Sohal Tang and Clown Tang - my observations so far

[jmccown]

As some of you know I have had these two together for around 6 months now in my 130x24x26 tank - my Sohal is about 9.5" now and the clown tang is between 8.5 and 9". I've had the Sohal for more than 2 years and bought the clown tang from DD in January. This post is just a recap of the last 6 months happenings between the two. I guess most importantly I want to report that there is no aggression at all between the two fish which continues to surprise me. Having observed them for 6 months I am able to report that the clown tang is more aggressive than the Sohal. Also, the clown tang is far more active swimmer than the Sohal. The clown tang is not so aggressive that it tries to kill tankmates but it did harrass my 7" sailfin to the point I had to move the sailfin to the 150g tank before things got bad. As far as overall looks I prefer the Sohal tang by a large margin. The clown tang just isn't as striking as the sohal, the only time the clown tang really wows you is when they flare their tail and fins which isn't too often, otherwise they are pretty plain. They turn really bright orange when they are ****ed off. All the other times they are sort of a drab orange color. The sohal pretty much stays the same color all the time. So that is about all I wanted to write about, just my observations to this point. Obviously all fish have their own temperaments.

 

[AngelAddict]

Very interesting. An 11ft tank definitely has to help as well. I love both of the tangs, owned both and in my experience, the sohal was more aggressive, but was also larger. They were never in the same tank though. Please keep an update, were you able to add the salfin back in?

 

[kirkaz]

Interesting...I haven't had the guts to try another Tang with my Sohal, but I actually think it wouldn't be a problem. He is the king of the tank but is almost never aggressive toward his tankmates, they give him a bit of space though. Someday when I upgrade I would like to add a Desjardini Sailfin, and Naso genus of some sort, still don't think I would do another Acanthurus genus Tang though, but nice to know it is possible.

 

[kevinpratt823]

Glad to hear. I have a smaller Sohal in my 6' reef tank, so I plan on him being the only Tang. He doesn't harass anybody now, and hopefully won't, as the others are very different body shapes than his.

 

[OSTguy]

How can you say this isn't striking:

 

[jmccown]

OST, the color on yours is better than mine. A pair of crosshatches would look good with that group of fish you got there

Kirkaz, If I only had a 6' or 8' tank I wouldn't have even considered risking these two together. So far it has worked out great for the most part.

 

[OSTguy]

Really? The color isn't as strong? If you can, post a pic later. All I feed still are the pellets and nori.

You know what would go good with those crosshatches? A tracking #......keeping fingers crosshatched!

 

[AngelAddict]

OST love your clown, always have, so fat! So you have a pair of hatches on the way!? Sweet!
Jason, weird yours didn't come with great colors considering it was from DD. What lights do you use? I know theirs are under 20k halides. I am building 20k LEDs right now for my reef and getting everything together for my FOWLR.

 

[jmccown]

I am running T-5's around 14K spectrum.

 

[barbianj]

Mine Clown also has more bold colors like OSTguy's. He's big enough to body check the other fish, but it's mostly posturing. If it gets rough, he comes out on the short end. For some reason he thinks it's his job to keep the Blue Line in check.

 

[bman101]

wow, stunning clown tang

 

[lhm nole]

I prefer the sohal over the clown tang seems like the clown tangs that I have had done well in my past tanks were all pretty drab and the few awesome ones I tried slowly withered away, sohals are pretty much bulletproof.