Why Blue Tangs loose color in FO tanks

[RAJOD]

I was told that Blue tangs will loose color, look beat up and even get lateral line disease in non reef tanks. No explanation as to why was ever given.

I went around our town a few years back and looks at many commercial marine tanks.

Sure enough almost all of the FOWLR tanks had ugly beat up looking blue tangs and the reef tanks had bright colored ones.

The only one that did not was a tank that had a huge refugium plumbed to it. (It was not a commercial tank but a home owned)

Most of the maintenance people I have talked to over the years have the mind set that if its a FO tank nitrates do not matter and other parameters can be off as well. Its almost as if they let some parameters get high because the fish do not die like corals can.

So I'm thinking at least some of the reason is tied to higher than average nitrate levels. The feeding is the same as some of these tanks are in the same room and feed by the same people. The only difference is the ones with reefs have better looking tangs.

I want to put a blue tang in my FOWLER but want to try to prevent what seems to be the norm. A beat up looking fish in a year.

 

[Breadman03]

My initial thought is that while nutrient levels may play a role, nutrition may be a factor. I think that a reef tank will have more diversity of organisms due to the lighting (and nutrient levels) being conducive to photosynthetic life, which is the primary nutrition source for many forms of life.

 

[RAJOD]

That may be but all those nutrients can be made available in any tank. Just need to know what they are.

Its 2013 and there still is no hard science on why this is?

 

[ca1ore]

FOWLR seems to be a bit of a misnomer though as most of the tanks I see are FOWDR. If I were setting up a non-reef tank, I think I'd consider using actual live rock, proper lighting, and manage nutrient levels as if it were a reef tank.

Hippos are twitchy fish, and it may well be a combination of nutrition from picking on rocks, water quality and just plan old comfort in a more natural environment.

 

[ca1ore]

Its 2013 and there still is no hard science on why this is?

Maybe there is, have you looked?

Regardless, hard science requires somebody interested enough to do the work and another person willing to fund it! Apparently those two people have not met yet

 

[HumbleFish]

Back when I did maintenance, most of our fish ended up looking like crap after 2-3 years. Half had HLLE. We did both reefs & FO.

IMHO; I believe it was mostly a nutritional thing. The owner believed in only feeding flake via automatic feeders. Once a week, the fish got romaine lettuce/raw shrimp. Not much nutritional value in either of those. If we had just used nori instead of the lettuce, it probably would have made a world of difference.

 

[Mrscribbled]

I'd agree on nutrition also. I've kept blue tangs long term in over crowded, high nitrate conditions, but fed high quality foods. They always did and still do have great color. You'll notice in some public aquaria they look rough also. I think this plays in part with heavy ozone usage.

 

[Deinonych]

Regardless, hard science requires somebody interested enough to do the work and another person willing to fund it! Apparently those two people have not met yet

This.

 

[snorvich]

This.

I agree. However, if you peruse the marine biology literature (Google Scholar), rather than aquarist related literature, much more hard science information is available in peer reviewed papers.

 

[MitchSutherland]

I believe that tangs losing their color is directly related to their diet and just the tang itself. I have seen many dark blue hippos in FOWLR. I also have seen hippos with bellies washed out in reef tanks. It just depends on the tang. My tang i currently have has a washed out belly in my FOWLR. But i have had two hippos with solid dark blue bellies in that same tank. Diet and nutrients are key, but also picking out a good hippo from the start is just as important.

 

[RAJOD]

I agree. However, if you peruse the marine biology literature (Google Scholar), rather than aquarist related literature, much more hard science information is available in peer reviewed papers.

Any links to the hippo tang study?

 

[Deinonych]

I don't think Steve was citing a particular study, but rather recommending that you search Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) to see what you can find.

 

[snorvich]

I don't think Steve was citing a particular study, but rather recommending that you search Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) to see what you can find.

Exactly. Lots of interesting stuff. Sometimes to see more than the abstract requires payment, but still all in all, much free stuff available.

 

[Rilelen]

Yup. And if the abstract's not enough, some of us get free access to a lot of those journals through our institutions....if there's ever something you find that you're really curious about and can't get access, shoot me a PM and I'll see if I can get the information.

 

[ggrillo]

I would think it's partly because people keeping a reef tank could have better husbandry skills than compared to those keeping FO creating a more natural / comfortable system for the fish. Just my opinion. Not sure if it carries any evidence.