Wanting to get a tang....but

GeoSquid

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60g, 36 months old, only 6 fish in tank. Mine grow about an inch per year, ( my guess is it will be 5 years before to big) but happy to upgrade when that makes sense to do so.

Just an observation on Tang growth - I have a 6 foot tank and I bought a micro Hippo Tang the size of a nickel 15 months ago. It's now 6 inches long. That is way faster than 1" year. Is this due to being in a bigger tank? This is a different tang than the OP was taking about though.
 
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Marco S

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Just an observation on Tang growth - I have a 6 foot tank and I bought a micro Hippo Tang the size of a nickel 15 months ago. It's now 6 inches long. That is way faster than 1" year. Is this due to being in a bigger tank? This is a different tang than the OP was taking about though.
My Hippo grew from about an inch to about 5 and a half inches is just under a year so they do seem to grow pretty fast. I always wondered why people seem to post a lot that they have a Hippo in a small tank that doesn't grow fast at all. Maybe you are on to something...we should take a poll to see the growth rates in small tanks Vs larger tanks.
 

Marco S

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These are all recommendations and opinions by individual people. Is it a good idea to give ANY fish the most space possible? Of course it is... Do you HAVE to in order for the fish to have a good long healthy/life. Absolutely not. I personally would not keep an adult tang in a smaller tank but if people are doing it successfully who am I to tell them they are wrong and shouldn't be doing it? I watched reef builders set up a whole tank in one day and added corals without it cycling and 4 months later the tank is doing great. Would I recommend this for other people? No I would not.. that goes against everything I was taught but he did it with no issue so who am I to say he is wrong? So what I am saying is there is no absolute way of doing anything with this stuff. It is all peoples recommendations and opinions.
LiveAquaria says, "Minumum Tank Size" not recommended tank size...and they are experts, not some individual person.

But even if they were just recommendations, do you change your oil when it is "recommended". Do you go to the doctor to get Recommended shots and checkups? Do you follow any recommendations from experts or do you just make up the rules as you go for everything?
 
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JBulk09

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LiveAquaria says, "Minumum Tank Size" not recommended tank size...and they are experts, not some individual person.

But even if they were just recommendations, do you change your oil when it is "recommended". Do you go to the doctor to get Recommended shots and checkups? Do you follow any recommendations from experts or do you just make up the rules as you go for everything?

that's a bad example as most people run their car longer and I'd also say most people dont go get check ups regularly like is recommended lol unless you like wasting money
 

OrangeCountyReefer

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that's a bad example as most people run their car longer and I'd also say most people dont go get check ups regularly like is recommended lol unless you like wasting money
LiveAquaria says, "Minumum Tank Size" not recommended tank size...and they are experts, not some individual person.

But even if they were just recommendations, do you change your oil when it is "recommended". Do you go to the doctor to get Recommended shots and checkups? Do you follow any recommendations from experts or do you just make up the rules as you go for everything?
So what these experts are saying is if you don’t have this minimum size tank this fish will not survive??? But countless people have kept them in tanks much smaller than that and have had great success.. as for doctors and oils changes my doctor recommend I get a flu shot every year but I never do and I haven’t had the flu in 10 years and yea you can actually change your oil much past the time they say you should change it. Great examples. These are all not absolute things, none of these are hey if you don’t listen this absolutely won’t work.
 

Marco S

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So what these experts are saying is if you don’t have this minimum size tank this fish will not survive??? But countless people have kept them in tanks much smaller than that and have had great success.. as for doctors and oils changes my doctor recommend I get a flu shot every year but I never do and I haven’t had the flu in 10 years and yea you can actually change your oil much past the time they say you should change it. Great examples. These are all not absolute things, none of these are hey if you don’t listen this absolutely won’t work.
See, I proved your point! That's what I was trying to do all along! :p
 
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JBulk09

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Yeah I was just hoping for people to just say something along the lines of "you can get a small tang and keep it for 2 years or so until it's too big"

Now we got a nice debate going including a possible theory of how tank size affects growth rates lol...love it
 

ReefDude2019

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Yeah I was just hoping for people to just say something along the lines of "you can get a small tang and keep it for 2 years or so until it's too big"

Now we got a nice debate going including a possible theory of how tank size affects growth rates lol...love it
Tangs and tank size seem to always bring heated debates for some reason. I wonder why it’s always Tangs? I’ve never seen as many heated discussions on the proper size tank for any other fish. It’s really interesting. Maybe we should look into that as a topic for debate. Lol
 

Marco S

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Tangs and tank size seem to always bring heated debates for some reason. I wonder why it’s always Tangs? I’ve never seen as many heated discussions on the proper size tank for any other fish. It’s really interesting. Maybe we should look into that as a topic for debate. Lol
You are right. I see posts asking about putting a Clown in a 10 gallon tank and I think the "Recommended Tank Size" is 30 gallons, (I could be wrong though) and when people say it's alright I don't feel the need to respond at all and you don't see posts like, "Here come the Clown Fish Police". But replace that with a Tang and I am all over it. Not sure why... o_O
 

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Yeah I was just hoping for people to just say something along the lines of "you can get a small tang and keep it for 2 years or so until it's too big"

Now we got a nice debate going including a possible theory of how tank size affects growth rates lol...love it

Good Job, see what you started!! Now half the folks here are in a bad mood..:D
 

GeoSquid

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Tangs and tank size seem to always bring heated debates for some reason. I wonder why it’s always Tangs? I’ve never seen as many heated discussions on the proper size tank for any other fish. It’s really interesting. Maybe we should look into that as a topic for debate. Lol
I also have a niger trigger that has grown just as much as the hippo tang. I'm not a PETA kind of person....I've been catching and eating fish from the ocean since I was little. A fish is a fish....these are just prettier. I don't name them either. If you want to put a Tang in a small tank...do it. I've traded lots of fish back to the fish store over the years. It's your tank and your money. It's just more peaceful to watch a happy fish swim around. Since this conversation this morning, I took a look on google and found a video of a pretty large hippo in a 90 gal and it definitely seemed like it was acting different than mine and looked cramped. It also seemed shaped a little funny.
 

KrisReef

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The observation that tangs swim about continuously in large aquariums could mean that they are busy searching for the way out? Perhaps what one is witnessing is the short memory of the tang to recall it's visual surroundings? In a large enough tank it certainly could be possible that the tang keeps pressing forward without remembering from one end to the next, so they continue pressing forward in search of a less artificial ocean? Perhaps the peculiar taste of Instant Ocean cannot be mistaken for the naturally sweet flavor of the wild Pacific Ocean?
 

tankstudy

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Is this due to being in a bigger tank? This is a different tang than the OP was taking about though.

No. Young fish grow very fast.

As someone who use to keep a lot of Koi, large fish tend to do a lot of their growth in their early years, but not all species of fish may follow this trend, and really slow off or completely stop growth later on. My koi during the first two years could hit upwards of 18 inches and if I was lucky even 22"-23".

You can grow massive fish in a small tank. I've done it, countless times.

The truth is that most people don't feed enough during the growing stages. For example, koi, you need to feed 3% body weight daily, continuously, for 3 years. Meaning as the fish gets bigger, you need to increase the amount it gets to eat. After the third year, growth, for the majority of koi, growth literally slows down to a turtle pace.

If you have corals and are trying to keep nutrients low. Early on, your feedings are enough to grow small specimens relatively quick but most people don't scale the food to the increase of the fish's size and needs. It'll hit a certain size and require even more food to grow but since reefers limit their food source to maintain water quality, growth potential becomes very limited, especially if you have a ton of other fish to compete for food. Captive specimens don't get to eat whenever they are hungry like wild specimens. They get to eat when you feed them and if you don't feed them enough, they most likely will not hit dinner plate sizes.

I have a 4-5 year old yellow tang in my 45 gallon shallow. He came in to my LFS bone thin. He was near death and I nurtured him back to health. However, because of the malnutrition during his early years, he's not grown at all. It took 4 months or so before he finally stopped looking like a skeleton tang. Little guy is ~4". Most folks think he's juvenile... lol.

If you purchase a 2-3 year old tang that's 7 inches. It's not likely to put on another 10-12 inches for you for the following year or years to come. Good water quality and feeding may give you a few more inches but nothing like what you'll see a young juvenile fish will put on in just a few months.

If you plan to do a lot of feeding in your systems, you can potentially grow a very large tang if you pick up a healthy juvenile and should be concerned about getting one for a smaller tank but if you are feeding the bare minimal to maintain water quality, you're not likely to produce dinner size plate tangs.

A pinch of flakes, three times a day, isn't going to produce a 2-4 foot koi...

I don't see very many wild size specimens in captivity. Most are much smaller than their wild siblings.
 

45ZoaGarden

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Just an observation on Tang growth - I have a 6 foot tank and I bought a micro Hippo Tang the size of a nickel 15 months ago. It's now 6 inches long. That is way faster than 1" year. Is this due to being in a bigger tank? This is a different tang than the OP was taking about though.
I personally think tang growth related to tank size has to do with food intake. These fish are naturally grazers. Sure, he may have fed them multiple times a day but your fish literally eating ALL day long would definitely have a higher food intake. Your tank definitely has much more surface area and LR for the fish to graze on compared to a little tank.
 

GeoSquid

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You can grow massive fish in a small tank. I've done it, countless times.

Back in the 80's I had and Oscar and clown knife in a 20 gallon long. The clown knife got to over 1' long and the Oscar was almost as big. I would drop about 20 goldfish in and they would go nuts and fight and even knock stuff off the top of the tank. Oscar is by far the coolest freshwater fish to keep. They have personalities like saltwater fish. They got waaaaay toooo big for that tank.
 

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Here’s my question. Can I put a Tomini Tang or another one of the smaller Kole Tangs in a 4 foot, 100+ gallon tank and it will live happily for its full life even after it reaches its adult size of 6”-7”? Or would that even be too small and suffocating for one of these tangs?
 

45ZoaGarden

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At full size, the fish would start to get a little cramped imo
Here’s my question. Can I put a Tomini Tang or another one of the smaller Kole Tangs in a 4 foot, 100+ gallon tank and it will live happily for its full life even after it reaches its adult size of 6”-7”? Or would that even be too small and suffocating for one of these tangs?
 

45ZoaGarden

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Hahaha yes! Oscars are very cool fish. When I was a kid my dad had a 180 gallon tank full of predatory fish. He had oscars, a shovel nose catfish, and a bunch of other fish. He would feed the oscars French fries, goldfish and minnows. Whenever they were full, they’d sink down to the bottom of the tank and lay there. They’d go pout in a corner if they didn’t get goldfish... very interesting fish LOL
Back in the 80's I had and Oscar and clown knife in a 20 gallon long. The clown knife got to over 1' long and the Oscar was almost as big. I would drop about 20 goldfish in and they would go nuts and fight and even knock stuff off the top of the tank. Oscar is by far the coolest freshwater fish to keep. They have personalities like saltwater fish. They got waaaaay toooo big for that tank.
 

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