White tail bristletooth tang

[Milkman420]

Hi guys so my wife fell in love with a white tail bristle tooth tang. She wants me to get it so bad she even agreed to upgrading the tank to a 180 to make it happen lol. My livestock right now is a 12 year old purple tang and oscellaris clown. I also have 2 12 year old cardinals and an 18 year old fancy yellow brittle star fish. As well as crabs and snails. I just added a juvenile emperor angelfish out of quarantine as well. Just starting in qt I have a copperband butterfly, a melanarus wrasse, a cleaner goby and Cleaner wrasse, as well as a marine betta. If I upgrade the tank to a 180 would you guys see any issues adding the white tail with the large purple tang. She wants me to buy it now so it may even go into the current setup until I finalize my decision on A new tank. It’s 2-2.5” while the purple is 6. The emperor angel was the last fish she picked and now seems like she’s actually getting into the tank so I can’t say no to her lol. Is it possible to introduce these tanks without issue. Or with the other fish I currently have. I also plan on adding a pair of blue jaw triggers And a lemon peel angel as well. I unfortunately had issues moving my tank a month ago and all corals except softies didn’t make it. Heater got stuck on and cooked the tank by the time I got home it was too late to save anything but the fish. The starfish even lost 2 of its legs due to this I’m assuming. Since I’m starting new I figured I’d get back into a Fowlr tank for now and allows me the opportunity to get fish that have been put on the back burner for years due to corals so now that I don’t have that to look out for watch out lol. Plan is to keep this system running along with the qt until I get the new tank and equipment set up. Which could take a couple months so I need these guys to cooperate till I can get them more room. Another plus side to going bigger is I won’t have to rehome these guys when they get to big

 

[cshouston]

White tail and bristletooth tangs in general are suitable for smaller aquaria, like 4’ tanks, so a 180 will be fine. You may or may not see aggression from the purple tang, but they’re a different genus so generally it shouldn’t be a big issue. I’d probably just put it in an acclimation box for a while and let the other fish get used to it being around.

 

[Wen]

What size tank do you have now?
When will the 180 be ready?

 

[Milkman420]

I have a 75 now and will be purchasing the new one this weekend. I’ll say a month or 2 til I get everything together for it. I have fish in qt for 30 days starting yesterday and she wants me to get the white tail today/tomorrow so if I do that they’ll be going in to the 75 in a month cuz the 30g qt is to small for all the qt fish to stay in. I could seperaye just the gangs but would prefer to have them all in 75 before going into the 180. That way i can see if it will work or not. I know they’re different genus but it said they’ll be aggressive towards tangs so I just wanted to make sure

 

[JumboShrimp]

If it’s a 75 there should be no problem getting a plastic grate (lighting section at Home Depot or Lowe’s) and cutting it to make a temporary top-to-bottom tank divider; maybe give your new tiny tank about a 1/4 of the tank. Then you will know well before your 180 comes whether the larger Purple Tang has murder in his heart.

 

[Milkman420]

That’s a good idea. I let the juvenile emperor into the tank this week and the tang slapped his tail at him a couple times but after that they’ve been fine. You can tell the angel is scared of him tho so maybe the white tail would just have to acknowledge he’s the boss and everything will work out. Super stoked about the upgrade tho since my tank would of been set up with coral for 10 years on the 28th hopefully this time I’ll make it all the way to 10 years.

 

[Quiverfull]

How did your white tail bristletooth work out?

 

[ApoIsland]

Hey @Milkman420, how's that white tail treating you? I have an opportunity to pick one up today/tomorrow and wondering if I should pull the trigger.

Thanks.