Tang in my tank...

C

critofer

New member
Hey all,

Today i was hoping to get a new fish for my tank, i did but it was a bad choice now that i looked up the fish...

I was at my LFS and came across a sailfin tang.(i didnt know what it was at the store) It was the coolest looking fish! I called the LFS person over to ask them some questions about it. These are the questions i asked them and the answer they gave me:

Temperment? - Extremely peaceful
Will it fit in my 30 gallon tank? - Definitly
Is it reef safe? - Yes
Is it easy to care for? - Yupp



With those answers it sounded like a perfect fish so i went ahead and bought it since it was 30 bucks...

***Later That Day***

google search: sailfin fish
processing...
Did you mean Sailfin Tang?
yes
processing...

www.liveaquria.com/tang/sailfin (or something like that)

Minimum tank size - 135 gallon
Difficulty - moderate
Temperament - Semi-aggressive

my reaction:
WOW!!!!!!!!! that stupid LFS guy said i could have it in my tank!
**punch computer monitor**




soooo as you can see i bought a fish that is wayyyy to big for my little tank
its currently only like 2 inches but still....
I am stuck with it since my LFS doesn't take returns even for free....

Thats how my day at the LFS went today!
 
I remember your avatar.. didn't your LFS already sell you something inappropriate? An anemone?

Why would you trust them again?
 
thats why you should always research before buying. the LFS will tell you anything you want to hear just to sell something. maybe there is a local reefer around you that will take it.

good luck. and we always learn from mistakes
 
yeah, mine treat me real well, credit me for casualties and take things back. Still though, retail is retail and they SELL. He's getting to big for your 30? No problem, take a look at this tank over here! I am in love with a $200 bubble tip they have and they assure me he will do great...I, luckily, asked first here. 6 months was the advice. Seems reasonable. Sailfin probably is OK in there for now, with now being a very short window.
 
if you have never seen or heard of a sailfin tang before in this hobby, you should not be buying anything but books in this hobby.
 
Then what you need to know is that you must research, research, research before you start buying anything. Not only will this keep you from buying inappropriate things but you will discover all kinds of amazing things you didn't know about to add to your tank that are appropriate. Put the sailfin on CL, do some research to build a stock list and run it buy this community. That is how you become successful in this hobby. Happy reefing!
 
Give him a break guy's, we have all made mistakes in the beginning.

The fish will be fine for a while, then sell it or trade for some frags.
 
this is where my iphone sometimes saves me at the LFS - just a quick lookup and there, i show the sales guy where he got it wrong
 
Relax everybody. This person did go home and do the research on the fish to know as much as he/she cold to properly care for it. What about all the true ignorant ones that will purposely try and keep a fish like this in a small tank and NOT put a post on here?
I for one have gone to my LFS with piles of knowledge of corals and fish, but would still see something I didn't recognize, ask questions about the specimen to the people working there, and then research it later when I got home if I chose to buy it... I have 12+ books on reefs and fish. Not everything is memorized.
Unfortunately tangs grow fast and big in a very short amount of time. So start looking for someone with a much larger tank to sell it to locally.
 
Did you ask the LFS if they would take it back for credit and maybe state that after further researching the tank isn't suitable for such a small tank? Give it a shot if you didn't and that way you can get something else.

As for the LFS. There seems to be a lot of hate on this forum towards LFS but there are good ones out there too. I think the problem doesn't so much have to deal with the LFS but more with the people who work there. I am finding more and more that people don't like to say "I don't know" and instead just make something up. This is true in all industries.
 
reefinder said:
if you have never seen or heard of a sailfin tang before in this hobby, you should not be buying anything but books in this hobby.
Click to expand...

bigworm175 said:
+1 for not buying anything but books.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: This sort of commentary is not necessary.

I'm not familiar with the classification and naming of tangs, and I don't really own any reef-related books. However, I've been quite successful in my reefing pursuits over the years. We all figure out the do's and don'ts via our own path, and I believe it's pretty safe to say that familiarity with any specific fish is not a prerequisite.
 
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