This is mostly me venting, having been humbled today, with the death of my stunning powder brown tang, but also maybe hoping that others will come across this thread and reconsider having multiple tangs in one tank, as I have now done. There are plenty of people that have been successful doing this and are happy to tell you how, but no matter what you do to minimize aggression, it is still a big big risk. A risk I wish I had never taken.
I got lucky to begin with the PBT, as it was such a friendly and calm fish that it was eating nori out of my hand by the second day I had it. I swear it came out of the bag hungry and never hid from me from the very first time it left the bag, as it was always on the move. Without a doubt my most favorite fish ever. About three weeks ago I moved it out of QT where it had been since Christmas, to my new and empty 3’6 x 5’ 300 gallon setup. It was so healthy, loving the extra space, and riding in the powerhead flow all day, and constantly hungry. I had intended on moving my yellow tang, clown, and gramma from another tank into the 300 gallon setup from the start and thought I had a good plan to do so. Boy was I wrong.
I had seen several videos on youtube about keeping multiple tangs, read forum posts, and tried to get all the info I could about mixing tangs. The general consensus was you must have a large tank, introduce all tangs at once and preferably as juveniles, or at least from least to most aggressive, that you should not mix tangs of the same genus, and then feed heavily, and have a plan b if things go wrong. Both tangs were equally matched in size and health, but I already knew the YT could be a little aggressive, as I’ve had it longer and watched it threaten my larger 4” maroon clown so I decided it should go in second. I also separated them at first with an egg crate which was my plan b as I could divide it down the middle giving each 150 gallons, until I could rehome the yellow if it didn’t work out. The first morning though, after the yellow went in, it found its way around the partition by going under where there was a dip in the sand bed and when the lights came on both fish met. I watched for a while as they would swim parallel sizing each other up, but with no engagement. After a while, the YT started to back up and I separated them right away. I put the partition back and fixed the way around and left them apart for a couple days. I tried to let them meet again, with the intention of permanent separation if things went awry. This time the yellow seemed less aggressive when they met , and after a while of watching them swim past each other with little notice, I left them together the whole day, periodically checking on them. After a few days, it seemed like they barely noticed each other anymore and there had only been a couple minor altercations. I thought I had found success. I’m working from home, so I’ve been spending a lot of time watching them and in a week since they were put together had only seen the YT backup towards the PBT twice and never saw the pbt be the aggressor. Most times they were either swimming together peacefully or apart with neither concerned or harassing the other. This morning I found the pbt sideways with multiple puncture wounds and a slit gill. This amazing fish is now dead all because I chose to not go by the book and thought I was savvy enough to be able to maintain the peace. Maybe it would have worked out eventually with three or five tangs to disperse the aggression, but it only took an instant for things to go from a seemingly peaceful existence to a dead fish.
I got lucky to begin with the PBT, as it was such a friendly and calm fish that it was eating nori out of my hand by the second day I had it. I swear it came out of the bag hungry and never hid from me from the very first time it left the bag, as it was always on the move. Without a doubt my most favorite fish ever. About three weeks ago I moved it out of QT where it had been since Christmas, to my new and empty 3’6 x 5’ 300 gallon setup. It was so healthy, loving the extra space, and riding in the powerhead flow all day, and constantly hungry. I had intended on moving my yellow tang, clown, and gramma from another tank into the 300 gallon setup from the start and thought I had a good plan to do so. Boy was I wrong.
I had seen several videos on youtube about keeping multiple tangs, read forum posts, and tried to get all the info I could about mixing tangs. The general consensus was you must have a large tank, introduce all tangs at once and preferably as juveniles, or at least from least to most aggressive, that you should not mix tangs of the same genus, and then feed heavily, and have a plan b if things go wrong. Both tangs were equally matched in size and health, but I already knew the YT could be a little aggressive, as I’ve had it longer and watched it threaten my larger 4” maroon clown so I decided it should go in second. I also separated them at first with an egg crate which was my plan b as I could divide it down the middle giving each 150 gallons, until I could rehome the yellow if it didn’t work out. The first morning though, after the yellow went in, it found its way around the partition by going under where there was a dip in the sand bed and when the lights came on both fish met. I watched for a while as they would swim parallel sizing each other up, but with no engagement. After a while, the YT started to back up and I separated them right away. I put the partition back and fixed the way around and left them apart for a couple days. I tried to let them meet again, with the intention of permanent separation if things went awry. This time the yellow seemed less aggressive when they met , and after a while of watching them swim past each other with little notice, I left them together the whole day, periodically checking on them. After a few days, it seemed like they barely noticed each other anymore and there had only been a couple minor altercations. I thought I had found success. I’m working from home, so I’ve been spending a lot of time watching them and in a week since they were put together had only seen the YT backup towards the PBT twice and never saw the pbt be the aggressor. Most times they were either swimming together peacefully or apart with neither concerned or harassing the other. This morning I found the pbt sideways with multiple puncture wounds and a slit gill. This amazing fish is now dead all because I chose to not go by the book and thought I was savvy enough to be able to maintain the peace. Maybe it would have worked out eventually with three or five tangs to disperse the aggression, but it only took an instant for things to go from a seemingly peaceful existence to a dead fish.
