Yellow tang growth

[isdaboy]

Hello,
I am curious as to how fast yellow tangs grow in captivity.
I have a yellow tang in my DT, it's mixed reef, that has not grown much in almost 7 years! I got the tang when she was just an inch long.
My plan was to keep her until she reached a size where my tank is no longer big enough for her, then a friend of mine who wanted one for his 200 gal tank, will take her.
Well, 7 years later, my friend is still waiting for her!
She has grown very little in the last 7 years, she is now around 2 inches, so not much growth.
She is not much bigger than my other fish, a blue damsel, black clown, six-line wrasses, cherub angel, red hawkfish and orchid dottyback.
They are are in a 60 gallon tank, and been together for the last 3 years.
They all get along fine, although the clown is the big boss when the other fish come close to his home ( a big climbs of anthelia).
Anyway, just curious.
The get fed frozen formula angel mix, herbivore mix, some flakes once in a while, brine and mysis shrimp.
The tank is mostly soft coral with a few SPS and a very fast growing torch coral.

[/URL]

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[Fishmas]

I dont know about tangs growth but i like the look of your coral selection and your fish. Great colours . maybe you got the runt of the litter and she will be a permanent resident of your reef

 

[anbosu]

The stomach on the tang doesn't look right to me. The yellow tang I have is a slow grower, but not that slow. If it's around 2" after 7 years I would imagine something is wrong.

 

[oseymour]

isdaboy, How often do you feed? The stomach on the tang looks pinched to me.

 

[CHSUB]

i have had yellow tangs grow more than an inch in 7 month....maybe it's a midget????

oops...P.C.: Dwarf!

 

[o2manyfish]

The growth is very dependent on the tank. My father had a yellow tang in a 50g tank for 13+ years and the fish never grew past the 2" size like yours. Fish was well fed and happy.

I have 8 yellow tangs in my tank. My tank is 400g. The tank is very well fed. 2 of the tangs have been in the tank for about 8 years. They are maybe 3.5-4". The rest are between 5 and 2 years old. All were added as tiny/small at different points in time. But none of them have grown into "large" yellow tangs.

I have a pair of blue Hippos for almost 4 years. They came in at 4" and are now 6" - but not even close the 10"+ I have seen hippos grow to.

I have a regal angel thats been in the tank for 4+ years. The fish hasn't grown at all.

I have a pair of tiny Golden Angels for 6 years. And they have not grown at all in 6 years.

In the same tank I added a 3" Atlantic Blue tang and within 4-5 months he was 6" and a troublemaker.

And in the past 2 years I have grown an Achilles from a small juvenile to a full size beautiful 8" fish.

There is no set schedule as to fish growth. There is always lots of opinions posted about the size tanks these fish need. But having been in this hobby awhile I have yet to see a fish literally outgrow it's tank (not counting Freshwater fish). Mother nature seems to be able to protect them. Mother nature seems to be able to tell that there's not enough room to grow to full size.

And someone will pop up about it being cruel and stunting their growth and retarding the fish. But my Dad's yellow tang lasted over 13 years. 13 years is like 26x longer than most people are in this hobby. After 13 years, that fish moved on to another tank, it didn't die, it didn't get flushed, it swam away.

I dare someone to look at my yellow tangs and be able to point out which one has been in the tank 8 years vs 4 years and tell me that the fish is unhealthy, stunted, or identify any difference between my 4" yellow tang in captivity for 8 years vs a 4" yellow tang freshly imported from Hawaii.

Back to the original Post - You have a good looking 7 year old yellow tang. In my opinion they are much cuter when they are smaller, and I wish all mine stayed at 2". Congratulations in giving that yellow tang a safe healthy place to live for the past 7 years. The majority of people (not saying anyone that has posted in this thread) who will tell you something is wrong, can't say they have successfully kept a fish alive for that long.

Dave B

 

[kmbyrnes]

That's a nice healthly tank. While I also think the fish looks underweight, I can't help but agree that you are obviously a successful reefer and I can only hope my greedy, fat, spoiled tangs, angels and butterflies live so long.
As for size, my yellow is also on the small side after 2 years, only about 3" while a Chevron I bought in July at 1 1/2" is now over 4".
On the other hand one of my human kids is 6' 4" while another is 5'2". Go figure.

 

[ruiny]

I had a purple for about 10 years that only grew a couple of inches.
Sometimes they are just smaller.

 

[CHSUB]

The growth is very dependent on the tank.

Dave B

i will agree with your post; however, i will disagree that tank size has anything to do with growth. how would a yellow tang develop this genetic trait in the open ocean? i'm 6'2" and grow up in a tiny house with only one bathroom, and i think i reached my full growth potential.

 

[o2manyfish]

i will agree with your post; however, i will disagree that tank size has anything to do with growth. how would a yellow tang develop this genetic trait in the open ocean? i'm 6'2" and grow up in a tiny house with only one bathroom, and i think i reached my full growth potential.

I'm not sure if you were joking or not. But to compare you at 6'2 and growing up in a small house is nowhere near the same situation or condition.

If when you were born, your parents placed you in a small closet and only fed you snack foods that they could push under the door do you think you would have developed into the same physical person you are now?

And it was your post that said your Yellow tang grew an inch in 7 months. Vs the Question of this thread a yellow tang that has not grown an inch in 2 years.

Yellow tangs in the wild get over 7". I have seen them in the wild this size, I have seen them in giant public aquariums this size, and I have seen them arrive at fish wholesalers at this size.

But cruise through the big tank forums, yellow tang is a pretty popular fish and see how often you see a 7-8" yellow tang in a hobbyist tank. In Captivity their growth is different than what they are capable of.

And as long as we are all posting with happy faces and no disrespect -- Trying to use Bill Wann's 20k gallon tank as an example of a hobbyist tank with big yellow tangs would be cheating

(Everything posted is with a smile and not meant to put down or disrespect in any way)

Dave B

 

[ginpang]

I once bought a tiny one ( between the size of a nickel and quarter) shipped by mistake with 30 adults.
He got to 4 1/2 " in 18 months ...

 

[SoloGarth]

I wish I could stop my tang long enough to measure him. Haha. Not really sure how much this one has grown since being introduced. Certainly at least an inch in the last year I would say.

 

[CHSUB]

I'm not sure if you were joking or not. But to compare you at 6'2 and growing up in a small house is nowhere near the same situation or condition.

If when you were born, your parents placed you in a small closet and only fed you snack foods that they could push under the door do you think you would have developed into the same physical person you are now?

And it was your post that said your Yellow tang grew an inch in 7 months. Vs the Question of this thread a yellow tang that has not grown an inch in 2 years.

Yellow tangs in the wild get over 7". I have seen them in the wild this size, I have seen them in giant public aquariums this size, and I have seen them arrive at fish wholesalers at this size.

But cruise through the big tank forums, yellow tang is a pretty popular fish and see how often you see a 7-8" yellow tang in a hobbyist tank. In Captivity their growth is different than what they are capable of.

And as long as we are all posting with happy faces and no disrespect -- Trying to use Bill Wann's 20k gallon tank as an example of a hobbyist tank with big yellow tangs would be cheating

(Everything posted is with a smile and not meant to put down or disrespect in any way) agree and ditto, as always!!!

Dave B

i was joking about myself and the tiny house, and thought it was very funny!!!:lol: however, with regards to tank size, i do not believe tank size could effect growth potential. maybe, as you suggested, we are not feeding what they would get in the wild; or they are females and stay small. i don't see why we assume all fish will reach a maximum size? it could take many years to reach a large size and most folks simply are not in the hobby that long. i have seen yellow tangs in the wild many times, large schools, and some are small and some are big!

my 2 yellows have grown very fast and i'm not sure why??
here is the thread when i added them to a much larger purple tang, and surprisingly, they have nearly reached the size of the purple now...

http://http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2487327

 

[SoloGarth]

Agreed, I thought this idea of the tank constraining fish growth was a myth that has long been known to be false.

 

[Nanighan]

Agreed, I thought this idea of the tank constraining fish growth was a myth that has long been known to be false.

At first I thought this idea was true as I have raise a hippo tang bought at a nickel size to 2.5 inches in a 55g. She lived there at least 3.5 years. I upgraded to a 110g and its been about another 2 years and maybe she's 3 inches.
Then I went out and purchase a 1 inch yellow tang to look after my 20g frag tank, and in about 7 months she's at least 2.5 inches.

 

[NyReefNoob]

tank size will make a differance, ive had a wrasse in my tank for years which is only a 45g cube and gave it to my friend to put into his 300g fish grew more in months then it did in 3 years in my tank, and i feed very well

 

[rt67ghy]

The tang doesn't look healthy to me. Maybe it's the food it's getting? I got a 2" Y.tang almost 1 year ago and now it's grown to 5".

 

[brad]

I have 3 less than 3 inches, introduced together 2 years ago. They seem very healthy, but haven't grown much.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Convict and Yellow Tang Fish Characteristics
Both types of fish are very popular in salt-water aquarium setups, so you may already be familiar with their appearance. The yellow tang fish is easily recognizable by its lemon yellow color... They are very thin fish and are only 3 to 5 inches in length and height and less than 1 inch thick.
http://www.hanauma-bay-hawaii.com/tang.html

 

[Betta132]

@CoralsAddiction, there's a difference between a fish looking thin in the sense of not being thick and looking thin as in underweight. That guy looks a bit underweight.
Could it have some sort of intestinal parasite that's been stealing all of its nutrients?
It doesn't look stunted. If a fish is stunted, its insides usually continue to grow somewhat, which means their backs hunch and their eyes start to look too large. Eventually they can die due to their organs just becoming too compressed. In this case, the eyes don't look too large, and the body shape doesn't look as messed up as most badly stunted fish are.