Hi all! Been lurking on the forum for awhile but haven't posted before.
My husband and I recently jumped headfirst into reefing. We acquired our first SW tank (I've kept FW before but he's never had an aquarium) a couple of weeks ago. We bought a 1.5 yr old 90 gal setup that the owner listed on Craigslist. We paid $700 bucks for probably 2-3 grand worth of equipment, supplies, LR, fish, inverts, and soft coral. It was a great deal but of course now we have to figure out what to do with all the previous owner's odd decisions (drilled tank but no sump, a gargantuan skimmer, etc)...and the fish. At the time we bought it, the system had a pair of Clarks clowns, a pair of black ocellaris clowns, a lone percula clown, three smallish yellow tangs (largest about 3.5-4 in), two blue hippo tangs (largest about 5 in) and a striped mandarin. The black clowns have already gone to LFS since we felt like that was clownfish overload. Everybody else seems to be doing OK.
With that background, my question is about what to do with the tangs. I know they will get bigger (esp the hippos). Right now they seem to get along ok - there is some sporadic chasing and so on but we haven't seen any actual nipping or physical damage. If they "grow up" together will they likely continue like this or should we expect the aggression to escalate as they grow? Are they going to be too crowded when they are full grown in this size tank? If so can we get away with maybe keeping one of each?
Input from anyone with some experience in this area would be appreciated!
My husband and I recently jumped headfirst into reefing. We acquired our first SW tank (I've kept FW before but he's never had an aquarium) a couple of weeks ago. We bought a 1.5 yr old 90 gal setup that the owner listed on Craigslist. We paid $700 bucks for probably 2-3 grand worth of equipment, supplies, LR, fish, inverts, and soft coral. It was a great deal but of course now we have to figure out what to do with all the previous owner's odd decisions (drilled tank but no sump, a gargantuan skimmer, etc)...and the fish. At the time we bought it, the system had a pair of Clarks clowns, a pair of black ocellaris clowns, a lone percula clown, three smallish yellow tangs (largest about 3.5-4 in), two blue hippo tangs (largest about 5 in) and a striped mandarin. The black clowns have already gone to LFS since we felt like that was clownfish overload. Everybody else seems to be doing OK.
With that background, my question is about what to do with the tangs. I know they will get bigger (esp the hippos). Right now they seem to get along ok - there is some sporadic chasing and so on but we haven't seen any actual nipping or physical damage. If they "grow up" together will they likely continue like this or should we expect the aggression to escalate as they grow? Are they going to be too crowded when they are full grown in this size tank? If so can we get away with maybe keeping one of each?
Input from anyone with some experience in this area would be appreciated!
