Wanting to get a tang....but

[JBulk09]

So I just set up a new 57 gallon tank..3 feet long.

I left the entire front free of rockwork hoping I could house a tang. My question is would I be able to keep a yellow or tomini tang? I think I could get away with it while they are small but I am not one who would like to get rid of a fish and swap for a smaller one but if the fish gets unhappy I would.

 

[Zionas]

I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think Tangs need a minimum of 100 gallons (4 foot tank) and even then you can only fit something like a Tomini, that’s as far as I know.

 

[windemerejack]

If you think anything of the fish then dont, you have a duty of care to all animals you keep, so not wise to put a yellow tang in a 3 foot tank.

 

[JBulk09]

Yeah guess I'll just forget about the idea of a tang. I wanted one after seeing the BRS 5 minute series and they added both a yellow and bristletooth to a similar sized tank

 

[windemerejack]

On the plus side, it might be an excuse to get a bigger tank

 

[Zionas]

For a tank of your size, I’d suggest to go for a dwarf angel if you want a fish that’s more like a tang. I could be wrong but for the most part I think they could be easier and hardier than most tangs.

 

[nickkohrn]

Many times, when you see a tang in smaller systems, the fish are still juveniles and will likely be re-homed to larger systems as they mature. I kept a Tomini in my Waterbox 100.3 (3'x2'x2') for six months before re-homing it to someone with a larger system.

It's doable if the fish is small, but you should expect, and prepare, to re-home it relatively soon.

 

[Marco S]

Just to give you some proof to the whole minimum tank size recommendations...

I have a Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, (same family as the Tomini Tang) and it is one of the smaller Tangs only getting up to about 6.5 inches full grown. According to LiveAquaria the minimum tank size for this guy is 70 gallons. Because I have many Tangs in my main tank I QT everything wet that goes into it, (because they are very prone to ICH). That process starts with a 20 gallon tank with copper for 2 weeks then a 45 gallon tank with General Cure while feeding MetroPlex for another few weeks than a 45 gallon tank with no meds for observation for another 2 weeks.

The Whitetail was only about 3 inches when he went into the 20 gallon and he started to get stressed out towards the end of the 2 weeks and started to get HLLE (which can be caused by stress among other things) but when I moved him over to the 45 gallon it stopped. Towards the end of his stay in the 45 gallon observation tank he started to get HLLE again and he had already been through all the meds so it wasn't parasites and I have tested for voltage and the water quality was pristine, (other causes of HLLE) so I am assuming it was directly related to stress from the tank size.

Long story short...when I finally moved him into his new home the HLLE stopped and he has been in my main display tank with 4 other Tangs, (and plenty of other fish, coral and inverts) for about 5 months now with no sign of stress or disease. Before this I had always taken the "Recommended Tank Size" with a grain of salt, but after seeing the results with my own eyes, it's really hard to argue with it and I plan to stick as close to them as possible.

While there is some room for personal judgement and if the minimum tank size is a 6 foot 200 gallon tank and you have a 6 foot 180 gallon tank...it's probably OK, but putting any Tang in a 3 foot 57 gallon Tank is cruel to me. I know there are people here that will disagree and tell you stories all day about the Hippo they have in a 10 gallon tank, but I think I will listen to the recommendations from the experts rather than some guy on a Forum on this.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Many times, when you see a tang in smaller systems, the fish are still juveniles and will likely be re-homed to larger systems as they mature. I kept a Tomini in my Waterbox 100.3 (3'x2'x2') for six months before re-homing it to someone with a larger system.

It's doable if the fish is small, but you should expect, and prepare, to re-home it relatively soon.

+1 it’s very doable for a smaller fish. I personally think you’d be fine till the fish reached 3-4 inches (which could take years) then he’d have to go to a bigger home. I personally don’t believe in “the fish needs to be happy” as no fish trapped in a small glass box will be happy. Fish are only truly happy when they’re in the ocean. However if the fish doesn’t have room to turn around etc, it needs a bigger home. 100 gallons is still a very small tank for a full grown tang ime. Get a little one and swap him out when it starts getting too big. You’ll know when it’s time. Some people are recommending angels. Angels and reef tanks don’t go together 90% of the time. The naturally pick at rocks to eat sponges. It’s not an easy feat for a fish to determine what is rock and what is your special rock. (Coral LOL). A friend of mine lost thousands of dollars when he dropped a flame angel into his 350 gallon mixed reef. He hasn’t been able to keep fleshy lps since because there’s no getting the angel out. Go for it!

 

[Jeff Hall]

The Atlantic Ocean isn't big enough for a yellow tang. That's why they are found in the pacific

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

So I just set up a new 57 gallon tank..3 feet long.

I left the entire front free of rockwork hoping I could house a tang. My question is would I be able to keep a yellow or tomini tang? I think I could get away with it while they are small but I am not one who would like to get rid of a fish and swap for a smaller one but if the fish gets unhappy I would.

You can absolutely get away with a smaller tang in a 55 gallon.. just like BRS said. Hundreds of people do it successfully. You’ll just either have to trade it out once it gets to big or upgrade your tank size.

 

[Marco S]

You can absolutely get away with a smaller tang in a 55 gallon.. just like BRS said. Hundreds of people do it successfully. You’ll just either have to trade it out once it gets to big or upgrade your tank size.

I could probably fit my 160 lbs Newfoundland dog into a smaller kennel and there are probably hundreds of people out there that do it successfully. Am I the Newfie Police because I chose not too and wouldn't recommend anyone else to do it?

As far as upgrading goes...the problem with that is that a lot of people don't. Life happens and for whatever reasons people sometimes don't have the budget they had planned on and the larger tank ends up being dropped and they end up keeping the bigger fish in the same smaller tank and convince themselves it's OK. Why not just wait until you have the bigger tank to get the fish?

By the way, I don't keep my dogs in a kennel at all. I just used that analogy because people tend to care a lot more about dogs than they do fish... ;Happy

 

[Uncle99]

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. Through the day the swim about, at night, the YT takes the left and BT takes the right. I’m not concerned at all about the yellow, if size of the blue becomes a problem, I have no problems in trading in.
These two are always the last two to enter my system. Zero aggression in this tank.

 

[piranhaman00]

I have a sailfin and a lieutenant tang in a 180 that are each about 4" and the tank appears small with them. They use the entire tank at all times.

IMO 180 is min. for any tang of any size.

Edit: Also imo again, I think buying a fish with the purpose of re homing it in the future is not responsible as plans fall through.

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

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. Through the day the swim about, at night, the YT takes the left and BT takes the right. I’m not concerned at all about the yellow, if size of the blue becomes a problem, I have no problems in trading in.
These two are always the last two to enter my system. Zero aggression in this tank.

Beautiful tank with what appear to be happy/healthy tangs?? How can that be?? they need 40,000 gallons at minimum! Lol just kidding this is just one of those topics well all never agree on..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tomini and yellow eye Kole would be ideal.
My tomini is 3" in a 660g tank and ive had it about a year and apparently does not get that big as indicated.

 

[ReefDude2019]

Beautiful tank with what appear to be happy/healthy tangs?? How can that be?? they need 40,000 gallons at minimum! Lol just kidding this is just one of those topics well all never agree on..

The people that do seem to all agree are the major online businesses that are selling these fish. The minimum tank size is pretty much the same, (or at least really close) for Tangs. Now why do you think that is?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I have a sailfin and a lieutenant tang in a 180 that are each about 4" and the tank appears small with them. They use the entire tank at all times.

IMO 180 is min. for any tang of any size.

Edit: Also imo again, I think buying a fish with the purpose of re homing it in the future is not responsible as plans fall through.

A tang will use the entire tank at all time regardless of tank size. Tangs will swim constantly all day long. One of my buddies has a 3k gallon cylinder and the tangs are constantly swimming around. My dad has a small hippo in his 150 and it swims the whole tank. The tang using the whole tank is irrelevant to required size of the tank. Most of us could live in less than 500sq ft and be fine even though we’d consider that small compared to 3,000 sq ft homes. Just because the tank is kinda little doesn’t mean the fish won’t be healthy.

 

[SDK]

Too many people must still be in quarantine. We've had two "MH vs. LED" threads going simultaneously all week, now a "tang minimum tank size" debate getting started again....

Should we just throw down now on "live vs. dry rock" and "do I really need an RODI unit", or just pace ourselves?

 

[OrangeCountyReefer]

The people that do seem to all agree are the major online businesses that are selling these fish. The minimum tank size is pretty much the same, (or at least really close) for Tangs. Now why do you think that is?

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.