in my clam dominated 75, i have a yellow tang, green coris, starry blenny, 6 line, and sleeper goby. i’d like another tang, like a purple. i know there are tang nazis who condemn them in anything less than the biggest tanks, but what is the general opinion on adding a juvie to this setup?
IMO Paul and from other readings. Two tangs in the tank will pick at each other. You would like to keep at least 3 or more for them to school, since they are schooling fish. However, I’m not sure of the different type of tangs in the same tank. Although I do have 3 yellow and 1 sailfin in my tank that seems to get along fine with out picking at each other. The 3 yellow swims together and the sailfin swim by it self.
I don’t see any problems with those other fish in your tank and it would be nice to see the purple in that tank of yours.
Although it is out of my price range especially coming from red sea type purple tang, one day I will have one in my tank.
Paul you’ve seen my tank. I keep a purple, a yellow, and a hippo all happily and peacefully together in my 75.
I will say that the purple and the yellow did not make the best of friends right away as they have the same body shape and my purple has always been a little aggressive. Depending on the demeanor of your yellow you might want to consider a different shaped tang. Of course I’ve never seen a yellow as aggressive as my purple…or at all for that matter.
I had 2 tangs, a yellow and a hippo. They were real small when they first went in together. They never picked on each other except for the occasional nip by the hippo to drive the yellow out of her spot. When the hippo got large (7") she started becoming territorial and it didn’t matter if you were a tang, coral beauty, or a shrimp, she would attack to the point of death.
I have a yellow, desjardini, sohal, and vlamingi all nestled in my 180… no issues. The wife has a hippo, sailfin, purple, and dussumeri in her 95 pent… no issues. Not to say there wont ever be issues, but my experience is that the tang mixing problem is a little blown out of proportion…
One more tang and you’ll likely have big aggression problems. 3 more tangs and you’ll be perfectly fine as far as aggression goes, but then again it’s going to be really tight in a 75g when they grow up. Also are you prepared to step up your filtration system or water changes for three more fish that should be fed 3 times a day or left algae to feed off of all the time. If you got by in the past with out that frequent of feeding because you had a high nutrient tank and algae grew quick enough I don’t believe it would with three tangs.
Purples get to be a bit big for a 75 eventually especially if you have a significant amount of coral in the tank and not a lot of open space. Back when my tank was filled with egg create my tang was starting to get crowded. It takes a long time for them to get larger if you can find a small one, but there is few things which are more desirable and hard to come by as a small purple tang. If you are set that you will never want to upgrade your tank then I wouldn’t recommend getting one.
My purple will be moving to my 120 in the future, but not until I get some other tangs and other fish in their first. He owns the tank and I don’t want to add him first and then try to add others in with him. You should see the way the purple attacks my red camera any time I put it in the water. He owns that tank.
For what it’s worth I’ve seen a guy try to use schools of yellow tangs over and over and over again and fail every time. He’d place in four with out QTing them and of course in the crappy conditions in the tanks two would die real soon from ich or velvet. Once there was only two there was always one getting the crap beat out of it by the other one while the owns which it get beat to death for a week. Was sad enough watching it happen and picking out the dead fish out of someone elses tank. I’d suggest reading up and avoiding creating a tragedy in your own tank. I would never recommend a school of tangs unless you mix different genus(“shapes”) properly in the right order, or all at once, or have a very large healthy tank and healthy animals.
I’ve seen yellows and purples kept in the same tang, but there were 3 other tanks as well as lots of other small fish mixed in and they were in tanks larger then a 75. In one instance the yellow and purple did fine together(with 3 other tangs) for 3 years and then the purple decided there wasn’t enough food in the tank and he kept the yellow hiding in a rock for a month until it finally died.
For what is worth Dr. Mac has had some really healthy tangs in recently, but I haven’t seen any purples locally for a while.
thanks everyone. the opinion seems fairly divided. pretty much my expectations about the subject. it’s a consideration, but only if i could get a very small purple. since i saw your beauty in person, jon, it’s been on my mind. but it’s not really bugging me.
Ive got a couple tangs in several tanks. my foot deep frag tank 18x48x12 has Als old yellow tang and a big bristle tooth tang. they get along like buds. not more than 8 inches of water and lots of corals to cruise around. they are happy and well adjusted. I had a blue hippo in there, but he took a carpet dive last month. they are a bit more high strung than the other tangs. he was looking for a bigger tank i think. or was low on the tank pecking order. probably got chased out one night.
my 75 has another bristletooth tang and a scopas tang. again, they swim around like buds. there seems to be something in that old theory about mixing tangs of different body shapes, and they get along much better. probably because they would have different grazing habits on the reef and be compatible.
I’m still a firm believer that it depends on the fish. I would make a purple the last addition of all the tang sin a tank. My purple used to be a bully. The guy I got my yellow and my hippo from only had the 2 tangs and they were fine. There were a couple smaller fish (a clown, an engineer goby, and I think something else) and they were all happily living together in a 90.
As far as finding them locally I know I’ve been seeing them a lot in DPA lately.
Fish Bowl got a small/medium purple with yellow tail one in their tank now.
[quote=“reefman66, post:11, topic:4060”]
Fish Bowl got a small/medium purple with yellow tail one in their tank now.[/quote]
NOPE, SOLD!
If you decide to do it Paul, the divider method that I used to get my yellow tang used to my copperband worked extremely well. This method is not new and has been used for a long time by anglefish keepers when adding new species to an already established tank. I think you have enough swimming room in that tank and I really don’t think the purple would outgrow that tank for a very long time.
i agree 100% ellen… and the divider has done well for cichlid keepers introducing new fish as well as breeding methods. make one out of eggcrate was the best way imo. (long as the fish cant squeeze thru obviously! lol. wont have that problem here of course)
so who has a 2-3 inch purple tang?
The wife has an approx 4"…
for sale??
No sir… u have a better chance of buying one of the kids! Sorry, I didn’t realize u were trying to buy one… yours died paul?
never had one. just looking.
i understand now!!! when A said the “bowl” had one, u replied “sold!” i assumed u had bought it!! lol but u meant that it was already sold when u went in… got it now. so now u see why i was a little confused when u asked if anyone had a 2.5" to 3" purple tang!!! lmao