Baby Tang in a 24 gallon

[Chrisv.]

"Win" is hard to define here - this is more akin to "rent to own". Terming the cherub as the lesser of two evils is still, well - not ideal long term.

Unless you absolutely, positively will be upgrading within 6 months (and by upgrade, I mean a substantial upgrade) you're really better off sticking with a pair of clownfish.

Honestly, aside from maybe one or two exceptions I've never figured out the allure of tangs. They're bonafide ich magnets and have to be one of the dumbest fish you could potentially put in your reef.

My ocellaris take up use a lot more space than my cherubs ever have. Im not sure why people are so ready to put them in a ten gallon tank.

 

[ilikefish69]

"Win" is hard to define here - this is more akin to "rent to own". Terming the cherub as the lesser of two evils is still, well - not ideal long term.

Unless you absolutely, positively will be upgrading within 6 months (and by upgrade, I mean a substantial upgrade) you're really better off sticking with a pair of clownfish.

Honestly, aside from maybe one or two exceptions I've never figured out the allure of tangs. They're bonafide ich magnets and have to be one of the dumbest fish you could potentially put in your reef.

lol @ dumb fish comment. Cant be dumber than the dumbfish though? right....??

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Wow, only a day and already 6 pages. I always miss the "fun" threads where the tang police are in full force.

I'm just going to say that I've seen very happy and healthy tangs in tanks smaller than 100 gallons, and the owners were very meticulous in maintaining the reef environment, water parameters and feeding. You can't just compare apples to apples in terms of tank sizes, because there are a multitude of other factors.

I strongly agree with this....some owners are very meticulous and would do anything for their fish along with anything that may contribute to its health. There are many factors as was said. I've been known to keep a fish or two in ways that some people wouldn't agree with but you better believe j did everything I could possibly do to keep it happy, healthy, and learn anything I could about it that I didn't already know that I thought may someday be able to help. Take my Fromia for example...

 

[reeferguy3303]

This has to be click bait.

Sometimes they aren’t, that’s the scary part

 

[MaxTremors]

I strongly agree with this....some owners are very meticulous and would do anything for their fish along with anything that may contribute to its health. There are many factors as was said. I've been known to keep a fish or two in ways that some people wouldn't agree with but you better believe j did everything I could possibly do to keep it happy, healthy, and learn anything I could about it that I didn't already know that I thought may someday be able to help. Take my Fromia for example...

Yes, there are some things you can do to mitigate the damage caused by putting a large active species in a small tank, but ultimately a tank that is too small is a tank that is too small.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I’ve had my Tang in my 170 for 2 1/2 years - I’ve not experienced fast growth and I feed appropriately. It’s bright, active and I’ve never had any health issues. My LFS will take him back but I do not think it’s necessary at this moment in time.

 

[Tamberav]

I’ve had my Tang in my 170 for 2 1/2 years - I’ve not experienced fast growth and I feed appropriately. It’s bright, active and I’ve never had any health issues. My LFS will take him back but I do not think it’s necessary at this moment in time.

To be fair, red sea has a lot more options for filtration. So you have that part of the battle won.

My yellow tang is a good size but in 80g of space. I want to say 5 inches now, definitely growing for me. Mine probably needs more room at that size... heh.

Very nice mixed reef. I always loved midas blennys but I always get the ones that are jerks.

 

[Tamberav]

Honestly, aside from maybe one or two exceptions I've never figured out the allure of tangs. They're bonafide ich magnets and have to be one of the dumbest fish you could potentially put in your reef.

I have a yellow tang and it is the most boring fish in my tank for sure. He gets to stay for now since he/she has proven to be mild mannered even for a Tang.

To be fair, the Tang is competing against wrasse, angelfish, butterfly, and a blenny so you can't really win the contest of being interesting.

To each their own though just like people like different breeds of dogs.

 

[Mark Bradley]

To be fair, red sea has a lot more options for filtration. So you have that part of the battle won.

My yellow tang is a good size but in 80g of space. I want to say 5 inches now, definitely growing for me. Mine probably needs more room at that size... heh.

Very nice mixed reef. I always loved midas blennys but I always get the ones that are jerks.

I’ve read many mixed reviews about the Midas but all my fish get along great and have been with me since the start - I’m more into the addition of corals!

 

[The_ReefB0y_FOX24]

Reefkeeping.com says 30-40 gallons. A cherub will use as much space as you give it whether a 100g or a 30g but most max out at 2 inches and should not get stunted or messed up in 30 gallon space. I do agree that more space is always better.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/jf/

@The_ReefB0y_FOX24 the link above is actually a good read with some info on how to set up rock structure and diet. i would suggest giving it a read.

I'll give it a read.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I have a yellow tang and it is the most boring fish in my tank for sure. He gets to stay for now since he/she has proven to be mild mannered even for a Tang.

To be fair, the Tang is competing against wrasse, angelfish, butterfly, and a blenny so you can't really win the contest of being interesting.

To be fair the fish are there to compliment the corals - albeit my favourite is my Banner Wrasse

 

[Tamberav]

To be fair the fish are there to compliment the corals - albeit my favourite is my Banner Wrasse

Very fair, I am more of a fish person and corals are to compliment the fish in my case!

 

[blaxsun]

I have a yellow tang and it is the most boring fish in my tank for sure. He gets to stay for now since he/she has proven to be mild mannered even for a Tang. To be fair, the Tang is competing against wrasse, angelfish, butterfly, and a blenny so you can't really win the contest of being interesting. To each their own though just like people like different breeds of dogs.

If have one tang - a sailfin - and he's not cut from the same cloth as most tangs (ie: he's smart). I had a naso tang that lasted all of 24 hours until it decided to take an elegance coral bath. I've got a good dozen or more different types of fish - and they all bring something interesting to the table (even the sailfin). I just can't envision more than 1 or 2 in my reef.

 

[Mark Bradley]

Very fair, I am more of a fish person and corals are to compliment the fish in my case!

For 30+ years of keeping tropicals the fish were the thing - especially with South American cichlids and malawis. When I decided to move to a reef the corals just blew my mind. Wouldn’t be good for us to all be the same

 

[doubleshot00]

There was a post of FB of a guy that had a yellow tang in a 13.5 fluval. Ive seen tangs at petco that weren’t no longer than 2”. Op do what you want. Just don’t buy something that will get crazy big.

 

[blaxsun]

There was a post of FB of a guy that had a yellow tang in a 13.5 fluval.

 

[polyppal]

If it hasn’t grown in 6 months, its because its not getting enough exercise, has stopped producing somatostatin (growth hormone) and has stunted growth, fatty liver disease, obesity, a whole host of other health issues, and a drastically shortened life span. It just blows my mind that on a forum that focuses on our love of the livestock we keep, people defend what is essentially animal cruelty. The people who do this or defend this practice always say ‘my fish is fat and happy’, not realizing that that is part of why its unethical, your fish shouldn’t be obese. Again, if your tang hasn’t grown in 6 months, there is something wrong

The argument that you can just trade them in is short sighted and irresponsible. Firstly, because it doesn’t always happen, probably not even half the time, people grow attached and because the fishes growth gets stunted they think that they’re not doing any harm and that the tank is still big enough. Secondly, because there just aren’t enough large tanks for all these rehomed (read: disposed of) fish. Over 75% of the hobby is now nano tanks, If there were tanks for all these large rehomed fish to go to, fish rescues wouldn’t exist and every LFS wouldn’t have tanks full of mature fish that don’t sell.

I don’t expect you to rethink keeping a tang in a 50g cube (which is 24”x24”, or about 4” more than a 25g cube), but I hope other people considering doing this, or people new to the hobby will rethink it, it’s really just not cool.

Yup. The “it’s still alive, so it must be healthy and happy” rationale. It’s getting old in this hobby…

Some people just don’t view fish as a pet or take the responsibility to care for them as seriously as they would other animals.

It’s the ethical battle of viewpoints in this hobby that won’t ever change. Reminded me of that old South Park episode on veal

 

[Jedi1199]

Someone who is capable of doing this correctly with a real plan wouldn’t be asking.

I'm sure people do things like this all the time...the only difference is that they don't generally ask since they already have a pretty good idea....

This is true. People do this kind of thing all the time. They don't ask if it can be done because they know it can. The biggest difference is that mostly the people who do this kind of thing, already have larger tanks running.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Some people give me a hard time because of the tank my Fromia Starfish is in...

 

[Mark Bradley]

The “it’s still alive, so it must be healthy and happy” rationale. It’s getting old in this hobby…

I don’t think it’s quite as blunt as that - I’ve seen many reef keepers who talk about this topic but lose corals, lose other fish through negligence of various descriptions. Indeed there’s large numbers of threads on all forums of where poor practices are referred to and help sought. Tangs seem to drive quite a lot more passion. I would be happy for anyone to come and see my reef and tell me that everything isn’t good. There’s many other indicators for stressed/poorly kept fish which I’m sure the Tang Police would be very aware of - there’s fundamentally nothing wrong with buying a fish, caring for it well and moving it on when the time is right.