Yellow and blue tang

[pontiac]

i had a yellow tang, hippo tang,and a naso in a 150 i had for goin on 6 years now, never had any ich issues, my ex has the tank and she says there r still no issues or agression, but, i am prob one of the few and rare that hasnt had any issues. my tangs came from pple who had to small a tank and i took a pity rescue on them, i would also advise a bigger tank.

 

[greg1786]

It's unfortunate, but more often than not an LFS will advise you incorrectly for the sake of a buck. It shows no foresight because people will find somewhere else to go. Sorry you are in this situation, but you may find a place that takes trades.

I couldnt agree more with this statement. When i was new to this hobby i was gauranteed by my lfs that i could keep a powder brown and a clown tang together in a 55 so long as they were both introduced around the same time and same size. Within four days the clown tang was dead and with two months the powder brown had killed five fish. My friend and i were discussing this earlier this evening because just yday he was at a fish store about an hour from us in baltimore and they had a 6" banded cat shark that had a tag on the tank saying "min tank size 75-100 gallons. Its really unfortunate that they are so concerned with making the sale that the fishes livelihood goes completely unconsidered. And not just that but it puts your whole system that youve worked so hard to make healthy at complete risk to so many bad possibilities. Im sry you were dooped but sometimes its a good lesson to learn early on. The best advice i was given when i was in your shoes was return or trade the fish, and before making future purchase come here to rc and ask as many questions as you can and research the heck out of it before you buy it! Good luck man

 

[ilikefish34]

Back to the original topic, is the Blue Tang an Atlantic, Powder or Blue Hippo (Regal) Tang? While I would say the the Blue Hippo would certainly outgrow the 80 gallons, I would suggest that it could live with the Yellow Tang without issues until the time for upgrading or removal. And juvenile? This is an arbitrary age, what are the lengths of the fish and what are the dimensions of your aquarium? Maybe there is a need to remove one of these fish, not that anyone here is suggesting a fire, but I don't want the OP to think that there is an eminent danger to his fish until we have asked and answered all of the questions. Depending on the dimensions of the tank and the size of the fish, I may end up suggesting keeping both for the time being. If this is your first salty, you will most likely end up in two categories...

1. Practically giving it away on craigslist just to get it out of your sight.
2. Becoming very interested, involved and craving an upgrade (this is where most of us end up).

As for the LFS, just do your own homework and compare it to the knowledge that they seem to offer. There's so much turnover in pet stores that you'll often find that there's one or two employees that will offer good and honest advice and the other's are either just learning and are just trying... albeit trying on your dollar.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby (addiction).

 

[greg1786]

I just re read your original post and realized i had your lr amount and tank size backwards, i thought i read a 40 gallon with 80# of liverock lol, sorry about that. My brother kept a hippo tang in a 75 gallon for two years before it outgrew the tank with no issue at all. Though i dont think you would have a problem with the yellow tang in there even as an adult. I have a 4" yellow tang in a 125 but he doesnt command too much swimming room and i could see him happily living in a smaller tank. My advice now that i have corrected my poor reading, would be that of the poster above me (ilikefish) that as long as your fish are small, under 4", and your tank is 4' or longer, give it a little while. If you have no displayed agression among the fish and they are both happy and healthy, hold on to them. When they get too big you can always upgrade or if thats not an option sell or trade them to someone with a larger aquarium. The thing is if you take them back to the store you bought them theres a good chance they could get sold to someone with a much smaller aquarium. It seems like your providing a good home for them as best you can so just enjoy them for now and keep us posted. Again good luck dude!