yellow tangs-need advice

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

simona

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
5
Just started about 6 weeks ago with the aqaurium hobby. I have a 55 gallon tank with 80 pds of live rock. I have a maroone clown, 2 firefish, a yellow tang who is new, a mandarin, and a marine beta. My yellow tang is very aggressive toward my beta. He doesnt mess with any of my smaller fish, but will not leave alone my beta. He chases him around to all the hiding spots and nips at him from all angles. . I love my beta. My beta is about 33 inches long, the tang is medium size. I just removed the tang, having to completely disasemble all my rock to get him. Instead of giving him back to the store, i released him into the ocean. Not sure if that was dumb, but I did it. My question is why was he trying to kill my beta, and will he live in the ocean. I live in miami bch, florida incidenatlly on the beach so it was a fast walk downstairs.
 
55-gallon tank is too small for a yellow tang, the fish was stressing out. I doubt the tang will make it in the ocean now, however, if there is one place in the country to put a tropical fish in the ocean I suppose Florida would be it.
 
You should have taken it back to the store. Yellow tangs are from Hawaii and will not make it in Florida. Please be more responsible in the future. Do not give our hobbly a bad name........... :(
 
Didn't your mother ever teach you if you have nothing good to say don't say it all!!
 
Please do not dispose of your wildlife into the ocean. Such behavior is not only negligent of the animals needs, but also to the environment and I think humans have caused enough damage without the need of any more fish reintroductions including possible foreign parasites.
 
Simona, welcome to AA.

What you've done is come to a site where some of us are very passionate about this hobby and the fish we care for. What you did was not a good thing, believe it or not. Someone reacted with "nothing good to say".

All it takes is a report of folks doing that (releasing fish into the nearby waterway) to give the hobby a black eye.

No harm intended towards you I'm sure, but you asked for an opinion.

Also, a yellow tang is not suited for less than a 6ft long tank. Feel free to ask about fish addition recommendations here. We'll help you, but that was a bad choice from the beginning especially without knowing about the fish you buy and take home.

Heck, a post on a site like this and others, and someone would've likely come to your hose to pick the fish up and gave him a home he'd more likely survive in.


Good luck.
 
Last edited:
I didn't realize setting an animal free to its natural habitat was such a bad thing. Yall act as if i deliberatly tried to kill my fish. Rookie mistake. I do have a question though? If you all are so passionate about the animals, why do you refer to this as a hobby? They are animals, right? Is it a hobby to keep dogs or cats? To all that replied negatively, make no mistake, no one is more passionate about wildlife than me, however, i thought I was doing the better thing for the fish. Thank you for your replies!!
 
It is considered a hobby because most are not paid to keep aquariums and is something enjoyed for free-time. Those that are paid are called professionals, but that in itself can have various meanings. Just because something is labeled one thing or another has no bearing on the care/devotion to it. Never meant to sound harsh and if I did...sorry :)
 
Cool. We've all said our piece, so let's get back to the subject at hand. You asked about the temperment of the yellow tang. It is an agressive fish often. Usually recommended to put in last.

Add to that, he's in a smaller tank and doesn't have the swimming room he wants, others are more of an "issue" since he's in bad mood anyway.

You wondered if what you did was "dumb", as you said it. Well, it was uninformed. Totally.

That's why we're here. Ask us if you play nice. :) :) We will.
 
Back
Top Bottom