Tang Recomendation

[JoeVandal49]

Hey RC!

So im looking for a tang recommendation. Not concerned with appearance, just hardiness and compatibility.

I currently have a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. After QT this will be home for a couple years while we remodel our home. Eventually the last step of the remodel will be the room where i will be putting in a 600g+ display tank.

In the 300g rubbermaid tank i currently have-
Chocolate Tang
Bird Wrasse pair
Yellow Corris Wrasse
Yellow Stripe Marroon pair
Mandarin Dragonet
Yellow watchman goby
sixline wrasse
blue/green chromis

I also have a 55g QT and 3 ten gallon hospital tanks.

I have been in the hobby for about a year and have had bad success with tangs so far, but would like to add one more to compliment my Chocolate. My Chocolate has been hardy active and an overall awesome fish since day one.

So my history with Tangs.

The first tang i purchased was a hippo tang and it died within days of going into qt. Never again.

The second tang was a nice looking blonde naso tang. He did real well for around a month, then broke out with black ich. I treated with Prazipro, and he died towards the end of the first treatment. He was really fat and healthy, showed no signs of being effected by the treatment, and his black ich was actually almost fully cleared up, went to bed, woke up and he was dead.

Next was the Dejardini Sailfin. It was small but healthy. Did well in QT for a day, was eating Nori etc. Next day when i went to check he was dead and covered in ich spots.

Last tang was a really nice medium sized Tomini tang. Lasted three days then died for no reason. No signs of any distress disease, etc. Corpse look as good as it did alive.

I started this hobby with a 55g and unfortunately lost all of my first inhabitants very early on. At that time i was not QT and learned my lesson. I changed direction immediately after that first wipe, three months or so into the hobby.

I have not lost any fish outside of the tangs listed, and a scooter mandarin that i startled into my carpet anemone since that first wipe.

Please recommend me a Tang that is hardy and will be compatible with my Chocolate. Also any advice to up my success rate with tangs would be helpful, but i don't intend to add more than one more tang to this group of fish.

Thanks RC.

 

[robs.mark]

Once properly acclimated, any well conditioned tang will be hardy, maybe the achilles would be a little more delicate to begin with but once established should be good. Maybe your source, water quality, tank mates etc were the problem previously. I so no reason why any tang wouldn't flourish in a 600g

 

[Original DMx]

with a 600 gallon, you should be able to host any/all that you want. I had a successful 225 gallon with a chevron, yellow, powder blue, blue and plans of adding a clown tang. I had no problems with any of them. I ended up moving and downsizing after having it up and running for 1.5 years w/o incident.

 

[robs.mark]

:wavehand: welcome dmx

 

[9701124]

Yellow tangs are hardy and easy to keep. Purple tang is another good option - beautiful, but expensive. Another expensive option, but awesome, is Chevron. With a 600 gallon tank, you could have a whole host of tangs. The only tangs that I've heard are real hard to keep are achilles and sohal (very aggressive and mean).

So if I had a 600 gallon tank (the water changes! holy cow) I'd have some yellows, a Chevron, some nasos and a purple.

 

[JoeVandal49]

Well the large display is not setup yet, so the 300g stock tank will be home for a couple years while the home remodel progresses.

Regardless of that though, im not a huge fan of overly stocked tanks. My bird wrasses are also fairly large, and i will also be keeping a rabbit fish.

 

[Deinonych]

Purple or Powder Blue would be my recommendation.

 

[JoeVandal49]

Staying away from the Powder Blues. Too many issues associated with them from aggression to disease.

Purples get recommended often, but they just don't do it for me.

I mostly lean toward Acanthurus species, but i know housing two together can cause issues.

I really like the Dejardini Sailfins. Maybe i would have better luck with a more mature specimen.

Dejardini sailfin, Tomini, and Atlantic Blue are the three tangs im most drawn too currently. My bad luck with the Tomini and Sailfin have me second guessing though. I may have just had bad luck.

It stinks, because i have really been discouraged to even pick up a second tang to begin with due to my history with Tangs. I don't want to be killing fish just for the sake of trying to find a second one to place in with this group of fish.

Thanks everyone for the recomendations so far.

Any tangs out there that maybe are more drab in appearance, but make great inhabitants, and that maybe arent seen as often in the hobby due to appearance? I went with my chocolate tang for some of these above reasons. If anyone has similar suggestions that would be great. Again, appearance is not the #1 factor in choosing this fish. In fact i tend to like my large fish on the more drab side relatively speaking because i find they don't take away the attraction of my smaller fish.

 

[Deinonych]

Any tangs out there that maybe are more drab in appearance, but make great inhabitants, and that maybe arent seen as often in the hobby due to appearance? I went with my chocolate tang for some of these above reasons. If anyone has similar suggestions that would be great. Again, appearance is not the #1 factor in choosing this fish. In fact i tend to like my large fish on the more drab side relatively speaking because i find they don't take away the attraction of my smaller fish.

Mature chevron tangs are somewhat drab from afar, but quite beautiful up close. It's fun to which them transition from juvenile to adult coloration. Not an Acanthurus sp., though, and not really uncommon per se.

 

[JoeVandal49]

Mature chevron tangs are somewhat drab from afar, but quite beautiful up close. It's fun to which them transition from juvenile to adult coloration. Not an Acanthurus sp., though, and not really uncommon per se.

I like the Chevrons, and would be ok with a bristletooth. Chevron or Tomini would be my choice from that group, but i have heard Bristletooths can be hit or miss to acclimate, and i lost my Tomini in the blink of an eye with no signs of stress or disease. His corpse looked as good as it did alive.

I think ideally i would want something that would get a bit larger than my Chocolate. I was kind of leaning towards a bristle tooth at this point as a potential third tang down the line when i move to the 600g.

The male naso was very appealing to me because of size (probably get too big still for what im after) and the beautiful streamers. I think ideally i would want something that fell somewhere in max size between a chocolate and a naso.

 

[moriarty]

Have you looked at Acanthurus bahianus at all? Not too common in the trade because of their relatively drab coloration, but they more than make up for it in other ways (easy going, hardy, and don't get too huge). Mine has been a model citizen.

My personal favorite tang is Naso unicornis. I currently have 2 in my 10' pool. They are very personable, will take food from my hand, and have never shown any type of aggression whatsoever, even toward new additions (including other Naso species).

Here's a pic of my 2 N. unicornis. They are still young (9 and 7") and haven't developed the "horn" yet. Coloration will get better with growth as well.

 

[Ktm898]

My personal favorite tang is Naso unicornis. I currently have 2 in my 10' pool. They are very personable, will take food from my hand, and have never shown any type of aggression whatsoever, even toward new additions (including other Naso species).

Here's a pic of my 2 N. unicornis. They are still young (9 and 7") and haven't developed the "horn" yet. Coloration will get better with growth as well.

will the blue spot on their tail become more obvious?

 

[moriarty]

Yeah, they will have 2 bright blue spots on each side similar to the orange on Naso lituratus. The blue on the lip and dorsal fin will get more pronounced as well.

 

[JoeVandal49]

Have you looked at Acanthurus bahianus at all? Not too common in the trade because of their relatively drab coloration, but they more than make up for it in other ways (easy going, hardy, and don't get too huge). Mine has been a model citizen.

My personal favorite tang is Naso unicornis. I currently have 2 in my 10' pool. They are very personable, will take food from my hand, and have never shown any type of aggression whatsoever, even toward new additions (including other Naso species).

Here's a pic of my 2 N. unicornis. They are still young (9 and 7") and haven't developed the "horn" yet. Coloration will get better with growth as well.

I love the Unicornis as well. I love Blonde Nasos as well, but the one i bought was really healthy, and i thought i had him recovered from black ich, then boom dead. After some research i hesitate to try another Blonde Naso because i have heard of worries of Cyanide used in their capture. Are there similar concerns with the unicornis?

I will have to take a look at Acanthurus Bahianus.

 

[moriarty]

As far as I know, most N. unicornis are collected in Hawaii, so you shouldn't have any issues there. Both of mine were a bit thin when I brought them home, but immediately started eating and putting on weight.

edit: I just checked Liveaquaria, and they do not list Hawaii as an origin at all. According to the LFS where I purchased mine, they were both collected in Hawaii. It may be a good idea to inquire about origin just to be safe, but IME these guys are really tough fish.

Sorry to hear about your blonde Naso. I lost mine just this morning. Not 100% sure of the cause, but after reading some other recent threads on here, I do suspect some kind of issue in collection.

 

[JoeVandal49]

Thoughts on pairing an orange shoulder tang with my chocolate? That would give me right about the size ratio i am looking for full grown.

Both Acanthurus, so not sure what concern there would be if any between these two.

 

[noy]

Thoughts on pairing an orange shoulder tang with my chocolate? That would give me right about the size ratio i am looking for full grown.

Both Acanthurus, so not sure what concern there would be if any between these two.

Never kept a chocolate but I've kept an OS Tang for over 2 years. They are fairly peaceful and big enough to withstand any bullying from more aggressive tankmates. They are great at cleaning algae off rockwork.

 

[stechs02]

I don't think anyone recommended this and if I missed it my apologies. What about a Naso Tang? They are beautiful/active fish? Mine would eat out of my hand. They are also one of the better options for bubble algae. Not saying you have/will have bubble algae in your tank but it's nice insurance.

 

[Deinonych]

OP mentioned having a Naso in the first post.

 

[nuxx]

CHEVRON CHEVRON CHEVRON CHEVRON

Wait...

Did I mention CHEVRON?

LOVE our Chevron and he's a beautiful, hardy, active and useful fish.