Who to believe?

[Agnate80700]

Just surfing the internet trying to get an idea of fish types to tank size... i just cant get a solid answer. Whats your guy's input?

for example, i'll use the Sailfin Tang

www.marinecenter.com says minimum aquarium size: 20 gallons
www.aquacon.com says minimum aquarium size: 20 gallons
www.saltwaterfish.com says Minimum Tank Size: 75/90 gallons
www.bluezooaquatics.com says Minimum Tank Size: 75 gallons
my LFS owner guy says min 120 gallons.

those are huge differences. who do I believe?

 

[Steven Pro]

They are all wrong. Sailfin tangs get huge, larger than a dinner plate. Use www.fishbase.org to get the actual adult size of the fish you are interested in and then estimate a tank from there.

 

[fishfreek]

A minimum of 75 or 90 gal tank IMO. Tangs in general should never be in a tank smaller than 55 for the long term care. Buying a tang and putting it in a small tank with the belife you will get rid of the tang or upgrade the tank when required is not a good way of going about it.

 

[Agnate80700]

so whats the general rule of thumb for the size of the fish to the size of the tank?

 

[melosu58]

I believe that Steve gave a good rule of thumb when he said to figure out the maximum size and base your tank on that. I also believe aaron gave a good rule of thumb also when he said dont get a fish and think you`ll get rid of him or upgrade later. I thought both of them gave great advice. Hope all goes well.

 

[Hara]

Other factors come into play too, such as the activity of the fish, some are nonstop swimmers that treat the tank like end to end it is an olympic swimming event (tangs),
some although large, don't do much active swimming, more like staking a claim to a spot and homesteading. The environment needs to suit the fish chosen.

 

[loyalrogue]

I've never had a problem with conflicting, or unreliable info from Drs. Foster and Smith's website, www.liveaquaria.com
So far everything I've looked up there has been spot-on with the prevailing wisdom on all of the aquarist forums I frequent.

Using your example of a Sailfin Tang, their website says it will grow to 1' 3" and needs a minimum of a 125gal tank.
That matches up perfectly with just about everything I've read and what the veterans here are saying.
It only makes sense considering Tangs in general are extremely active swimmers, and this one in particular gets to be quite large... and remember, those recommendations are for the bare minimum that's acceptable to humanely keep that species.
Of course, larger would be even better.

 

[JM]

You have to remember even though all these sites have info on each species they sell, their ultimate goal is to SELL you fish. If they put on a website that a Sailfin Tang gets as big as a dinner plate and will require a 180g tank or larger no one will buy them. Do your own research on the specific species without looking at fish related sites. Google species names and or common names and get facts from sites that are there to give you the facts without their own interests in mind and go from there.