples are from the red sea pretty much exclusively and are prototypical red sea fish: tough as nails. BOTH of these fish are probably just short of Sohal tangs in being in tank bullies. Your tank is plenty big. It's just a fish personality issue.

 

[curthendrix]

Ich is as much about stress and poor nutrition than the parasite itself imo. A otherwise healthy fish living in a stress free tank with proper nutrition including supplements should be able to overcome Ich in most cases imo.

 

[moonpod]

Ich is as much about stress and poor nutrition than the parasite itself imo. A otherwise healthy fish living in a stress free tank with proper nutrition including supplements should be able to overcome Ich in most cases imo.

And those fish will be causing a ton of stress on addition.

 

[grouper25]

I have a 260 gal and multiple larger angels , trigger, tusk and Sohal....Aside from my scribbled angel, the Sohal is my second favorite...... Great personality, fast as lightning and a prolific eater. Sure, he has his moments of slight dominance, but otherwise is a model citizen.... For a large tank like yours, I would surely recomend him.

 

[curthendrix]

Naso's are great fish too.

 

[solitude127]

That's a tough choice. I have both in my tank right now and besides looks, I see that the PBT picks more the algae from the rocks than my PT. I've had my PT for 5 yrs now and I think he knows that he's going to get fed nori each day so he doesn't pick algae from the rock or glass. He lazy eater. :lol: