Tang input needed

[nikon187]

Several clown tangs? Had?

It's one of my favorite fish appearance wise, but they simply don't work out in aquaria long-term and are best left in the ocean. Find me a single person here that has a tank under several hundred gallons that has been able to keep one without it becoming an absolute terror after a year or two.

Mines going on 3+ yrs, 9.5 inches in my 210. Raised from 1.5 inch. 7 wrasses , 3 tangs, chromis, clowns ect. Not advocating it in any way and have much bigger tanks at my store if need be. My new tank is going to be 120 x 36 x 24 or 120 x 48 x 24 just to accomadate him. he is mean but not too bad.

 

[dppitone]

Several clown tangs? Had?

Yes had. We trade our fish after a couple years to folks in our reef club, so we can experience and learn with different groupings and types. I only comment here on things I have direct knowledge of.

If you've kept several clowns and have found severe aggression each time after a couple years than that's a good anecdote to pass along, maybe you can share more details.

 

[Peter Eichler]

Yes had. We trade our fish after a couple years to folks in our reef club, so we can experience and learn with different groupings and types. I only comment here on things I have direct knowledge of.

If you've kept several clowns and have found severe aggression each time after a couple years than that's a good anecdote to pass along, maybe you can share more details.

In my nearly 30 years in the hobby I've kept 3 and have known many others that have kept or attempted to keep them. Most of them die, of the ones that have lived every single one of them had become so aggressive that it's impossible to add any fish that are remotely similar is size, and in some instances those clown tangs would kill any new addition and attack the owners when trying to do maintenance.

It has been years since I've tried, so perhaps clown tangs have mellowed in recent years

 

[dppitone]

No I doubt it :eek1: :bum: Just different fish have different personalities. We've had the one bully that we had to remove. And we had two others I believe, that got along fine.

I've always picked them up from other reefers, so the one's we got had survived in captivity for a while beforehand. And added to already established groups which maybe helps with the community aspect.

If we picked them up from an LFS directly, there may have been different outcomes with survival. I can't say though, as we rarely pick up fish that way.

 

[jjk_reef00]

A few years ago someone on here had a very large sohal with a few damsels. The fish was very impressive but I agree with the others when they say the tank would be much more interesting if you were able to add more than one fish.

 

[BrianD]

A "couple of years"? Post your experience when it is 5 years, 6 years, etc.

 

[BrianD]

This thread doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to start an argument. Closed.