Compatibility of 2 tangs

[Cbenner]

High all,

I pretty much now the answer to this question.
I have a 90 gallon tank with a 2 island aquascape.

Currently list of fish in the tank.

2 clowns
1 yellow tail damsel
1 black and white striped damsel(forgot the name)
1 Watchman Goby with tiger pistol shrimp
1 green chromas
1 six line wrasse
1 4" Yellow Tang
1 3" Kole Tang

I was given a 4 to 5" purple tang back in January. He had a bad case of HLLE. He also had Ich. A very sick fish.
I put the PT in quarenteen and feed him great quality food and within three months the HLLE completely healed up with no scaring.
I then took him down to Hyposalinity and treated him with formalin for the ich.
He is now DT ready.

I have been doing some reading on dividing the tank with egg crate and have the Yellow on one side and the Purple on the other. This is for them to establish their own territory without killing on another.

I've also heard of taping mirrors to the tank, so they think their are many more tangs in the tank.

Has anyone had a yellow and purple in the same tank?

Being that they are both in the same family of fish. I don't want one killing the other.

I would like to keep both, but I'm considering catching the yellow and selling him.

Does anyone have any other ideas that I didn't mention. I would like to keep both tangs in the same tank together?

If it is not possible I will remove the yellow tang. I do not want my fish all stressed out.

Chris

 

[aquabull]

Typically the violence is limited to the first couple of days. The yellow will attempt to establish itself as the dominant. After the initial cuts, it usually calms down, with only the occasional cut or two as a reminder of hierarchy. But beware the Kole! That fish has the potential to be a demon regarding new additions, even if it is not the same genus!

 

[Trex]

I, personally, wouldn't risk it. IME, purple tangs and small tanks (( for this a 90 is small )) don't mix well. I tried one without any other tangs and it was still a holy terror. Peaceful at first, but 6 months later it was drawing blood on my male clown (( clarkii )).

 

[chort55]

Get a bigger tank.... much bigger if you want to try all 3 and hope to have sucess. I've seen a yellow and purple be fine even for a while and then one day the purple stopped allowing the yellow to eat and it would have starved to death if not moved.... this was in a 150

I've also seen a yellow and purple fight to where the purple died the same day it was introduced from bullying through the night..... not worth the risk IMO

 

[bgruchow]

I had a yellow and a purple and they got along just fine. I did introduce them together but I have heard if you change the rocks around it can help.

 

[ghost_clown]

i have two yellow, one naso, a purple and a powder blue all in one tank. the Naso is the boss, with one yellow and the purple second in charge then the powder blue and finally the other yellow. they all get along well with occasional hazing...lol but no cuts or scaring. knock on wood. I added them all at different times but i change the aquascape each time ... just a little. and fed like crazy for a few days

 

[Saltgator]

These 3 in a 90 wouldn't work imo. I also had a purple with a scopas, all was well until 1 day, purple went crazy. That same purple also took on my blue jaw trigger. Not to good. This was all in a 6 foot 125. With the kole and yellow already established, it's going to be hard. Most tangs become aggressive reguardless of the species. When I owned a naso, it wouldn't allow the blenny I had out to eat. Now in my 8 foot 240, I have 3 tangs (a black, chevron, and orange shoulder all juveniles under 5 inches) and the one that controls the entire DT is a orange shoulder. This same tang also lets any new member of the DT know he's the boss (wrasses, gobies, ect.) Imo, keep it as you have it now with the yellow and kole, or remove both and only keep the purple. My hat is off to you as well for your dedicated work on saving the purple.

Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

 

[tangs are awsome]

I have had good success with introducing new fish and or tangs to my reef tank. I add them to the tank just after the lights go out. The tricky part is re arranging the rocks. I have a good amount of coral and it is tricky to do this in such a fashion to not disturb the coral to much. The fish think they have a new place to live and it kind of restarts the hole territory. I am looking to add three Hawian yellow tangs two blue hippos and may be a powder tang. I already have a sailfin tang and he is the boss. It is always a risk. You can of course build another tank :} My other fish in my tank are a yellow eye tang, maroone clown, green chromis, flame angel, lawn mower blenny, and a black damsel. I had a nice blue hippo but he vanished when I changed my substrate. Good luck. You can also use a critter catcher to house the yellow tang for a few days.

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

They mix well in large tanks with lots of places to loose site of each other. Unfortunately, a 90 gallon tank is not large enough to work for those three fishes long term. Even if they dont kill each other right away, the extra stress from the close quarters will affect their health and behavior as long as you have them.

 

[Cbenner]

I thought I would give you all an update. I do agree that a 90 gallon is a little small to house 3 growing tangs.

I ended up going with the Copps method that he uses introducing angles. I divided the tank with egg crate for a couple of months with the Kole and Yellow together and the Purple on the other.
There was some aggression through the eggcrate the first couple of days. But it subsided quickly, as when I did separate the tank I made sure the Kole and Yellow was not in their established territory. So those 2 had to work out the new area themselves.
About 2 weeks into this I had noticed all the tangs swimming along with each other on each side of the divider. So during the night I removed the divider.

All the fish are buddies the Purple is the Boss the yellow stays out of the way and the Kole well he just could not care either way.

Hopefully I don't have any problems in the future and I'm planning on upgrading to a much larger setup soon.

 

[Mr. Limpid]

ust my .02. The Kole is the only tang I would put in a 90gal. The yellow has claimed the entire tank as is domain, if you try to intro duce the purple there will be trouble and both will loose. Also in time the 90gal won’t be large enough for the yellow and it will become listless and stop eating. I would keep one or the other try getting store credit for the other at your LFS and plan on upgrading soon. Good Luck

 

[Swooshjvm]

Agree with cole being problem more than yellow. In my 300 the cole tang pretty much killed itself running into the needles of the purple trying to harass the purple.

 

[jgraz]

Im glad your having luck. I have a Kole and Hippo in my 90. They were together in a 44 pentagon for about 10 months. I never had any problems with either. Neither has really established themselves as the dominate. They constantly swim together and eat off the same algea clip with my wrasse at the same time. At the end of this week I'll be adding a Yellow Tang to the mix. I'm expecting a bit of a problem with the Kole, but will be adding a mirror the day before for a bit of assistance.