Tang Aggression - Understanding and Combating

skip0211 · Apr 18, 2019

I currently have a PB, YT and Foxface in my 265 gal SPS tank.. there is also a red Stripe Angel, Flame Angel, 4 Anthias, 3 Clowns and a Firefish.. all have been together 3 to 8 years. Everyone gets along great.. PB chases the Foxface on occasion.. everyone is fat and happy.. I have 350 gallons of sump.. I friend is closing his tank tomorrow and is giving me all his fish .. they are in a Fish only live rock 300 gallon tank...
I’m putting the fish in my sump until I find a home for some of them.. the list is; powder brown tang, Orange shoulder tang, Kole tang, red stripe Angel and Longnose butterfly. There are other non reefsafe fish..
Can I add any of the Tangs to my current tank? I already have a RedStripe in my tank.. can I add a second? All my fish fish have been together 3 to 10 years. The 10 yrold is my PB..

Thanks...

@4FordFamily

4FordFamily · Apr 18, 2019

skip0211 said:
I currently have a PB, YT and Foxface in my 265 gal SPS tank.. there is also a red Stripe Angel, Flame Angel, 4 Anthias, 3 Clowns and a Firefish.. all have been together 3 to 8 years. Everyone gets along great.. PB chases the Foxface on occasion.. everyone is fat and happy.. I have 350 gallons of sump.. I friend is closing his tank tomorrow and is giving me all his fish .. they are in a Fish only live rock 300 gallon tank...
I’m putting the fish in my sump until I find a home for some of them.. the list is; powder brown tang, Orange shoulder tang, Kole tang, red stripe Angel and Longnose butterfly. There are other non reefsafe fish..
Can I add any of the Tangs to my current tank? I already have a RedStripe in my tank.. can I add a second? All my fish fish have been together 3 to 10 years. The 10 yrold is my PB..

Thanks...

#4Ford Family

It’s possible if the tangs are added together that it could work out, but it’s also likely the powder blue will single the powder brown out— particularly because he’s been in such a large space without seeing much competition from other tangs, that usually leads them to be even more territorial. If you do it, add at night just before the light is off (give em 20 minutes of light before bed and see how it goes then keep their room pitch black). I wouldn’t add a second red stripe. Longnose are not very reef safe, but some do it with success.

skip0211 · Apr 18, 2019

Thanks so much for the insight.. I’m going add the tangs without the Powder Brown and hope it all goes well..

Thanks again,

Skip

MARK M. DAVIS · Apr 19, 2019

Good read. Pretty accurate! I have a 300 system with 9 tangs. Most aggressive are the big yellows toward the smaller yellow and purple. Desjardini, chevron and naso blonde are fairly passive. They seem to buck for superiority sometimes. What about feeding the cbd product, healthy fins, to take the edge off.

vetteguy53081 · Apr 19, 2019

MARK M. DAVIS said:
Good read. Pretty accurate! I have a 300 system with 9 tangs. Most aggressive are the big yellows toward the smaller yellow and purple. Desjardini, chevron and naso blonde are fairly passive. They seem to buck for superiority sometimes. What about feeding the cbd product, healthy fins, to take the edge off.

Funny is, the yellows are also my tank jerks

4FordFamily · Apr 19, 2019

skip0211 said:
Thanks so much for the insight.. I’m going add the tangs without the Powder Brown and hope it all goes well..

Thanks again,

Skip

Good luck! :)

pokerdobe · Apr 24, 2019

@4FordFamily, I am adding a purple tang to a tank with an established achilles tang. Both are similar in size and I have the purple in an acclimation box for now. Other tank residents are 10 bartlett anthias, 2 clowns, 3 flasher wrasses.

What are the chances the achilles will want to kill the purple? It didn't seem too interested in checking out the purple last night when I put it in the acclimation box. Achilles has been in the tank as the only tang for about 10 months now.

-Edit-
Would also like to add a powder blue hybrid while the purple is in the box... but from my understanding this isn't advised.

Tank is the reefer 750.

4FordFamily · Apr 24, 2019

pokerdobe said:
@4FordFamily, I am adding a purple tang to a tank with an established achilles tang. Both are similar in size and I have the purple in an acclimation box for now. Other tank residents are 10 bartlett anthias, 2 clowns, 3 flasher wrasses.

What are the chances the achilles will want to kill the purple? It didn't seem too interested in checking out the purple last night when I put it in the acclimation box. Achilles has been in the tank as the only tang for about 10 months now.

-Edit-
Would also like to add a powder blue hybrid while the purple is in the box... but from my understanding this isn't advised.

Tank is the reefer 750.

I’d add the two together for best chances, but a resident tang that’s been an only tang particularly of that species for more than a couple weeks is likely to beat up on new tang additions. No guarantees either way but that’s risky.

It’s a good sign that the Achilles seems to be ignoring him in the box, however..

pokerdobe · Apr 24, 2019

4FordFamily said:
I’d add the two together for best chances, but a resident tang that’s been an only tang particularly of that species for more than a couple weeks is likely to beat up on new tang additions. No guarantees either way but that’s risky.

It’s a good sign that the Achilles seems to be ignoring him in the box, however..

Came home and the Achilles isn't paying much attention to the purple yet. I will hold off on adding the purple into the display for now - he'll get to live in the sump until I pick up the hybrid blue powder. I suppose two is better than one.

Sippiku · Apr 24, 2019

Great read! Thanks for the write up!

Medic58 · Apr 24, 2019

Great info. My wife bought me two scopas tangs for my birthday and one beat the other to death. She was trying to surprise me. She didn’t know they couldn’t live together. She was getting bad info from the fish website and some dude on you YouTube. I wish she would’ve read this. Then i know she would’ve made the right decision.

4FordFamily · Apr 25, 2019

pokerdobe said:
Came home and the Achilles isn't paying much attention to the purple yet. I will hold off on adding the purple into the display for now - he'll get to live in the sump until I pick up the hybrid blue powder. I suppose two is better than one.

The Achilles is more likely to beat on the hybrid powder blue than the purple because it's such a close cousin, but if added together you MAY have a chance -- or it may fixate and exterminate it. It's hard to know which will happen, but just a heads up. You could put it in the acclimation box and release the purple simultaneously for better odds.

KylerMT98 · Apr 25, 2019

Currently have a 4" yellow tang and a 4" desjardini sailfin in my 90g. Getting ready to move everything over to my new 180g and would like to potentially add a purple and chevron tang at the same time. Specifically worried about the purple due to already having a yellow and sailfin. Any advice?

4FordFamily · Apr 25, 2019

KylerMT98 said:
Currently have a 4" yellow tang and a 4" desjardini sailfin in my 90g. Getting ready to move everything over to my new 180g and would like to potentially add a purple and chevron tang at the same time. Specifically worried about the purple due to already having a yellow and sailfin. Any advice?

If adding to the new tank at the same time you have a better choice.

pokerdobe · Apr 25, 2019

4FordFamily said:
The Achilles is more likely to beat on the hybrid powder blue than the purple because it's such a close cousin, but if added together you MAY have a chance -- or it may fixate and exterminate it. It's hard to know which will happen, but just a heads up. You could put it in the acclimation box and release the purple simultaneously for better odds.

Don't want to add the hybrid if its chances are dismal. Am I better off adding a gem or chevron with the purple?

4FordFamily · Apr 25, 2019

pokerdobe said:
Don't want to add the hybrid if its chances are dismal. Am I better off adding a gem or chevron with the purple?

Yes.

danoo · Apr 30, 2019

@4FordFamily

Ok I finally have the time to fulfill my earlier idea from this thread and add some tangs to my existing 350 (8' x 3' x 26" tall). The tank currently has 1 ~6" kole tang that I plan to catch and temporarily re-home when I introduce the new tangs.

I was hoping to get 1 captive-bred hippo tang and 1 captive bred yellow tang and run them through QT together and then add them together, but it appears captive-bred hippo tangs just aren't available at the moment (and haven't been recently).

So it seems the only captive-bred tangs available right now are yellow tangs. So given YTs are my only captive bred option, and I am really looking to add some bio-load (and herbivores) to my tank, I was wondering how the risk level increases (or decreases) if I add more than one of them.

My first thoughts would be to add 2, but it seems in other discussions that 3 seems to be a more popular number. So if my options are adding 1, 2 or 3 very small (1-1.5") captive bred yellow tangs into the 350 gallon tank, how would those options rank in terms of risk?

4FordFamily · May 3, 2019

danoo said:
@4FordFamily

Ok I finally have the time to fulfill my earlier idea from this thread and add some tangs to my existing 350 (8' x 3' x 26" tall). The tank currently has 1 ~6" kole tang that I plan to catch and temporarily re-home when I introduce the new tangs.

I was hoping to get 1 captive-bred hippo tang and 1 captive bred yellow tang and run them through QT together and then add them together, but it appears captive-bred hippo tangs just aren't available at the moment (and haven't been recently).

So it seems the only captive-bred tangs available right now are yellow tangs. So given YTs are my only captive bred option, and I am really looking to add some bio-load (and herbivores) to my tank, I was wondering how the risk level increases (or decreases) if I add more than one of them.

My first thoughts would be to add 2, but it seems in other discussions that 3 seems to be a more popular number. So if my options are adding 1, 2 or 3 very small (1-1.5") captive bred yellow tangs into the 350 gallon tank, how would those options rank in terms of risk?

Three or more would be your better bet, particularly because there are few other tangs present. If you limit yourself to captive bred this is probably your option at the moment. :)

danoo · May 3, 2019

4FordFamily said:
Three or more would be your better bet, particularly because there are few other tangs present. If you limit yourself to captive bred this is probably your option at the moment. :)

Thanks so much for the response :)

Alright 3 yellow tangs it is. Hope they get along!