My fish are too big

[Eddie K]

hi everyone,
My fish are getting huge in my 300 gal system. I was hopping to donate to local aquariums but no takers so far. They are about 6 -8 inches in length now. Ive got a unicorn tang, sailfin tang and blue tang that are this size. Im in the Dallas, TX area. Any advise?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I would try posting something in the texas forum and see if any local reefers would be willing to take them off your hands for you The Texas forum can be found here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/texas.562/

 

[Josh Kraft]

If you don't get any takers... You only have one choice... UPGRADE!

 

[ca1ore]

If you were willing to ship I'd take the unicorn off your hands (and cover shipping of course). It's hard to rehome large fish; I recently had to do that with a 14" vlamingi.

 

[RtomKinMad]

We have a 10” Sohal and porcupine puffer and 8” Koran angel in 180. They are happy and swim all day. Do you think you could keep them? Any other fish in your tank?

 

[4FordFamily]

We have a 10” Sohal and porcupine puffer and 8” Koran angel in 180. They are happy and swim all day. Do you think you could keep them? Any other fish in your tank?

Oh my word that is a cramped Sohal! Time for an upgrade!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Yes! We were building the 180 and wanted something special. Our LFS owner sold this Sohal to someone 10 years ago. She was in a 75 and got so big they returned her. The LFS could only put her in a 120 tank. No one was wanting her due to aggression. So we took her home. Lov this fish. Also took a returned 10yo puffer and Koran angel all returns from smaller tanks. They are all happy together and so friendly. Let us hand feed and touch them all. Added a few other friends for them. Can’t upgrade this tank due to weight over the basement. We have a 300gal reef in another area of the house with reinforced floors. But have 7 tangs in that tank already. Here’s a picture of the 180. Taken tonight. Our fish are super fat! Three triggers and three angels in this tank. The niger has quadrupled in the last year. Hoping it doesn’t get any bigger. The Sohal
Doesn’t even notice the scopa which was a huge chance we took. Puff spit water at me tonight when I didn’t feed him fast enough! Was so funny!

 

[MUSBFRANK]

Yes! We were building the 180 and wanted something special. Our LFS owner sold this Sohal to someone 10 years ago. She was in a 75 and got so big they returned her. The LFS could only put her in a 120 tank. No one was wanting her due to aggression. So we took her home. Lov this fish. Also took a returned 10yo puffer and Koran angel all returns from smaller tanks. They are all happy together and so friendly. Let us hand feed and touch them all. Added a few other friends for them. Can’t upgrade this tank due to weight over the basement. We have a 300gal reef in another area of the house with reinforced floors. But have 7 tangs in that tank already. Here’s a picture of the 180. Taken tonight. Our fish are super fat! Three triggers and three angels in this tank. The niger has quadrupled in the last year. Hoping it doesn’t get any bigger. The Sohal
Doesn’t even notice the scopa which was a huge chance we took. Puff spit water at me tonight when I didn’t feed him fast enough! Was so funny!

Wow, can't believe that Sohal is behaving himself, especially towards the next biggest threat in that Koran angel, so awesome that you gave them all a bigger home!

 

[RtomKinMad]

We got really lucky with the Sohal. The Koran is actually more temperamental, chases away the other angels but only at feeding times otherwise ignores them. Our powder brown in the 300gal went ballistic about 5 weeks ago chasing 3 other tangs and they wouldn’t eat. So we pulled him out. We quarantined for two weeks and decided to try woh the Sohal. Not a good idea. She immediately went after him and sliced him really bad. We took him out immediately back into quarantine. Had to treat with antibiotics because the woh d was really bad. Just finished cycling his new 93gal cube home. That was the only tank we had room to add! Didn’t want to take him back and have him sold to someone else that have the same problem and we have had powder brown for 3yrs. Will not add anything else with Koran or Sohal again. Think we have been way to lucky so far. Our 300gal is also full no more
Fish. Thanks for reply. Best regards, Kindel

 

[lion king]

Contact aquarium maintenance companies in your area, ask them if they have any clients that would have an appropriate spot for what you are offering. Any restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. with very large tanks. I gave an undulated trigger to a bar I use to hang out in.

 

[4FordFamily]

We got really lucky with the Sohal. The Koran is actually more temperamental, chases away the other angels but only at feeding times otherwise ignores them. Our powder brown in the 300gal went ballistic about 5 weeks ago chasing 3 other tangs and they wouldn’t eat. So we pulled him out. We quarantined for two weeks and decided to try woh the Sohal. Not a good idea. She immediately went after him and sliced him really bad. We took him out immediately back into quarantine. Had to treat with antibiotics because the woh d was really bad. Just finished cycling his new 93gal cube home. That was the only tank we had room to add! Didn’t want to take him back and have him sold to someone else that have the same problem and we have had powder brown for 3yrs. Will not add anything else with Koran or Sohal again. Think we have been way to lucky so far. Our 300gal is also full no more
Fish. Thanks for reply. Best regards, Kindel

Sohal don’t deserve their reputation IMO but some get very nasty as they age especially toward other tangs. Large numbers of tangs and tangs significantly larger than the Sohal can curb that, IME

 

[JohnPeck]

How do you guys quarrantine fish that big when you reveive them? Also do you use any copper/ meds as insurance?

 

[RtomKinMad]

Sohal don’t deserve their reputation IMO but some get very nasty as they age especially toward other tangs. Large numbers of tangs and tangs significantly larger than the Sohal can curb that, IME

Cool! I sure ours continues to behave. We really enjoy this fish. We call her Luna, I think it’s a female but really have no idea! The Koran is pretty awesome too very personable and both follow us when we come up to the tank. We feel very lucky to have them and hope we have them a forever home for another 10 years at least!

 

[RtomKinMad]

How do you guys quarrantine fish that big when you reveive them? Also do you use any copper/ meds as insurance?

We did not quarantine but only buy from one store and it’s very clean/disease free. The store owner quarantines and does run copper when needed, but not all the time. We got ick in this tank (moved the scopa from 300gal with ick to the 180) but only saw it on the puffer, harlequin tusk and one trigger not on Koran or Sohal. We did use copper since it’s fish only but only low dose for theee weeks (all gone now) because copper is not good for puffers or eel. They all did fine and we will not add anything else to this tank. We have a 20gal quarantine tank but use only for sick fish. My LFS owner is very conscientious about what he buys and sells and the health of his fish. I have never gone wrong with him in three years. We got ick in our 75 gal when we bought fish somewhere else and when we transferred the 75 gal to 300gal I thought the ick was gone for 2 years but somehow when we moved the regal tang she got ick and then all the other tangs. We have been doing ick control measures for 8 months and finally is not seen anymore in the tank! We increased oxygen, increased flow, increased return pump pressure, increased live rock biofilter, large UV sterilizer, lots of good food, garlic and nori for all. Reduce stress! Would quarantine if I didn’t trust the LFS owner so much and am very selective of the fish I buy also. I don’t buy unless he’s had them 1 month first. I believe in copper and quarantine especially if you can see the fish before you buy. A friend of mine bought a water troth for horses at a feed store and quarantined his large fish in that with copper before adding to his 400gal custom reef tank. Worked fine used power heads and canister filter. Was 100gal troth. It worked didn’t look good but efficient and cheap compared to 100gal quarantine tank set up. Good luck with your fish.

 

[sanchoy]

12-14 inch is the magic number for sohals to turn into a full fledged killer. The cramped space will make them even more maniacs. Mine was fine until he reached 13+ inches then boom, jeckel and hyde.

Killed or chased everything, even killed a cleaner shrimp. Knocked down rocks and slit up many mates. Fragged all my sps colonies to pieces.

He was my favorite but had to go many years ago to lfs

 

[cracker]

That Sohol is magnificent ! Always wanted one.

 

[MUSBFRANK]

Even more unbelievable than the Sohol not kicking the crap out of everybody, is that Navarchus Angel actually living among all those bigger and more fiesty fish, I would only put a Navarchus in a tank where he will absolutely be the boss (no ifs ands or buts), otherwise in my experience they tend to eventually crumble when even slightly harassed, good stuff going on in your tank.

 

[RtomKinMad]

We must just be super lucky. Tank has Picasso trigger, Niger Trigger, red tail trigger, Fox face, harlequin tusk, porquine puffer, scopa tang, Sohal tang, mid change emporer angel, majestic angel and Koran angel. Most of them went in all together from our other tanks and what we brought home to rescue and have gotten along so far. We have had up and running six months. But we feed like crazy. Mysis, spirolina blend mixed, lg krill, clams of half shell, silver sides, the Koran likes pellets so some of that too, predator blend, and squid. We mix it up and give them something different very couple of days and 4 days a week they get 3 sheets of nori! They are all super fat, wondering if too fat! I sure
Hope none of them go crazy. We really do lov this tank. Can’t move anyone. 300 full of tangs and has an annularass angel. 90gal has mean powder brown and a wounded tominin tang both I pulled out of 300gal, quarantined and bought them a 93 gal cube. Just added fish on Sunday. My LFS biggest tank is 125, 4 of them. So I don’t know what we would do if anyone went crazy. But I’ll keep a close eye on behavior. Thanks for the warning. I wish our floor would support 500gal and we would have. Money is not he issue just space and floor support. Already spent more on tanks than cars! Lol

 

[RtomKinMad]

12-14 inch is the magic number for sohals to turn into a full fledged killer. The cramped space will make them even more maniacs. Mine was fine until he reached 13+ inches then boom, jeckel and hyde.

Killed or chased everything, even killed a cleaner shrimp. Knocked down rocks and slit up many mates. Fragged all my sps colonies to pieces.

He was my favorite but had to go many years ago to lfs

How big of a tank did you have it in?

 

[RtomKinMad]

Even more unbelievable than the Sohol not kicking the crap out of everybody, is that Navarchus Angel actually living among all those bigger and more fiesty fish, I would only put a Navarchus in a tank where he will absolutely be the boss (no ifs ands or buts), otherwise in my experience they tend to eventually crumble when even slightly harassed, good stuff going on in your tank.

Oh boy, I didn’t know it was fragile! Yes it’s a majestic went in at the same time as juvenile emporer now really big and the Koran. Everyone leaves the majestic alone except if it gets too close to the Koran during feeding time and the Koran will chase it a bit but never saw any bites or severe harassing. It’s small enough it good go in the 93gal cube? It is the smallest fish in this aggressive tank. After everyone eats they are ok all day.