Trouble with Tangs

[Tripod1404]

As a biologist, I never liked the "omnivore" classification. It is a concept that is too loosely defined and to be honest it doesn't really classify animals based on feeding behavior. Wolfs, brown bears, humans, pigs are all classified as omnivores. Now wolfs feed mostly on other animals but also take in small amounts of plant materiel and the case for the pigs is just the opposite. For bears and humans food intake depends on the time of the year and the region. Inuit people and brown bears living in Alaska feed almost exclusively on a carnivorous diet of fish, whereas people living in India and bears living in Europe feed exclusively on plant materiel.

Furthermore,you can not make any evolutionary or behavioral grouping based on omnivorism. Brown bear is classified as an omnivore, giant panda is a herbivore and polar bear is a carnivore. All these animals are in the bear family (Ursidae) and are as closely related as any tang.

IME the term omnivore only indicates a flexibility in diet based on available resources and most fish are flexible in terms of diet. Even athias would eat nori if you cut it into small pieces and blow it with a power head.

 

[nereefpat]

My textbook comment was to pass on the definition of what a herbivore is, since there seems to be some confusion. I thought that would be clear. I only brought it up because I thought the comment about tangs not being herbivores is odd. You can easily find guy analysis data online. Fishbase is a good place to start.

 

[Tripod1404]

My textbook comment was to pass on the definition of what a herbivore is, since there seems to be some confusion. I thought that would be clear. I only brought it up because I thought the comment about tangs not being herbivores is odd. You can easily find guy analysis data online. Fishbase is a good place to start.

Ohh no don't get me wrong, I agree with you that tang's are herbivorous. What I was trying to say was classifying tangs as omnivore don't really make any sense since that term really doesn't indicate a specific diet or even a specific set of behaviors. I dont even know any strictly herbivorous fish that would not eat anything except plant material. Manatees and certain sea turtles might fit to that definition, but they are not fish.
Most fish are flexible in terms of their diets, if they see something that they can fit in their mouths, most of the time they give it a try. So if a tang sees an amphipod on the rock it is grazing on, it would not avoid it and if it stands still it would most likely eat it. But if the amphipod run away to the underside of the rock, would it chase it? Would it try to flip the rock like a wrasse or would it try to blow water under the rock to flush it out like a trigger fish, I don't think so.

 

[jda]

...so if you are raising a tang in academia, on the internet, in a textbook or even in a screensaver, they are herbivorous. If you see one in the ocean or in a captive tank, they will need to eat whatever they can find and will eat whatever they can find and you need to feed them some meat with some fatty acids and vitamin E.

Again, I don't want to sound doochie, but I don't want somebody to read this and harm their tangs by just feeding it nori and other greens.

Do either of you academics have any actual experiences to offer? I am sure that people would love to hear about them.

Let me blow everybody's mind... most triggers will eat algae and nori. Boom!

 

[rsepiphyte]

How interesting, never thought about using mirrors.

 

[jda]

I forgot to mention that hellacious flow can also make tangs mad. I don't think that they like to be tossed about all day. I am talking about so much flow that sand will not stay put. I have a wavebox in every tank and they seem to look getting swayed around like on a real reef.

 

[gr3]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Just FYI, I actually e-mailed Russ from American Reef and he responded right away and told me how he stocked him 110 gallon four foot tank with so many Tangs for so many years. I took my yellow Tang out of the tank for now and will sleep on all of the answers and information that everyone has given me on this post and in messages etc. I like that everyone is so helpful. Keep on Reefing!

 

[Tripod1404]

...so if you are raising a tang in academia, on the internet, in a textbook or even in a screensaver, they are herbivorous. If you see one in the ocean or in a captive tank, they will need to eat whatever they can find and will eat whatever they can find and you need to feed them some meat with some fatty acids and vitamin E.

Again, I don't want to sound doochie, but I don't want somebody to read this and harm their tangs by just feeding it nori and other greens.

Do either of you academics have any actual experiences to offer? I am sure that people would love to hear about them.

Let me blow everybody's mind... most triggers will eat algae and nori. Boom!

You should not feed any fish a diet based in a single ingredient anyways nori or not. First of all, the greens tangs eat in wild are fresh and contain small crustaceans, worms ,etc. that live on the algae. The nori we get for our fish is washed, rinsed and get dried. At the end only dry algae is left. That is like eating dried basil for the rest of your life and expect to be healthy. If you could grow your own macro-algae with all the hitchhikers on and feed it to your tangs, they would be fine. Btw plants also contain fatty acids and vitamin E but drying can reduce their content. Actually spinach contain ~4 fold more vitamin E per 100g compared to beef. The issue is providing a balanced diet and there are multiple ways of achieving that.

Scientifically speaking most tangs are herbivores. They have the anatomical adaptions for this row of teeth to scrap algae to long intestines to digest it. That does no mean they only eat algae, but they evolved to eat algae.

Btw there is nothing fascinating about triggers eating nori... like a said before, even anthias would eat nori if you cut it into small pieces. In captivity fish associate their owners with food, so after some time they will try to eat anything you put into water.

 

[drpisces83]

Tang Issues

Tang Issues

Hey guys, I upgraded from a 60g to 150g FOWLR a month ago. It will soon become a reef tank..slowly. One of the main reasons was to have a greater variety of beautiful fish. My current livestock is:
-Tomini Tang (3.5 inches)- 1st member
-Eibli Angelgish (3 inches)-2nd member
-Yellow Tang (4-4.5 inches)-3rd member
-PBT (2.5-3 inches)- 4th member
-Large watchmen goby
-Chocolate star
-Pair of Ocellaris clowns
-Cleaner shrimp
-Currently acclimating a Blue Spotted Jawfish (2.5 inches) and a Green bulb anemone

We've been noticing a lot of aggression from the Yellow tang during feeding time and about an hour after feeding recently. They've all been coexisting for about 2-3 weeks now with no major issues. The PBT likes to hang out in the cave but is coming out to feed now. We keep two nori clips on each end of the tank so food supply is never scarce and hopefully reduces aggression. However, yesterday we were using an algae scrubber to get some of the diatoms off the display tank. The lights were on and all the fish were freaked out as a large scruber going back and forth was in the tank. Soon after this, we fed some Mysis. The yellow tang nipped the back of the Tomini tang and although they've chased each other around before, it never led to physical harm.

Do you think this was due to a combination of feeding/stress from the scruber/lights on? Or might this be an indicator of more aggression to come? Normally they just swim around each other but the Yellow tang is definitely they boss, more of a jerk. Any suggestions? If I put a mirror in the tank, how long should I keep it up for? Can my Tomini recover from a fin nip? He doesn't seem to be too bothered...but he was my first tang and I feel bad. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks! (Sorry for the long post)

 

[mike61289]

Hey guys, I upgraded from a 60g to 150g FOWLR a month ago. It will soon become a reef tank..slowly. One of the main reasons was to have a greater variety of beautiful fish. My current livestock is:
-Tomini Tang (3.5 inches)- 1st member
-Eibli Angelgish (3 inches)-2nd member
-Yellow Tang (4-4.5 inches)-3rd member
-PBT (2.5-3 inches)- 4th member
-Large watchmen goby
-Chocolate star
-Pair of Ocellaris clowns
-Cleaner shrimp
-Currently acclimating a Blue Spotted Jawfish (2.5 inches) and a Green bulb anemone

We've been noticing a lot of aggression from the Yellow tang during feeding time and about an hour after feeding recently. They've all been coexisting for about 2-3 weeks now with no major issues. The PBT likes to hang out in the cave but is coming out to feed now. We keep two nori clips on each end of the tank so food supply is never scarce and hopefully reduces aggression. However, yesterday we were using an algae scrubber to get some of the diatoms off the display tank. The lights were on and all the fish were freaked out as a large scruber going back and forth was in the tank. Soon after this, we fed some Mysis. The yellow tang nipped the back of the Tomini tang and although they've chased each other around before, it never led to physical harm.

Do you think this was due to a combination of feeding/stress from the scruber/lights on? Or might this be an indicator of more aggression to come? Normally they just swim around each other but the Yellow tang is definitely they boss, more of a jerk. Any suggestions? If I put a mirror in the tank, how long should I keep it up for? Can my Tomini recover from a fin nip? He doesn't seem to be too bothered...but he was my first tang and I feel bad. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks! (Sorry for the long post)

Your tank is wayyyyy too small for 3 tangs. They're competitors for similar resources and usually inhabit large patches of a reef, far larger than a 65 gallon can provide. It's good to hear that you have another tank lined up, but I would remove the yellow and powder blue (at the very least) until the 150 is ready. Please keep in mind that even a 150 might be small for the 3 of them.

Your tomini will recover from the nip if it's kept healthy.