are all tangs ich equal?????

[8965]

my tank is almost cycled so i'm starting to think of the livestock. i would really like to start with two perc clowns, then move to one small yellow tank.

how is the yellow tang in relation to the other tangs relating to ich? is this a good one to go with? i LOVE tangs but am leary of their propensity to ich?? What are your thoughts?

i also love the power blue and and regal bud have heard that they are less hardy?

 

[luntiz]

Powder Blues and Regals are both more Ich Prone than the Yellow Tang but in general, they will contract Ich extremely easy. Powder Blues also have a lower survival/adaptive rate (they tend to die due to disease more than YTs).

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

the success for tangs to last the full life span is to have a very strong UV sterilizor and place them in our QT tank for at least 5 weeks. Also make sure that they have a stable water environment, no sudden temp, ph, Salinity or harsh levels. Also, make sure that you feed them green like nori, algae sheets soaked in vitamins daily.

 

[Foible]

And of course quarantine EVERY fish before it goes in with other fish. Sometimes treating unsymptomatic fish in quarantine isn't such a bad idea. There are no inverts to hurt and it might just kill something nasty that may never show a symptom even throughout a long quarantine. Quarantining live rock and live sand isn't a bad idea either. And while chances of getting ich from inverts is non-existent getting it from their shipping water is a real possibility. Don't get the fish store's water into your tanks.

Vitamins, vitamins, vitamins! And to heck with feeding terrestrial veggies to tangs. They certainly didn't evolve to eat that stuff. Their natural diet is made up of far less complex plants than lettuce and broccoli. I use both Zoe and Zoecon and feed the newer foods with astaxanthin and other antioxidants as a supplement to natural foods.

Grow them a tank or two of mixed macro algae and even a few rocks full of hair algae. You can use the water you change out from your water changes to provide water for macro tanks. You also don't even need a real aquarium to grow macro in. Rubbermaid works just fine with adequate lighting.

 

[lefthan]

IMO if you're just starting out you should go with the Yellow Tang first because it is a hardy fish and all Tangs will get ICH.As a rule you should dose your FOLR tank once a month with an ICH medication for prevention this will NOT harm your fish.Also do your HOMEWORK this will help you decide on a care for your fish.

 

[dralarms]

As a rule you should dose your FOLR tank once a month with an ICH medication for prevention this will NOT harm your fish.

True while this won't hurt the fish it will KILL your lr, and most inverts. Bad idea in my opinion.

If you QT all new additions for the 4 to 6 week recommended time you should have no ich introduced to the tank. If it ain't there it can't get hold of your fish.

 

[austinsdad]

IMO, you might consider the yellow tang last. If you're gonna do any other fish - tang or even something that is shaped kinda like a tang, the yellow will have issues with it. I put a foxface rabbitfish in and the yellow beat on him for a couple of weeks whenever he tried to hide in the rocks. Still does from time to time if they want to use the same spaces behind the rock. The yellow is very territorial. I'm gonna pull him out soon, re-arrange my rocks and add a small bristletooth tang. I'll put the yellow back in after a few weeks. That way, the new tang won't have to come into the yellow's well established home and usual rock crevices.

 

[austinsdad]

Also, forgot to mention, my yellow is VERY healthy and came thru an velvet/oodinium outbreak. But I'd still put him in near last. What size tank ya got? Could probably get some better recommendations if we knew. Got any idea what the total outlook is for inhabitants. I've found it better to have the end thing thought about while you add the individual fish. It could really make a difference on which fish go in in which order.

 

[8965]

my tank is a 50g , 4' long. I realize that this is on the small end for tangs but the owner of this tank before me had a yellow and it did well.

the other fish i'm really interested in are the heni's. would they be easier to take care of? how do they do with inverts and reef's?

 

[austinsdad]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=25

Some stuff on various Butterfly fishes....

From what I've seen there, they are either not reef safe or must be done with caution. Since the butterfly is shaped similar to the yellow tang, you might wanna consider the heni before. Then again, you may consider adding any other small fish first and let the tank mature a bit more before any heni (hey that rhymes!)