Naso Tang

[Reef Pets]

Well, I caught the Mantis Shrimp that was in my tank. Now I am ready to add fish again. I have good knowledge on coral but not fish. But, my wife really likes having fish. I am thinking about adding a Naso Tang. I have read mixed reviews of some bothering coral but most do not? Has anyone had good or bad experiences with a Naso Tang? It will be in 100 gallons (lots of corals) and I plan to add a Yellow Tang and Bluee Hippo Tang.
Thanks!!

 

[jaydm93teg]

ok here it goes........

i had a yellow tang in my 80 gallon I added a blonde Naso and a sailfin tang like 3 months later. The yellow tang had been eating fine and everything when i added the other 2 the yellow went nuts and beat up on both of them. I got the yellow out of the tank and the blonde naso and sailfin were GREAT TOGETHER!!!! Well i came to realize my blonde Naso was not eating from the algae clip.(i found out to be a common problems with some Nasos) I did everything i could to get the naso to eat i had 3 clips of veggies all over the tank but some other algae in the back corner of my tank he never took to any of it so he did die im guessing of starvation. So i was left with my sailfin still doing great and eating like champ. I then added a regal and they are like best friends they are always all over each other and they both tear up any type of food that goes in that tank. They will eat ANYTHING!!!!!

so my advice to you is this.

Add The Regal and the blonde naso at the same time so that neither of them has a chance to establish any dominance alone in the tank. Once these two are in your tank eating and loving life for a couple months you could take a chance at adding the yellow. I deff. would NOT add the yellow first simply because i have heard so many stories of the yellow tang being so aggresive if it is allowed to establish dominance as the only tang in the tank. plus i think the regal and the naso are pretty non aggresive where as the yellow is classified as aggresive.

This is all just my 2 cents and my opinon but i figured i would tell you my story if it will save you some of the troubles i went through.

also if you ever have any problems getting them to eat.....soak some of the nori or veggies sheets in garlic before you put them in the tank

 

[salt newbie01]

Not enough room for a naso, in my opinion. You need at bare minimum a 6' tank for a naso (long term) preferably an 8' tank. They get HUGE!! You would be alright with the yellow and hippo for a while but with a lot of rock and coral they will out grow a 100 gallon. If you get them small you would have a few years before needing to upgrade.

No fish is completely safe when it comes to corals - there is always a never and never an always.

 

[salt newbie01]

Anytime you add a tang after another has established himself you take a risk. I friend locally had a blue hippo kill a larger powder blue. The hippo was established and harrassed the powder blue not letting him eat. If the fish are stressed due to overcrowding or another fish bullying they will be more likely to get ich. I would agree on the yellow tang, they do seem to be more aggressive than some of the other tangs once established. But again all fish can be unique in thier behavior.

 

[Sooner Reefer]

I would not add a naso in a 100g, way too little room for a naso.

 

[Reef Pets]

This is all great information! Again, I know little about fish and had no idea that a yellow tang would dominate the tanks. The Naso will be very small, less than 2 inches so I am thinking that 100 gallons would be fine for now? I plan to upgrade the tank within a year or so, most likely to a 180 or larger. I dont know the growth rate of a Naso but I was thinking with it being that small, by the time I would be upgrading the Naso would be ready for a larger tank.
My concern was it bothering the coral. I would hate to put a fish in the tank and then have to take it out right away......

 

[salt newbie01]

with tangs being grazers there is always a chance they could nip at corals (in my opinion). However I think the chance is much less with a tang than with a dwarf angel. You just can't tell for sure. I have always wanted a smaller naso but could never find one. Have you found a small one at a local store? All the ones I see are at least 5-8". If you get one small I would love to see pics. I love the little hippos/regals. One of my local stores always gets little 1.5 - 2" babies. They always seem in great health. goodluck

 

[Oldsalt]

Agree with the above suggestions. I bought a healthy (eating was demonstrated at my LFS) almost 6" Naso tang last month for $AU75. My aquarium is 350 gallons 6' x 3' x 2.5' and he uses all of it to swim around so I don't think a 100 gallon tank would suffice. These guys can get very large - up to 18". Marine fish size isn't proportional to tank size, unlike freshwater fish. If you can find a very small Naso, then maybe you could get by for a while. I haven't seen any smaller than 4" anywhere.

I have plenty of rock for him to hide under but he had great personality from the moment I let him in. He started taking algae from my hand right away and is always looking for more (their natural diet consists of mostly brown but it's hard to find). I am lucky to be very close to the Indian Ocean where my son is a diving instructor. He got me a bunch of brown algae that I rinsed in clean ocean water. The Naso loves the stuff so I dried out a bunch using a food dehydrator. I now have that plus sheets of sushi algae.

 

[Reefkeeper12]

ok here it goes........

i had a yellow tang in my 80 gallon I added a blonde Naso and a sailfin tang like 3 months later. The yellow tang had been eating fine and everything when i added the other 2 the yellow went nuts and beat up on both of them. I got the yellow out of the tank and the blonde naso and sailfin were GREAT TOGETHER!!!! Well i came to realize my blonde Naso was not eating from the algae clip.(i found out to be a common problems with some Nasos) I did everything i could to get the naso to eat i had 3 clips of veggies all over the tank but some other algae in the back corner of my tank he never took to any of it so he did die im guessing of starvation. So i was left with my sailfin still doing great and eating like champ. I then added a regal and they are like best friends they are always all over each other and they both tear up any type of food that goes in that tank. They will eat ANYTHING!!!!!

so my advice to you is this.

Add The Regal and the blonde naso at the same time so that neither of them has a chance to establish any dominance alone in the tank. Once these two are in your tank eating and loving life for a couple months you could take a chance at adding the yellow. I deff. would NOT add the yellow first simply because i have heard so many stories of the yellow tang being so aggresive if it is allowed to establish dominance as the only tang in the tank. plus i think the regal and the naso are pretty non aggresive where as the yellow is classified as aggresive.

This is all just my 2 cents and my opinon but i figured i would tell you my story if it will save you some of the troubles i went through.

also if you ever have any problems getting them to eat.....soak some of the nori or veggies sheets in garlic before you put them in the tank

Yeah but the same goes for a sailfin tang, I put a Naso in with a dominant sailfin and the sailfin whooped his butt. Had to throw the sailfin in my sump.