Sohal Tang Primer

Heres a little better shot of him. Not much growth other than some girth.
He's just a titch over 9 inches incuding his tail streamer. about 7.5 not including tail.
I can never get him to flair his fins. He does not do that very often.
IMG_4328.jpg
 
mine just stopped

mine just stopped

My sohal has completely stopped slapping himself against the sand bottom.

Very weird.....I guess it was a form of claiming territory in the tank perhaps....

Now that he is all settled in..he has completely halted that behavior after

a few months in the tank.....

just and update.


Thanks .

Tim
 
Goodt to hear! Mine has become less skittish of me and will pretty much bite my fingers at feeding time. He learned this from the adult male scribbled angel. They pester my hands whenever i am doing stuff in the tank nipping and such. The sohal is never in a defense posture he just wants to eat, He is a fatty and loves to eat. The angel is a porker too.
The angel is the most bothersome and relentless. It does not hurt, Just freaks me out when i go to grab something and out of no where a 9 inch angel takes a pock shot at ya. LOL
 
any updates or other anecdotes out there! always loved this fish but been afraid it will mess with my sailfin who is about 6" now and have him for 4 years, I am redoing the tank and in the process of reaquascaping, I am thinking of giving this guy a shot... but will like to start with a small one, there is also a yellow tang and many wrasses in the tank today.

215g 72x24x30 tank
 
knockout said:
any updates or other anecdotes out there! always loved this fish but been afraid it will mess with my sailfin who is about 6" now and have him for 4 years, I am redoing the tank and in the process of reaquascaping, I am thinking of giving this guy a shot... but will like to start with a small one, there is also a yellow tang and many wrasses in the tank today.

215g 72x24x30 tank
Click to expand...

Give it a shot, it is a beautiful fish. Mine is behaving well in company of 3 yellows, a sailfin, a powder blue, a naso and kole a few wrasses and a few gobies. I observed mine at the lfs for over a month before taking him home. He was with other tangs and I have never seen him fight, however the lfs had another sohal that was full of scars. He was returned several times because killed several fish on other customer tanks. So it really depend on the fish.
 
Mine is also doing the sand slapping. I wasn't sure what to make of this but it looks like almost everyone here has had the same experience with the sohal... he's only been in my tank for two months, he's about 5 to 6" still kinda small but very healthy eat like a pig and very active. I also have a sailfin and purple tang that are smaller but both has been in my tank the longest, they do keep him in check every once in a while.
 
I would not be worried about the sand slapping. My Sohal stil does that from time to time, definitely less often than earlier on. I had this fish for one year now, it has grown about 1 inch. It is very active and by far it is not the most aggressive fish in my tank. Most of my other fish had developed some kind of intolerance for other particular fish, the kole tank doesn't like the diamond goby. the PBT does not like the firefish goby, the sixline wrasse doesn't like any other wrasses smaller than he is; The Sohal has not developed any particular dislike. He loves the naso tang, they are similar size and often swim as a pair. The sohal has plenty of swimming space, the tank is 6ft long but has free swimming space in the front and the back of the rockwork, with many caves and passages between front and back. This fish is a very active swimmer and preferably should be kept in a tank much bigger than mine but I believe with proper rock arrangement a 6 ft tank may do ok if this fish will not grow to his full potential. If it does I like him so much that I will upgrade to a 500G just for him.

Claudio
 
My Sohal does not like any other tang in the tank.
He tries to dominate all of them. This includes a purple tang, yellow tang, olivaceus and convict, the latter 2 being his particular dislikes.
He totally ignores every other fish, although he did give the Bellus Angel a good checkover when it first arrived in the tank.
 
AfricaOffroad said:
My Sohal does not like any other tang in the tank.
He tries to dominate all of them. This includes a purple tang, yellow tang, olivaceus and convict, the latter 2 being his particular dislikes.
He totally ignores every other fish, although he did give the Bellus Angel a good checkover when it first arrived in the tank.
Click to expand...

Well it all depends on the particular fish personality and the Sohal Tangs personality surely have!
A Sohal will definitely be the dominant fish in the tank. They can be very disruptive to the point of killing every other fish. It has been said that the bigger they get, the worst they become, expecially when bigger than 9". A small querrel from time to time is ok but if it becomes a continuous nagging, take the Sohal out and back to the lfs.
 
I have a 6 Inch Sohal... Had him for 1.5 years. I certainly doesn't terrorize my tank. He will chase my Sailfin tang a bit, but he certainly is not nipping at him, or doing any damage. I swear it's almost like they have a routine. It's comical... The Sailfin will slow down and hit the breaks, and the Sohal rushes past...

Tank Size is 240.... 6 Feet Wide...
 
Doesn't look like anyone has commented here for few months but I do have a question on the Sohal tang. I am currently setting up my own 125gallon, but I am planning out a future 500 gallon reef build for after the 125. Steve is gonna hate me, but here it goes. How would a sohal do with a blue hippo, naso, achilles, and purple tang? I am most worried of the sohal going after the achilles as they are in the same genus, but the sohals are extremely attractive in a strange way! I think it may be the blue fin outlines...
 
I have done it

I have done it

I have kept a sohal tang with all those fish multiple times including in my present reef... but...it is 8 feet long and 280 gallons.....if you are talking 500 gallon tank...personally....I would have ZERO problem and for me..it would ideally be the powder blue that goes in last not the sohal!

I have never kept sohal with achillies but I do not think it would be any worse then say keeping powder blue with sohal.....

sohal and achillies not same body shape at all....

but...when it comes to all tangs they are really unpredictible to a certain degree...

Myself I would have no problem attempting sohal with achillies....

Far as I am concerned a powder blue is a more aggressive tang then sohal...maybe not quite as dangerous but when a powder blue gets a hate on watch out! I have a powder blue that just initimidated a 10 inch sohal..the powder blue is 1/4 the sohals overall size! So.......

Achillies concern is they need LARGE TANK with A TON OF FLOW and GOOD WATER......

I would not put achillies in anything smaller then 200 gallon and 250 preferably..and 300+ even better!

Achillies I have never kept but I believe it is the hardest tang to keep...due to it being an ich magnet like the powder blue or worse even....

Just my 2cents/opinion.
I am not a pro.

Best of luck

Tim
 
Sorry for the confusion, I meant blue hippo/regal tang, not a PBT... but that is good that I should be fine in the future. When set up there will be lots of flow, and a nice long QT for all of the tangs, to hopefully keep ich out of the equation. I have read that most tangs are pretty resistant to it after they feel comfortable and eat healthily.
 
In a 125g it would be hard to say. I agree with Tim the PBT in my tank is far more aggressive than the sohal. It is the PBT who usually gives hell to any new fish introduced in the tank not the sohal. Having said that I have been keeping many tangs together and quite peacefully for a couple of years. I have a 180 with 3 yellows, a sailfin, a PBT, a naso, a soha and a kole as far as tang go.
They have been living together without issues so far. My tank has plenty of swimming space in front and behind the rock work with plenty of hiding places and this may contribute to the success so far.
All I can say is try, however waiting for the 500g may be a good idea.
I have never had an achilles but I believe it compares to the PBT as far as propensity to ich. My PBT has always be healthy and never had ich, but I strictly quarantined all of my fish.
 
I was defiantly planning on waiting for the 500 as I don't know if anything will interior the plans for the 500 gallon. So waiting for the 500 for all o those rants for sure. Interesting that the PBTs are more aggressive than the sohals... Would a PBT in addition to the fangs listed maybe keep the sohal in check? I think I would add a PBT to the list if so. Strict QT was in the plan for sure!
 
Reefing Newbie said:
I was defiantly planning on waiting for the 500 as I don't know if anything will interior the plans for the 500 gallon. So waiting for the 500 for all o those rants for sure. Interesting that the PBTs are more aggressive than the sohals... Would a PBT in addition to the fangs listed maybe keep the sohal in check? I think I would add a PBT to the list if so. Strict QT was in the plan for sure!
Click to expand...

The relationship between PBT and sohal is complicated. They pretty much ignore each other most of the time. In a confrontational situation e.g. Food or shelter the shoal is clearly the dominant one and keep everybody else in check.
However if a new fish is introduced the shoal ignores him while the PBT give him hell sometime to the point of newcomer demise.
 
Okay, Sohal is basically just aggressive showing his dominance while PBTs just give hell because they were there first. When I start the build I will definantly start a thread for it and see how the sohal goes for me, they are just so beautiful. I think maybe my 3rd favorite fish, I would have to say that I am obsessed with tangs in general tho lol
 
Hi,

Just wanna share my experiences with the sohal tang also. Just to point out, my sohal tang also does the sand slapping thing. He was in qt for a month and showed no signs of disease before I added him to the display. It has been a few months and it just began to display that behavior. But otherwise it is a voracious eater, loves his nori and PE. He only displays the occasional aggression towards his tankmates, an emperor angel and blonde naso, which are both bigger than him. Just my experience and might I add, a very beautiful fish!
 
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