How do you take care of a massive blue tang? Over a foot long.

[Miami Reef]

Here is the monster.

 

[Celestion]

Lol...

 

[Miami Reef]

I should never trust my brother again

This feels like a joke at this point.

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

Not to sound flippant, but you feed him the same as any other fish, he just eats more. The full size tangs I cared for got chopped peas, romaine heads, sheets of nori, krill, PE mysids, chopped capelin, chopped clam, etc, etc. He will eat a lot, and feeding him will add up pretty quickly. As others have said, I'd probably look to rehome him, that 250 is small, and he isn't done growing.

 

[Tamberav]

Tell your brother he needs to now go out and buy you a 10 foot 600g tank to house it in.

Also make him pay for all the food that thing eats. I am sure it is a lot.

 

[Goaway]

he isn't done growing.

15 inches is max size. . I am sure he is done growing. 12 is average.
The vlamingi he has will be twice that blue in 10 years.

If he is having a difficult time settling, I am sure you can find someone who would love him. DO NOT feed him lettuce.
Get him a lot of nori sheets. And some selcon. He's pretty beaten up.

 

[jsker]

Tell your brother he needs to now go out and buy you a 10 foot 600g tank to house it in.

Also make him pay for all the food that thing eats. I am sure it is a lot.

This was going to be my post;Hilarious

 

[jsker]

Here is the monster.

By the way, nice work on the tank,

 

[Goaway]

By the way, nice work on the tank,

I would have enjoyed a longer video. It's a nice video to show people, why you don't want a big fish.

 

[jsker]

I would have enjoyed a longer video. It's a nice video to show people, why you don't want a big fish.

Re-homing and asking is alway the best. The tang is not too big yet, but soon the tangs will have to either re-homed or it's time for big brother to help with the larger system upgrade 1000 gal would be perfect for a tang system. Floating reef rock too

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

15 inches is max size. . I am sure he is done growing. 12 is average.
The vlamingi he has will be twice that blue in 10 years.

If he is having a difficult time settling, I am sure you can find someone who would love him. DO NOT feed him lettuce.
Get him a lot of nori sheets. And some selcon. He's pretty beaten up.

You can blanch terrestrial greens to break down the cellulose, and feed it no problem. Most public aquariums feed romaine, peas, and broccoli to their large herbivores. Vlamingi's probably shouldn't even be in the hobby, but that's getting off topic.

 

[Celestion]

Lol

 

[Bj’s Reef]

Wow he is a big boy.

 

[Goaway]

I'm going to assume he's been in captivity for a month or so. You're better off for his own sanity to keep him. For now.
If he isn't darting around looking stressed and swims around relaxed. Grazing about freely and doesn't munch on your corals. Get him on a healthy diet. I'm more worried about his tail right now. I don't know what treatments he has been through. You should look into that.
I know a lot of these guys say 10' tank. But if he's doing well and accepts captivity without killing himself. That's going to surprise me. A lot of adult tangs don't acclimate well into our home aquariums.

 

[Miami Reef]

I returned the fish back to the LFS.

The LFS said that a customer had a leak in his tank and there were many big fish that he had for 10-15 years. There was another big tang that looked in the same condition as this blue tang.

I returned this fish because I couldn’t care for its massive amount of food it required without polluting my newly established tank. My tank was too cramped as well.

If my tangs ever reach to that size, I will have to rehome them because my tank is not big enough to support 8 massive tangs. Or upgrade to 1,000+ gallons which is highly unlikely.

 

[Goaway]

I returned the fish back to the LFS.

The LFS said that a customer had a leak in his tank and there were many big fish that he had for 10-15 years. There was another big tang that looked in the same condition as this blue tang.

I returned this fish because I couldn’t care for its massive amount of food it required without polluting my newly established tank. My tank was too cramped as well.

If my tangs ever reach to that size, I will have to rehome them because my tank is not big enough to support 8 massive tangs. Or upgrade to 1,000+ gallons which is highly unlikely.

He was a big responsibility. Vlamingi tang and naso tang will be 3 times the food needs.
Glad to know he was in captive care for years. The adults don't adjust to captivity.

 

[G Santana]

Take it back, simple enough.
Better yet, have your brother take it back.

 

[Miami Reef]

Take it back, simple enough.
Better yet, have your brother take it back.

I took it back already.

 

[albano]

Doesn’t really look that big… how big (lengthwise) is that power head in the video ?

 

[watchguy123]

Sounds like you made a great call on that fish by returning him to the LFS. I have a 180 gallon and my blue tang came in as a 1 inch or less. I have had him for 3 or 4 years probably by now and guess around 4 inches, fat and colorful. I have other tangs and they seem to take their time on getting big as well. Corals do well fragging when they get big but I haven’t had much success with fragging fish.

I think it appropriate to have concerns with livestock sustainability as well as survivability. Whole bunch of unknown answers when it comes to happiness. I certainly know that my fish make me happy but I don’t know if the opposite is true. Always a smile on my face when I’m by the tank. I would feel better if I knew the abundance of food made up for the space and lifestyle of the ocean.