looking for good pointers for keeping a purple tang healthy and colored up nicely

[hybridazn]

they are bullies...i have one small one in my 40 breeder and she tries to run the show...feed her some flakes, pellets, frozen mysis, and live brine. she eats everything and looks great

Having him in a 40 breeder probably has something to do with his aggression as well

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Pics or it didn't happen!!!!!

Yea, Ive heard of overstocked before, and I have done it. I thought my 125g was overstocked with a hippo, purple, and a chevron. This guy makes me feel good about myself.

I like to consider myself somewhat of an expert tang keeper. A lot of people are talking about nutrition, so Ill go over with you what my tangs have at their disposal in this department.

Live macro algaes in tank (calurpa)
3x different kinds of nori (red, purple, green) all soaked in either selcon, or vitachem
NLS - this is key, its the best stuff out there, and honestly you probably dont need anything else, it works for Pablo Tepoots moorish idols that way
My reef blend
Rodgers Reef Food
PE mysis
Silverside paste (this is exactly what it sounds like)
Hikari megamarine angel
shrimp

Aside from that, you should have vigorous flow in your aquarium, this will keep the tang fit, and he/she will enjoy swimming into the flow.
I use a return/overflow that circulates my tank volume 10x, and I have two mag6 koralias on my 125g.

Aeration. I use an AquaC EV400 (we will come back to this later), sump style aquarium, lots of surface disturbance in tank, and airstones in the sump by the inflow.

Big water changes, and good equipment. The EV400 pulls so much waste that sometimes it cant make bubbles. My water is polished. I do large weekly h2o changes, (20g a week, and this might be going up) and I believe that this is my main key to success.

These fish are sensitive to disease in the form of ich, and HITH/LLE but with proper feeding and water quality you should never have issues with either. Plain and simple.

You see a fish with ich it means one of a couple things:

1. This aquarium isnt big enough. (Either for me, or all the fish you are housing inside it.)
2. You need to feed me better.
3. You need to be doing bigger/more frequent h2o changes.

I havent lost a fish to ich since I was 13. I dont think I ever will ever again.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Oh, and plus one to this being the last fish added. Unfortunately for me I sent my purple tang back from a stay in LA, luckily he is pretty small, but he is making the acclimation of my new chevron tang into the system a little dicey.

 

[salt newbie01]

Great info everyone. Thank you for the long post with your feeding regimen kingfisher. I plan on all 3 types of nori and I have 2 types of nls and frozen mysis. I will pick up selcon. It was already on my list. My lfs still did not get in any purples. But they have a powder blue that they have had for a few weeks. It is fat and happy. It is smaller maybe 4" or so? I think I'm gonna grab it tomorrow. With that said I may not add a purple. They r so aggressive I'm afraid the purple would wind up stressing the powder too bad. If I do add a purple it will be well after the powder is established and I would get a purple that was smaller. I may just add a yellow to go with the powder.

You all have been a great help. I will definitely post pics if I get the powder blue.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Hopefully you get this before you buy...powders can be aggressive as well.

I would try to match the size, and dont expect to be seeing purples any time soon, with the shipping ban from the middle east right now it is super hard to get them. That is why I decided that it was worth it to send one back from LA.

Another thing I dont like about powdereds is that they should really be kept with h2o temps in the low 80's. I think that anything above 80 will start to stress most corals, and that you will be seeing swings at night.

Just some things to keep in mind.

 

[salt newbie01]

I had not heard that about powders....liking a higher temp. I hope this will not be a problem since I came home with one saturday. I took some frags to my LFS and racked up some good credit. They had a small 3-4" powder blue they have had for a while. I have always loved the powder blues, they are just so pretty. I have decided against the purple tang. I think they are just too aggressive. I know the powders can be aggressive but it seem all the purples are aggressive towards everything! Since I have some anthias and hope to add some male wrasses I felt the purple would not be the proper choice for me at this time. Now I am just trying to do all I can to keep the powder eating and happy. Fat, happy and low stress will hopefully keep the ich at bay!

Thank you all again for all the great info!

Still waiting on those pics of the 14 tangs......

 

[Stussyredhat]

I had a purple and a regal for about a year and I fell in love with a powder blue so I got him, one of the biggest mistakes I ever did. He was in for about a day and covered in ich quickly took him out and thew up a 8 gallon nano and ran it for about week with no lights and hypo. Left him in there for about a month and re introduced him. The purple acted like he didn't even know he was there so now they are all happy with no issues and a year later. As far a color nori seems to be the best thing for them.

 

[salt newbie01]

Just to update:
My little powder blue is doing great! Eating well except for nori. Just doesn't seem interested at all. I am leaving the clip in the tank. I thought maybe it was scared of the clip. It is small maybe 3" but getting along with the other inhabitants just fine. Eating well and also picking at the rock. Definitely gaining weight. I always heard a fat tang was a happy and healthy tang

Now it's time to start picking my flasher/fairy list

Thanks again for all the pointers and help you all gave me

 

[hkornel]

Yea, Ive heard of overstocked before, and I have done it. I thought my 125g was overstocked with a hippo, purple, and a chevron. This guy makes me feel good about myself.

I like to consider myself somewhat of an expert tang keeper. A lot of people are talking about nutrition, so Ill go over with you what my tangs have at their disposal in this department.

Live macro algaes in tank (calurpa)
3x different kinds of nori (red, purple, green) all soaked in either selcon, or vitachem
NLS - this is key, its the best stuff out there, and honestly you probably dont need anything else, it works for Pablo Tepoots moorish idols that way
My reef blend
Rodgers Reef Food
PE mysis
Silverside paste (this is exactly what it sounds like)
Hikari megamarine angel
shrimp

Aside from that, you should have vigorous flow in your aquarium, this will keep the tang fit, and he/she will enjoy swimming into the flow.
I use a return/overflow that circulates my tank volume 10x, and I have two mag6 koralias on my 125g.

Aeration. I use an AquaC EV400 (we will come back to this later), sump style aquarium, lots of surface disturbance in tank, and airstones in the sump by the inflow.

Big water changes, and good equipment. The EV400 pulls so much waste that sometimes it cant make bubbles. My water is polished. I do large weekly h2o changes, (20g a week, and this might be going up) and I believe that this is my main key to success.

These fish are sensitive to disease in the form of ich, and HITH/LLE but with proper feeding and water quality you should never have issues with either. Plain and simple.

You see a fish with ich it means one of a couple things:

1. This aquarium isnt big enough. (Either for me, or all the fish you are housing inside it.)
2. You need to feed me better.
3. You need to be doing bigger/more frequent h2o changes.

I havent lost a fish to ich since I was 13. I dont think I ever will ever again.

Hey,

may I ask what is NLS you wrote for feeding?
I have 4 tangs now for about a month, introduced all at once and the powder blue is the biggest, but anyway, he is the boss out there:

Naso elegant
Xhanturum
Acanthurus leucosternon
Ctenochaetus tominiensis

They are all happy and healthy, I even stopped my UV now. I feed them mainly with Ocean Nutrition Formula one and two pellets.
And once a week with frozen food and little garlic.

I will come back with some pics if you like!

Kornel

 

[greg0385]

my blue tang loved brine shrimp and flakes. would nibble on the kelp but wouldnt chow down on it. good luck on your your new fish. keep us updated.
greg

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Tangs are great and yeah the tang police eat this up!....in my 125 I have blonde naso male5+, female reg. Naso 4", juvenile Valimingi tang3"(will be going to larger tank in future) two yellow tangs 3"&6" blue hippo tang3", yellow belly blue hippo tang 4", red sea sail-fin tang 7", powder blue4" Achilles tang 5", yellow eye3",a thompsoni4", orange shoulder 5" and I have a 3" purple tang in quarantine adding him last because of his aggressive nature in friends old tank!
All of my tangs get along great except for when it's time to go to bed then there is some mild shoving but nothing of concern the biggest thing is they are all pigs! I go through about 150g of nori a month! But they all swim right together graze on the same rocks together it's awesome!
I think you'd be fine with multiple tangs in your 120 you just have to choose in what order you add them based on their given demeanors add the nice ones first then add the mean ones last (such as the purple) good luck and always choose what tangs comes first as it's very difficult to add some tangs after others !

Wow that sounds amazing - Definitely waiting on some pics or vids of this - Glad to hear it is working for ya!