I must say, that as a North European it's sometimes rather hard for me to understand that someone is actually even considering keeping such a big fish in such a small tank...
I see these things every day here in RC. Things that just aren't right. Often it's HUGE tangs, angels and such kept in tanks that are far too small... Too small in our eyes.
Here in Finland we have quite clear laws about animals. Here is a translation I made:
"An aquarium must be fitted with lid or coverslips so that the fish do not jump out. One side of the aquarium must have a cover, unless the aquarium vegetation or other decoration give adequate protection for fish.
Aquarium water quantity, quality, temperature, water surface area and the depth of the water must be suitable taking account of the fish species, fish size and number. Water must be replaced or cleaned regularly in order to maintain good quality. Dead fish are removed from the aquarium immediately.
Aquarium decoration and the base material must be suitable for fish. Fish must have, if necessary, suitable hiding places.
When combining groups of fish, flocks, and species, or when introducing new fish category, particular attention should be paid to the compatibility of the fish and the fish swarm behavior.
Fish is not kept in a round tank!
Aquarium must have at least 1 liter of water for each of up to 5 cm fish and at least 4 liters of water for each of up to 10 cm fish. Aquarium water is always at least 40 liters."
Luckily, when there is not that many fish stores here, and everyone basically knows everyone in this hobby, the chances of someone doing something stupid are quite low. Usually we just shoot all bad ideas down right away, and the LFS's here don't sell a fish if the tank is not suitable. It happens all the time with ignorant people. When the circles are this small, a bad reputation can do some real harm, especially for the fish store that sells unsuitable fishes to unsuitable tanks. So the FLS' here can't afford to get that kind of reputation, and thus we don't often even see this kind of questions here in our finnish forums.
I believe that it might be hard for some of you to understand, but for an example we only have 3 Sohals here, as far as I know. I have one of them. 2 Clown Tangs, and so on and so on... We see this kind of fish as species that require special care, and everyone knows that. We take these things quite seriously.
If someone tries to keep ANY tang in a tank that is less than 66 gallons, he/she will be most likely be attacked by the "tang police" :uzi:And believe you me, we have a lot of them here :worried: I consider myself as one of them...