billyboy69
New member
thats what I'm worried about, after a few years do most of them get really nasty? and at what age/size do the start getting aggressive ?
who's had success with Sohal tangs
- Thread starter billyboy69
- Start date
First one I kept got to about 7 inches before I felt an 8 ft tanks was too small and moved it on. Second one got to about 10 inches, and I say once it exceeded about 8 inches the rest of my fish were on borrowed time. Sorry this is just a mean fish.
Trouble is that too many planned upgrades end up not happening - the earnestness of the reefer notwithstanding. I think you buy fish based on the size of your current tank not what could be.
Trouble is that too many planned upgrades end up not happening - the earnestness of the reefer notwithstanding. I think you buy fish based on the size of your current tank not what could be.
CedzAquAddictio
New member
Don't have one. Never said I did. What i do have is a 225g tank with a pair of bj triggers, yellow tang, and scarus parrot. 225g isnt really as big as most may think for fish that have to spend their lives in it. I do plan on adding more, but they wil be smaller fish.
My words pretty much apply to any fish. Wasn't trying to nullify your response. Just making a statement.
billyboy69
New member
true... but you'll be seeing my new tank build soon, something that big has to wait just a few months ones I'm all moved into the new house ill get it started....just hope I'm not building a monster tank just for one fish.
Fish Bowl
New member
I've seen a much smaller Sohal attempt to bully a Very Large Emperor Angelfish before in a 8'x3'x3'. I'm willing to wager when it gets bigger, the Emperor won't be alive for much longer.
So if by Success = it living and not dying easily? No problem
Tank Mate success? Damsels...maybe?
So if by Success = it living and not dying easily? No problem
Tank Mate success? Damsels...maybe?
billyboy69
New member
i really don't wanna get kicked off the forum but I really hate the tang police!!! like what fish belongs in any glass box that fits in are homes? lol ....ill use the search or google for now on I'm just not in the mood for cops...im sure a small sohal will be just fine in a 180 for a few months....i did learn something, sounds like i really need to get my new tank set up before the fish is 7-8 inches. and ill get the smallest one i can order... oh and maybe 10X4x4 would be a better tank size......but really all i wanted was to her from people that were keeping this fish and hear the good and the bad about keeping Sohals ....
CedzAquAddictio
New member
Best of luck, Man. Keep us posted when the build starts too. We love pics...
Duality
New member
My sohal is my boy. I've had him for 3.5 years already. When I bought him he was dam near dead from a LFS. I was given an awesome deal. So I rescued him. I QTed him for 2weeks then put him in my 150. Had him in that tank for a year or so with a yellow and blue. One weekend when I was out of town the solenoid on my co2 for my cal reactor got stuck open and the pH in my DT was lower then 3. That was the lowest my monitor would read.
The sohal and nems were the only thing that lived. So I had a buddy watch my things tell I upgraded. A few months later I finished building my current system a 180 peninsula.
He was the first fish that went in the tank. About a month after I was given a purple tang from a club member. They did not fight at all at first then the purple started to flair up on the sohal. That ended pretty fast after the sohal put him in check. A few months after that I was given a yellow and a blue from another club member, his tank crashed from chemi clean. The yellow and blue where on there last leg when he brought them over. I put them in my fug for a few days to get them strong enough to defend them selfs. A week later I added the yellow and blue with no problems. It stayed this way for another month with no fighting. Not until I added my last tang witch caused most of the drama and that was a clown tang. A few minutes after I added the clown the sohal went nuts on the clown and chased him for hours. I couldn't get neither one of them out so I had to do something to get the sohals attention. I put a full length mirror up on one side of the tank. Immediately the sohal went from chasing the clown to fighting his reflection. I left the mirror up for 3 days. Then I took the mirror down a 5 tang were fine and there has been minimal fighting among them. For the last year maybe longer. I even added a CBB 4 months ago and every thing is fine.
I will say that the sohal is the king of the tank and all of the other fish know that. He will make sure he knows it too. Also the sohal is a fearless fish in my eyes well mine is. He has no problem with coming right up to my hands and checking them out. He even lets me pick him up out of the water with no problems. As soon as I put him back in he's back at my hands to check them out again. He has never backed down from any one of my fish. The guy that watched him for me while I didn't have a tank. Had him in a 75gal with a 8" lieutenant tang. My sohal was 4 maybe 5" and he killed the lieutenant tang.
The sohal and nems were the only thing that lived. So I had a buddy watch my things tell I upgraded. A few months later I finished building my current system a 180 peninsula.
He was the first fish that went in the tank. About a month after I was given a purple tang from a club member. They did not fight at all at first then the purple started to flair up on the sohal. That ended pretty fast after the sohal put him in check. A few months after that I was given a yellow and a blue from another club member, his tank crashed from chemi clean. The yellow and blue where on there last leg when he brought them over. I put them in my fug for a few days to get them strong enough to defend them selfs. A week later I added the yellow and blue with no problems. It stayed this way for another month with no fighting. Not until I added my last tang witch caused most of the drama and that was a clown tang. A few minutes after I added the clown the sohal went nuts on the clown and chased him for hours. I couldn't get neither one of them out so I had to do something to get the sohals attention. I put a full length mirror up on one side of the tank. Immediately the sohal went from chasing the clown to fighting his reflection. I left the mirror up for 3 days. Then I took the mirror down a 5 tang were fine and there has been minimal fighting among them. For the last year maybe longer. I even added a CBB 4 months ago and every thing is fine.
I will say that the sohal is the king of the tank and all of the other fish know that. He will make sure he knows it too. Also the sohal is a fearless fish in my eyes well mine is. He has no problem with coming right up to my hands and checking them out. He even lets me pick him up out of the water with no problems. As soon as I put him back in he's back at my hands to check them out again. He has never backed down from any one of my fish. The guy that watched him for me while I didn't have a tank. Had him in a 75gal with a 8" lieutenant tang. My sohal was 4 maybe 5" and he killed the lieutenant tang.
Fish Bowl
New member
I don't think any of us are necessarily being tang police.
We all mentioned the good = hardy fish
We all Emphasized on the bad = Regardless of the tank size, a Sohal is generally not a good fish to keep long term due to it being very likely to go ballistic on most/any tank mates you would ever consider.
Not to mention it gets worse when you have another fish that essentially demands to be the ruler of the tank (Emperor Angelfish) since they rarely back down = 1/the other/both will die.
Think of it like a Clown Trigger, beautiful and generally hardy fish that begs the question of what tank mates, etc.
The answer to both the Sohal and Clown Trigger are essentially the same = Tank mates are simply a temporary thing since it will go ballistic at some point and time.
Probably one of the worst things you can do is simply go against good advice and follow one bad example. You don't win in the long run.
Duality
New member
who's had success with Sohal tangs
Just think like EasyE. I've got 5 tangs in my 180 and there fine. All are 4" to 6" in size. In a year or so I'll jump into a 300 or plus to keep my sohal. He's like a member of the family at this point. If he needs his own tank ill keep him in the 180 by him self then.
Just think like EasyE. I've got 5 tangs in my 180 and there fine. All are 4" to 6" in size. In a year or so I'll jump into a 300 or plus to keep my sohal. He's like a member of the family at this point. If he needs his own tank ill keep him in the 180 by him self then.
Rollins4Miles
New member
You're probably right in the fact that I may lack experience to give advice on these fish. I do feel that my limited experience is still better than no experience. With that said, I believe most advice given should be taken with a grain of salt. I understand and appreciate you questioning my experience as it may be misleading. I hope that the OP and whoever else may read this will take these facts into consideration when contemplating the addition of this fish.
I wondered if I had stated in my first post that my experience was the stereotypical experience in that my sohal was a terror and killed everything in my tank, if you would still have questioned my level of experience with this fish, lol. :love1:
billyboy69
New member
my first reef was before the Internet lol but yes no experience with Sohal tangs lol....do they normally grow fast??
billyboy69
New member
thanks for the reply...My sohal is my boy. I've had him for 3.5 years already. When I bought him he was dam near dead from a LFS. I was given an awesome deal. So I rescued him. I QTed him for 2weeks then put him in my 150. Had him in that tank for a year or so with a yellow and blue. One weekend when I was out of town the solenoid on my co2 for my cal reactor got stuck open and the pH in my DT was lower then 3. That was the lowest my monitor would read.
The sohal and nems were the only thing that lived. So I had a buddy watch my things tell I upgraded. A few months later I finished building my current system a 180 peninsula.
He was the first fish that went in the tank. About a month after I was given a purple tang from a club member. They did not fight at all at first then the purple started to flair up on the sohal. That ended pretty fast after the sohal put him in check. A few months after that I was given a yellow and a blue from another club member, his tank crashed from chemi clean. The yellow and blue where on there last leg when he brought them over. I put them in my fug for a few days to get them strong enough to defend them selfs. A week later I added the yellow and blue with no problems. It stayed this way for another month with no fighting. Not until I added my last tang witch caused most of the drama and that was a clown tang. A few minutes after I added the clown the sohal went nuts on the clown and chased him for hours. I couldn't get neither one of them out so I had to do something to get the sohals attention. I put a full length mirror up on one side of the tank. Immediately the sohal went from chasing the clown to fighting his reflection. I left the mirror up for 3 days. Then I took the mirror down a 5 tang were fine and there has been minimal fighting among them. For the last year maybe longer. I even added a CBB 4 months ago and every thing is fine.
I will say that the sohal is the king of the tank and all of the other fish know that. He will make sure he knows it too. Also the sohal is a fearless fish in my eyes well mine is. He has no problem with coming right up to my hands and checking them out. He even lets me pick him up out of the water with no problems. As soon as I put him back in he's back at my hands to check them out again. He has never backed down from any one of my fish. The guy that watched him for me while I didn't have a tank. Had him in a 75gal with a 8" lieutenant tang. My sohal was 4 maybe 5" and he killed the lieutenant tang.
billyboy69
New member
Nice clown Tang, Ill stay away from them Im sure the Sohal is gonna give me all the drama i need for now
asylumdown
New member
When I was a fresh salt newb, before I realized how useful having a phone with the internet on it could be, I had a 90 gallon aquarium.
I wanted a tang because I thought tangs were bad a**. I wet to one of the LFS here in town and saw a 4 inch sohal in one of their larger tanks and said to the owner (yes, the owner):
"wow that's an incredible fish, how big of a tank does it need?"
LFS owner: "How big is your tank?"
Me: "90 gallons"
LFS owner: "They need at least a 90 gallon tank".
Needless to say I don't shop there anymore, but before it went completely insane it was a very beautiful fish. But make no mistake, it did go insane. at 8.5 inches it looked utterly ridiculous in a 4ft tank, and it started chasing things just for the sake of chasing them. Sometimes it wouldn't even chase things, it would just zip back and forth so fast you could barely see it, which was enough to send over $2,000 in rare wrasses carpet surfing over the course of 6 months. It would also attack anything i put in the tank - algae scrapers, heaters... my hand. I got a couple really nasty cuts that I'm sure could have been much worse than they were.
In my original plan, there was going to be a 350 gallon tank in my future and I kept telling myself I could hang on to it until then, but then my future tank ended up being a 275 gallon, and the completion date kept getting moved back and back (ultimately it was 1.5 years later than I thought it would be). I tried pretty desperately to find someone in town who could take it, but the number of people in this city with 600 gallon tanks (the minimum number I would say a sohal should be in) that didn't already have one if they wanted it was effectively zero. I ended up having to give him to one of the LFS here in town. They put him in a 7 ft display tank, and were never able to sell him. By the time that store moved locations, the sohal was well over a foot long and looked ridiculous in a 7.5ft tank. He unfortunately didn't survive more than a couple of months at the new store location because their water quality was all over the place for the first several months.
My two cents - these fish can live up to 15 years, maybe longer. They need tons of swimming room. I would say 500-600 gallons is a minimum to keep the fish sane long term, let alone keep it from killing other things you've paid lots of money for once it reaches its max size. While it might be different for you, a sohal tang's life-span is almost always going to be longer than someone will have a big tank, and when it comes time to find it a new home, you're going to be hard-pressed finding anyone with the desire or capacity to take it. Maybe you'll find a sub-standard arrangement like I did that unfairly shortened its life-span, but IMO these are fish that are better left in the ocean period. I see about 200 times more juvenile sohal tangs in just the stores in Calgary than I know there are tanks large enough to house the adults in all of western Canada, which makes me wonder how many of these fish are dying long before they reach old age.
I wanted a tang because I thought tangs were bad a**. I wet to one of the LFS here in town and saw a 4 inch sohal in one of their larger tanks and said to the owner (yes, the owner):
"wow that's an incredible fish, how big of a tank does it need?"
LFS owner: "How big is your tank?"
Me: "90 gallons"
LFS owner: "They need at least a 90 gallon tank".
Needless to say I don't shop there anymore, but before it went completely insane it was a very beautiful fish. But make no mistake, it did go insane. at 8.5 inches it looked utterly ridiculous in a 4ft tank, and it started chasing things just for the sake of chasing them. Sometimes it wouldn't even chase things, it would just zip back and forth so fast you could barely see it, which was enough to send over $2,000 in rare wrasses carpet surfing over the course of 6 months. It would also attack anything i put in the tank - algae scrapers, heaters... my hand. I got a couple really nasty cuts that I'm sure could have been much worse than they were.
In my original plan, there was going to be a 350 gallon tank in my future and I kept telling myself I could hang on to it until then, but then my future tank ended up being a 275 gallon, and the completion date kept getting moved back and back (ultimately it was 1.5 years later than I thought it would be). I tried pretty desperately to find someone in town who could take it, but the number of people in this city with 600 gallon tanks (the minimum number I would say a sohal should be in) that didn't already have one if they wanted it was effectively zero. I ended up having to give him to one of the LFS here in town. They put him in a 7 ft display tank, and were never able to sell him. By the time that store moved locations, the sohal was well over a foot long and looked ridiculous in a 7.5ft tank. He unfortunately didn't survive more than a couple of months at the new store location because their water quality was all over the place for the first several months.
My two cents - these fish can live up to 15 years, maybe longer. They need tons of swimming room. I would say 500-600 gallons is a minimum to keep the fish sane long term, let alone keep it from killing other things you've paid lots of money for once it reaches its max size. While it might be different for you, a sohal tang's life-span is almost always going to be longer than someone will have a big tank, and when it comes time to find it a new home, you're going to be hard-pressed finding anyone with the desire or capacity to take it. Maybe you'll find a sub-standard arrangement like I did that unfairly shortened its life-span, but IMO these are fish that are better left in the ocean period. I see about 200 times more juvenile sohal tangs in just the stores in Calgary than I know there are tanks large enough to house the adults in all of western Canada, which makes me wonder how many of these fish are dying long before they reach old age.
billyboy69
New member
so when move it to a much larger tank its all gonna be peace and love in the tank?? i work with glass and acrylic for a living so I'm sure i can give it some room, maybe my 180 will make a really nice sump lol
55coolgalreef
In Memoriam
yep these fish have a way of getting us to upgrade to insane volumes of water..
i had a 300 gallon a while back.. it was definately nice but wow to put enough coral in it to make it look decent was another thing as well...
i love my 90 gallon and will keep fish to that size..
i had a 300 gallon a while back.. it was definately nice but wow to put enough coral in it to make it look decent was another thing as well...
i love my 90 gallon and will keep fish to that size..
slgcmg
New member
I have seen 4 in tanks before and 3 were terrors and harassed anything and everything. I think they were in 220's or so.
I would tHink if you get it young you have a chance. From what I've read is once they are established, adding anything else is nearly impossible so he may restrict your future wants.
I would tHink if you get it young you have a chance. From what I've read is once they are established, adding anything else is nearly impossible so he may restrict your future wants.
Folks just trying to give you the benefit of experience. Up to you to listen or not. We've all made foolish purchases, and planned upgrades that didn't happen :lol: ..... Your turn!
billyboy69
New member
I have to wait anyway after adding a large naso there's no room for a Sohal
