The steven liu
New member
First of all, I work at a LFS so I have the luxury to observe and pick the best livestock for a long while (if they aren't sold for a while) before I take them home with me. So I am always able to stock my tank with the sure survivor from collecting and shipping since I generally observe them for a couple weeks before I take them home. I have only a 50G tank with a 15G sump. I do intend to upgrade to a larger tank after the summer when I move. So whatever I put in my tank now as a juvinile will eventually be in a bigger tank when they grow up.
For the longest time I have only kept one 3" zebrazoma scopas together with 3 chromis and a pink skink clown. I wished to add alittle more vibrancy to my tank so I began hunting for another reef safe fish with moderate size potential.
After two weeks of observation at the store I brought home a female 3" Genicanthus Watanab (watanabe angel). I was really nervous when I put her in since I am not sure what the reaction of the tang will be. To my surprise the tang completely ignored her and let her be. She hid for two days adjusting to my tank's lighting and has been swimming around and eating fine since then.
After that I decided I would risk another Tang since my scopas seem to be tamer than I would hope for. So I picked up a 2" paracanthurus hipatus (hoppo tang) , again, from observing it for two weeks. I prayed that he will be a success mix since it is a totally different shape and color from the scopas. And again to my surprise not only the scopas left it along, the hippo tang was out and swimming the very next day and even feed with the scopas side by side as I feed them!
I think my success was based on :
1. dumb luck
2. tangs of different shape and color
3. patient and advantage of my work
Sofar these three fishes are all juvinile and are living happily together in my 50G. Obviously this will not be adequate setup once they grow up. But for the time being, I am very happy the introduction of the new fishes were smooth.

For the longest time I have only kept one 3" zebrazoma scopas together with 3 chromis and a pink skink clown. I wished to add alittle more vibrancy to my tank so I began hunting for another reef safe fish with moderate size potential.
After two weeks of observation at the store I brought home a female 3" Genicanthus Watanab (watanabe angel). I was really nervous when I put her in since I am not sure what the reaction of the tang will be. To my surprise the tang completely ignored her and let her be. She hid for two days adjusting to my tank's lighting and has been swimming around and eating fine since then.
After that I decided I would risk another Tang since my scopas seem to be tamer than I would hope for. So I picked up a 2" paracanthurus hipatus (hoppo tang) , again, from observing it for two weeks. I prayed that he will be a success mix since it is a totally different shape and color from the scopas. And again to my surprise not only the scopas left it along, the hippo tang was out and swimming the very next day and even feed with the scopas side by side as I feed them!
I think my success was based on :
1. dumb luck
2. tangs of different shape and color
3. patient and advantage of my work
Sofar these three fishes are all juvinile and are living happily together in my 50G. Obviously this will not be adequate setup once they grow up. But for the time being, I am very happy the introduction of the new fishes were smooth.