Yellow tang in with a purple tang

[MrTuskfish]

Would adding a purple in with 3 yellow tangs in a 430 yield the same results?

Funny thing about tangs of this genus (Zebrasoma): two will almost always be a huge problem, even in a large tank, but groups of 3 or more usually do well. You can see this at many LFS. They often keep groups of YTs together; but never just two. I think a a PT and 3 YTs will work; but the YTs are established and the introduction could be tough.

 

[Reefnub]

I had success adding in a new yellow tang with an established purple tang in my 125 but I think it was because the yellow was bigger then the purple. They fought for roughly around 1 week and then they became best friends and ate side by side. :lmao:

 

[Brandon2122]

Ok i did not add the yellow tang to my tank.. I didnt want a death in the reef. And more money down the drain.. The only reason i was going to put it in was to help get out the hair aglae.. Im having a hard time trying to get it out.. The tank has been up for almost three years.. I have seagel in a reactor .. Its been going for about 2 months.. I do a 15% water change and suck up all that I can of the algae every week.. The water is R/O DI so i know it not that.. I really need help.. This has been going on for about 5 months.THANKS

 

[THEDLO]

whats your mag at? and usually if its hair algae i'd leave it, eventually it should soak up its food source and all die, that is if what your feeding/dosing isn't the culprit..

 

[cjcmcheek]

i currently have one large yellow tang and one large purple tang inside a 120 g tank. the trick here is to confuse whoever is in the tank first. what you need to do is put the yellow one in with some other fish to distract the purple one. also turn the lights off. fish dont have a good sense of time, and that can throw off their memory if you use it to your advantage.
the next thing is put plenty of seaweed on a clip so the both of the can eat. whenever my tangs start acting up i ALWAYS throw some seaweed in there and they just stop fighting and start eating. you will notice that the more greens and the less meat you feed your tangs the less aggressive they tend to be.

with all that in mind your tangs just might decide they want to fight to the death. you can compare it to putting to dogs, or two male chickens in a corner.

 

[Brandon2122]

i dont know where my mag is at.. i dont have a test kit and my L/F store closed down, so i have not had it tested for over one year. Could that have anything to do with it.. I test for all of the other things and they are fine

 

[snorvich]

i dont know where my mag is at.. i dont have a test kit and my L/F store closed down, so i have not had it tested for over one year. Could that have anything to do with it.. I test for all of the other things and they are fine

Nitrate testing will not be accurate because it is all in your hair algae. You can get a Mg test kit mail order and it is probably a good idea.

 

[Niglin]

Purple and Yellow = members of the same genus, if you want success you need an appropriately sized tank and/or to mix the genus. +1 on killing the lights when adding new additions, worked with my yellow tang vs aggression.

 

[JoelA7]

More snails. Like cowbell.

 

[skeeter_ca]

If you really want to mow down the algae get a Seahare. It will eat all of it and then want a lot more. Once the seahare takes care of it return it to a fish store or sell it to a friend that needs it. It will starve and die other wise. Then get some more snails(turbo or astrea) to keep the algae in check.

 

[olemiss reb]

Thread is 4 years old, impressive bump

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

TANGS WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT FIX A HAIR ALGAE PROBLEM-WHO TOLD YOU TANGS LIKE HAIR ALGAE? THATS CRAP!!!!
Hair algae is not eaten by tangs...very rare if it happens and if it does they will not eat much of it or even slow it down! Lawnmower blennies same thing..they pick but they do not slow it down...Sea Hare..if you get one that eats your problem is solved lololol but not really because it is a nutrient problem so it will grow back but if you have a good enough seahare he will bandaid the problem pretty good. Many of the sea hares DONT eat the hair algae though it is hit and miss! Best idea is to siphon out the hair algae on each water change use your thumb at end of hose to pull off rock etc.....put floss in overflow while you are doing this..then use a toothbrush and brush every single strand off the rock so the tank is full of hair algae in the water but none on the rock ...let the floss pick it up and use net in water column back and forth to pick it up....Basically GET ALL the hair algae out then remove the floss and then do that again a week later,,,again a week later and maybe one more time a week later..then END OF PROBLEM ITS GONE and if you change 5% water per week with RO water zero TDS and do not overfeed
your problem should be cured.. because as you removed the hair algae you were removing the phosphate that it consumed which is the food for the algae and the reason it grew to begin with..so you removed the algae food as you removed the algae...tHATS THE best way to get rid of it that will work if you have a bad enough hair algae problem really... After that reduce feeding and increase water changes and install a refugium if you dont already have one... Contact me if you try this and it is not working ...you are doing something wrong. Cheers, Good luck, Tim