Smaller Tangs for Smaller Tanks

[fairl80z]

Haha but seriously I would just get a kole tang . It would be fine in there .

 

[jason2459]

...

So you guys are saying that high aggression is an issue for the entire Ctenochaetus group?

...

No, most tangs.

 

[jason2459]

...I would just get a kole tang . It would be fine in there .

I agree. Kole or Tomini should be fine in that tank. I used to have a preference towards the Tomini. But after having a yellow eye kole for a while now I'm switching that preference. My Yellow Eye Kole has gotten very nice colorations and patterns. The brown is now a deep purple, the lines are a bold maze, all his fins has this orangish hue to it along with when he flairs his spiny dorsal fin looks really cool, that yellow ring around the eye just pops, and to top it off it seems like there's this thin blue outline along the fins.


Edit:
This is a pretty good representation of mine

 

[CHSUB]

Dang, just when you think you've got something figured out....

So you guys are saying that high aggression is an issue for the entire Ctenochaetus group?

Regardless of recommended tank size, what in your opinions are some of the "mellower" Tangs, if there is such a thing?

i had a chevron tang years ago that was very mello. Admittedly, my sample size with a kole is small, however, i have read many accounts of similar experiences. my kole killed fish that my other tangs could not be bothered with.

 

[jason2459]

Chevrons are awesome and I even like their adult appearance. They get fairly big for a C. tang.

My kole absolutely HATES my sand sifting goby. No damage has been done though.

 

[brett559]

1 purple tang.

 

[snorvich]

No, most tangs.

Ironically some of the very large tangs are fairly peaceful. But we are talking about a 10 foot tank minimum to properly house them.

 

[snorvich]

Edit:
This is a pretty good representation of mine

That is one gorgeous fish!!

 

[jason2459]

That is one gorgeous fish!!

I didn't realize how beautiful a yellow eye kole tang can be. Most I've seen are a pretty drab brown. I do feed a lot of meaty and algae based foods. I would guess it's the algae based foods giving it the coloration. NLS AlgaeMax and sheets of LRS Nori daily.

 

[jason2459]

Don't want to link to the post but here's some fun facts about fish coloration and the algae they eat from Randy Holmes-Farley

OK, so I think the answer is a combination of different choices. I picked this question because it shows how chemicals produced in one organism (such as algae) are taken by another (like a fish) and used for a totally different purpose (to color the fish, for example, rather than photoprotect the algae).

There are a variety of carotenoids produced in photosynthetic organisms (such as algae, diatoms, and cyanobacteria) that serve to protect them from damage from too much light. These papers have more:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/000527289090088L
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1011134401001506
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00350335

Organisms such as fish that eat foods with these pigments in them them take and use the pigments for their own purposes. They also chemically modify them to get a particular structure of variety of structures that give them a particular color.

This paper has more details on fish::

The Carotenoids in Tropical Marine Yellow Fish
http://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/bitstream/10232/13108/1/AN00040498_v27-1_p29-33.pdf