Captive bred yellow tangs

[Reefer350Lighting]

Hi guys just curious to read what you think about captive bred yellow tangs, they look deformed, looks like they've had severe damage from HLLE and extremely unhealthy/stressed. My LFS sells them for £250. You can instantly tell the difference between a yellow tang from hawii. I just recently saw captive bred purple tangs and they look incredibly unhealthy and sick. How does the breeding process cause such poorly looking fish. And has there been tests on how long these fish will live for?

 

[TheDuude]

I have had my Biota captive bred yellow for 18 months. I too was very worried that he would not survive when I first got him. Very small, almost translucent, and showing signs of HLLE upon arrival. Over the past 18 months I have been feeding alot of nori and frozen foods supplemented with Selcon, Brightwell Amino and he has grown well but still shows signs of HLLE and under developed pelvic fins. Recently I started also supplementing reef energy AB+ and am already seeing slight improvement of the HLLE. Seems like a happy fish.

 

[Reefer350Lighting]

I have had my Biota captive bred yellow for 18 months. I too was very worried that he would not survive when I first got him. Very small, almost translucent, and showing signs of HLLE upon arrival. Over the past 18 months I have been feeding alot of nori and frozen foods supplemented with Selcon, Brightwell Amino and he has grown well but still shows signs of HLLE and under developed pelvic fins. Recently I started also supplementing reef energy AB+ and am already seeing slight improvement of the HLLE. Seems like a happy fish.

You got any photos of before and after?

 

[Andresnyc93]

Honestly If you have stable parameters and feed your tang well and nori they will heal, they’re transparent when they’re small but they will get their true coloration with a good diet and as they mature as well.
I got this captive bred yellow tang from petco and this is how he looked when I first got him on sale.
the second picture is him 4-5 weeks after with 2 feedings daily and soaking their food with selcom and vita chem on second meal and feeding nori every other day

 

[Reefer350Lighting]

Honestly If you have stable parameters and feed your tang well and nori they will heal, they’re transparent when they’re small but they will get their true coloration with a good diet and as they mature as well.
I got this captive bred yellow tang from petco and this is how he looked when I first got him on sale.
the second picture is him 4-5 weeks after with 2 feedings daily and soaking their food with selcom and vita chem on second meal and feeding nori every other day

Wow that YT looked like it was in his last legs, fantastic job bringing it back to life. The hair algea looks like it's loving the nutrients from all the feedings you give the YT! Good job bud

 

[Andresnyc93]

Wow that YT looked like it was in his last legs, fantastic job bringing it back to life. The hair algea looks like it's loving the nutrients from all the feedings you give the YT! Good job bud

I usually get fishes on sale from petco and bring them back to life. Cheaper and they’re so thankful that you helped them.
Yeah I got some algae blooms from the soak but I should mention that’s a skimmer-less tank and been running it that way for 2 years

 

[i cant think]

Hi guys just curious to read what you think about captive bred yellow tangs, they look deformed, looks like they've had severe damage from HLLE and extremely unhealthy/stressed. My LFS sells them for £250. You can instantly tell the difference between a yellow tang from hawii. I just recently saw captive bred purple tangs and they look incredibly unhealthy and sick. How does the breeding process cause such poorly looking fish. And has there been tests on how long these fish will live for?

My LFS has a WC yellow in (Indonesian yellow) and a CB yellow, I agree with you, there’s clear differences in deformities in the CB yellows…

 

[LeftyReefer]

My LFS got a shipment of the biota yellow tangs several months ago... posted about them on their FB page and priced them at $169, which wasn't too bad. It was the right when the Hawaii ban was going into effect.
When I went to go see them, they all were tiny and translucent and also looked to be suffering HLLE also. Looked pretty rough. They sold a couple that first day and then the rest sat in their tank and proceeded to look worse and worse until one day they were all gone. Not sure if they sold or perished. Was not impressed to say the least.

I have had my Biota captive bred yellow for 18 months. I too was very worried that he would not survive when I first got him. Very small, almost translucent, and showing signs of HLLE upon arrival. Over the past 18 months I have been feeding alot of nori and frozen foods supplemented with Selcon, Brightwell Amino and he has grown well but still shows signs of HLLE and under developed pelvic fins. Recently I started also supplementing reef energy AB+ and am already seeing slight improvement of the HLLE. Seems like a happy fish.

Are you soaking the fish food in AB+ and the brighwell aminos? Or are you just broadcast feeding those to the tank? I've soaked food in selcon before, but never in AB+. didn't know that was even a thing... haha. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[i cant think]

I think it’s something to do with either the way the tangs are brought up or how they were bred. Tangs are broad cast spawners and need a big tank (I think it’s got to be bigger than what they’re being bred in at the moment) which is possibly why they have so many issues growing.

 

[adittam]

@Biota_Marine
Maybe Jake can answer some of the questions himself? Any idea what kind of life expectancy we’re looking at for captive bred YT’s?

 

[TheDuude]

Are you soaking the fish food in AB+ and the brighwell aminos? Or are you just broadcast feeding those to the tank? I've soaked food in selcon before, but never in AB+. didn't know that was even a thing... haha. I'll have to give it a try.

I have been soaking my frozen foods in the AB+ twice a week. Corals and fish get the benefits that way. I swear I read someplace that AB+ can be used as a food soak to help HLLE.

 

[Biota_Marine]

@Biota_Marine
Maybe Jake can answer some of the questions himself? Any idea what kind of life expectancy we’re looking at for captive bred YT’s?

Hey Y'all,

Thanks for all the great questions. With a captive-bred fish you're looking at the full length of that fish's life span because we know the actual age when you're receiving our fish as opposed to when you receive something from the wild there's really no telling how old it is. On our site for the Small tangs they're around 110-120 Days old while the medium tangs are closer to 200+ days old (this is an increase of last year when they were shipping out at ~75-90 days old). Meaning you can expect to have a yellow tang for up to 30 years but more likely around 15-20 years when kept in good conditions. This fish was first captive-bred in 2016 so the oldest captive-bred ones we have are 8+ years old at the Oceanic Institute. I know there's many of the first batches on display at public aquariums around the world or even spawning at our facilities working hard to make F1 Generations. The tanks they're spawning in are thousands of gallons fitted with natural seawater and I assure you they're incredibly robust and happy to be spawning on a daily basis in our facilities.

As for the coloration changes, HLLE, and shaping mentioned above of them looking "poorly" or "deformed" many cases this is just because most people in the aquarium hobby aren't fully accustomed to seeing fish at this age. They're still growing and developing everyday which is why you can see us posting dozens of photos every week of customers who have had our tangs established in their tanks because many people see them at their LFS or when they arrive from us and are immediately put off. This is actually why we added the medium option to our site because many customers were worried at the coloration or sizing of our initial batches and this alleviates that worry.

A few things I do want to mention from the posts above:

1.Initial photo of the tangs in OP's post of a purple tang was actually bred by Mr.Su in Bali and we received some of these and they've come in perfect to my facility (see attached photo of fish in my hand during acclimation). If next to a wild caught purple tang they are indistinguishable. In general the quality of Mr. Su's fish is amazing and I can't say enough great things about his process and high quality of his products.

2. The yellow tang photo above is from a UK store that specifically chose "The worst one they received" to post a photo of as they note on their website (https://www.abyssaquatics.co.uk/product/yellow-tang-tank-bred/). To see what they actually look like in our customer's tanks or at our facility I highly suggest taking a look at our social media for actual depictions of these fish. I wouldn't say this is an accurate depiction of our hard work and quality but instead increases the notion that something must be wrong with them or our process thus attempting to put into doubt the quality of captive-breeding. This has been done tons of times for various reasons since the Hawaii ban but the products speak for themselves and we have an awesome customer base that debunks this often.

3. I do want to note many time these fish do suffer from HLLE when improperly handled along the chain of custody. We let all of our customers, vendors, and stores know they shouldn't be prophylactically treated with chemicals like Copper or it will cause scarring and paleness. These fish are young and still developing and copper can do some serious damage as they try to grow, we also see then when treating young wild caught fish especially hippo tangs. Many stores and wholesalers run a constant low level of copper in their fish systems because the wild stuff is coming in with all kinds of pests and parasites. I've suggested separate systems to all of our vendors and those that have dedicated captive-bred systems sell substantially more of our products. The vast majority of the times I've seen photos or spoken with customers that have these issues they've usually treated prophylactically or the fish entered a stressful environment (aggression from other fish, high ammonia levels, spiking parameters, ect.)

Hopefully this helps out with some of the misinformation out there. I also attached a photo we actually received today from one of our customers that purchased a small tang this past summer.

-Jake

 

[cramerox]

Hello All!

how can someone be successful in raising a captive bred tang? It seems they need a separate tank to be well fed and grow? Also too sensitive to treat with meds so just QT?

 

[Reefer350Lighting]

Hey Y'all,

Thanks for all the great questions. With a captive-bred fish you're looking at the full length of that fish's life span because we know the actual age when you're receiving our fish as opposed to when you receive something from the wild there's really no telling how old it is. On our site for the Small tangs they're around 110-120 Days old while the medium tangs are closer to 200+ days old (this is an increase of last year when they were shipping out at ~75-90 days old). Meaning you can expect to have a yellow tang for up to 30 years but more likely around 15-20 years when kept in good conditions. This fish was first captive-bred in 2016 so the oldest captive-bred ones we have are 8+ years old at the Oceanic Institute. I know there's many of the first batches on display at public aquariums around the world or even spawning at our facilities working hard to make F1 Generations. The tanks they're spawning in are thousands of gallons fitted with natural seawater and I assure you they're incredibly robust and happy to be spawning on a daily basis in our facilities.

As for the coloration changes, HLLE, and shaping mentioned above of them looking "poorly" or "deformed" many cases this is just because most people in the aquarium hobby aren't fully accustomed to seeing fish at this age. They're still growing and developing everyday which is why you can see us posting dozens of photos every week of customers who have had our tangs established in their tanks because many people see them at their LFS or when they arrive from us and are immediately put off. This is actually why we added the medium option to our site because many customers were worried at the coloration or sizing of our initial batches and this alleviates that worry.

A few things I do want to mention from the posts above:

1.Initial photo of the tangs in OP's post of a purple tang was actually bred by Mr.Su in Bali and we received some of these and they've come in perfect to my facility (see attached photo of fish in my hand during acclimation). If next to a wild caught purple tang they are indistinguishable. In general the quality of Mr. Su's fish is amazing and I can't say enough great things about his process and high quality of his products.

2. The yellow tang photo above is from a UK store that specifically chose "The worst one they received" to post a photo of as they note on their website (https://www.abyssaquatics.co.uk/product/yellow-tang-tank-bred/). To see what they actually look like in our customer's tanks or at our facility I highly suggest taking a look at our social media for actual depictions of these fish. I wouldn't say this is an accurate depiction of our hard work and quality but instead increases the notion that something must be wrong with them or our process thus attempting to put into doubt the quality of captive-breeding. This has been done tons of times for various reasons since the Hawaii ban but the products speak for themselves and we have an awesome customer base that debunks this often.

3. I do want to note many time these fish do suffer from HLLE when improperly handled along the chain of custody. We let all of our customers, vendors, and stores know they shouldn't be prophylactically treated with chemicals like Copper or it will cause scarring and paleness. These fish are young and still developing and copper can do some serious damage as they try to grow, we also see then when treating young wild caught fish especially hippo tangs. Many stores and wholesalers run a constant low level of copper in their fish systems because the wild stuff is coming in with all kinds of pests and parasites. I've suggested separate systems to all of our vendors and those that have dedicated captive-bred systems sell substantially more of our products. The vast majority of the times I've seen photos or spoken with customers that have these issues they've usually treated prophylactically or the fish entered a stressful environment (aggression from other fish, high ammonia levels, spiking parameters, ect.)

Hopefully this helps out with some of the misinformation out there. I also attached a photo we actually received today from one of our customers that purchased a small tang this past summer.

-Jake

Thanks so much Jake. I never ment to discredit all your guys hardwork. What you guys are doing is astonishing, and I can't even imagine how you guys even began this. So my apologies if i came off insulting ive seen the captive bred yellow tangs in my local Lfs which is maidenhead aquatics Unfortunately the captive bred yellow tang i posted matches the 6 or so i saw that day. There's colour loss around the eyes and the shape of the yellow tangs seem some what squished from mouth to tail. That yellow tang you attached. Unfortunately must either not be captive bred or be rare to see. The yellow is extremely vibrant compared to a captive bred tang, and also seems a couple years old.

I missed the text on the website about the photo of the captive bred yellow tang about it being the worst tang for the photo. But you failed to mention the rest of the paragraph
"Please note that the image is a true representation of what the fish will be like. We have actually picked one of the worst fish we had for the photograph.


Any pictures on websites not showing the pigment loss around the eye are not images of tank bred yellow tangs."

That company could potentially have a couple dozen yellow tangs and they wouldnt have included the comment bout the pigment loss around the eyes. If alot of them if not all had it.

What i would like ,is to take 3 cb yellow tangs. In seperate simular systems and feed them all the same and take weekly photos to, show and represent what they will grow into. This would also help the sales and give people confidence that their fish isnt looking forever sickly, Because unfortunately I find it difficult to believe that yellow tang you attached isn't from the ocean.

If i find a good specimen I will seriously consider getting a captive bred yellow tang. and post weekly photos, Unfortunately lost mine due to a velvet outbreak. Which I had for 2 years.

I truly believe in what you guys are doing so please do not take offence to what I have just commented on. In my experience the fish just look extremely unhealthy. They were in the system for 3 weeks from what the staff was telling me so I don't believe it was an acclimation issue. Anyways. Thanks for the response

 

[angelsandtangs]

Hey Y'all,

Thanks for all the great questions. With a captive-bred fish you're looking at the full length of that fish's life span because we know the actual age when you're receiving our fish as opposed to when you receive something from the wild there's really no telling how old it is. On our site for the Small tangs they're around 110-120 Days old while the medium tangs are closer to 200+ days old (this is an increase of last year when they were shipping out at ~75-90 days old). Meaning you can expect to have a yellow tang for up to 30 years but more likely around 15-20 years when kept in good conditions. This fish was first captive-bred in 2016 so the oldest captive-bred ones we have are 8+ years old at the Oceanic Institute. I know there's many of the first batches on display at public aquariums around the world or even spawning at our facilities working hard to make F1 Generations. The tanks they're spawning in are thousands of gallons fitted with natural seawater and I assure you they're incredibly robust and happy to be spawning on a daily basis in our facilities.

As for the coloration changes, HLLE, and shaping mentioned above of them looking "poorly" or "deformed" many cases this is just because most people in the aquarium hobby aren't fully accustomed to seeing fish at this age. They're still growing and developing everyday which is why you can see us posting dozens of photos every week of customers who have had our tangs established in their tanks because many people see them at their LFS or when they arrive from us and are immediately put off. This is actually why we added the medium option to our site because many customers were worried at the coloration or sizing of our initial batches and this alleviates that worry.

A few things I do want to mention from the posts above:

1.Initial photo of the tangs in OP's post of a purple tang was actually bred by Mr.Su in Bali and we received some of these and they've come in perfect to my facility (see attached photo of fish in my hand during acclimation). If next to a wild caught purple tang they are indistinguishable. In general the quality of Mr. Su's fish is amazing and I can't say enough great things about his process and high quality of his products.

2. The yellow tang photo above is from a UK store that specifically chose "The worst one they received" to post a photo of as they note on their website (https://www.abyssaquatics.co.uk/product/yellow-tang-tank-bred/). To see what they actually look like in our customer's tanks or at our facility I highly suggest taking a look at our social media for actual depictions of these fish. I wouldn't say this is an accurate depiction of our hard work and quality but instead increases the notion that something must be wrong with them or our process thus attempting to put into doubt the quality of captive-breeding. This has been done tons of times for various reasons since the Hawaii ban but the products speak for themselves and we have an awesome customer base that debunks this often.

3. I do want to note many time these fish do suffer from HLLE when improperly handled along the chain of custody. We let all of our customers, vendors, and stores know they shouldn't be prophylactically treated with chemicals like Copper or it will cause scarring and paleness. These fish are young and still developing and copper can do some serious damage as they try to grow, we also see then when treating young wild caught fish especially hippo tangs. Many stores and wholesalers run a constant low level of copper in their fish systems because the wild stuff is coming in with all kinds of pests and parasites. I've suggested separate systems to all of our vendors and those that have dedicated captive-bred systems sell substantially more of our products. The vast majority of the times I've seen photos or spoken with customers that have these issues they've usually treated prophylactically or the fish entered a stressful environment (aggression from other fish, high ammonia levels, spiking parameters, ect.)

Hopefully this helps out with some of the misinformation out there. I also attached a photo we actually received today from one of our customers that purchased a small tang this past summer.

-Jake

So basically you’re selling a fully qt fish and if the hobbyist tank is parasite free you should be able to add your YT with no worries ?

 

[adittam]

So basically you’re selling a fully qt fish and if the hobbyist tank is parasite free you should be able to add your YT with no worries ?

I think this only applies if buying directly from Biota.

 

[musaabi]

Here’s a picture of mine after about a year of ownership. This fish survived a lot for such a small guy. I bought directly from biota and it came almost clear and super small but he’s chilling and getting more and more color

 

[Reefer350Lighting]

So basically you’re selling a fully qt fish and if the hobbyist tank is parasite free you should be able to add your YT with no worries ?

Doesn't work that way bud. It depends on if your lfs puts those in a completely different system. If like mine they put them in with the usual fish, they could potentially get, flukes, ich, and another disease/parasites possible. Always qt fish. Don't trust lfs. Even if they are in a separate new system

 

[Villareefer]

Morning this is a great thread for me as I purchase a captive bread YT on Saturday, I paid £200 $270 their were 4 available and all varied in colour the palest having some whitening round its eyes. I went for the one with the most colour but I would definitely say they all looked like good quality healthy fish. They'd been at store for 4 weeks and were all eating well as the shop keeper fed them while I was there. I've added the fish to a tank with a Tomini tang in and fingers crossed up to now he's doing well, grazing and eating seaweed and even having some frozen shrimp.

 

[angelsandtangs]

Doesn't work that way bud. It depends on if your lfs puts those in a completely different system. If like mine they put them in with the usual fish, they could potentially get, flukes, ich, and another disease/parasites possible. Always qt fish. Don't trust lfs. Even if they are in a separate new system

I was talking about buying directly from biotopa