Cali Kid Corals

Tangs, Tank dimensions, water volume

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yngplo

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Hey folks, I’m gonna upgrade my tank in the coming 5-6 months and I would like to be able to keep a tang inside the tank.

So I just had a few questions as I make my way into this part of my journey into the hobby.

When keeping a tang, is it more important to watch water volume, or is the overall measurement (swimming space) more important?

Does the height of the tank matter as much?


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Tangs are swimming fish, as opposed to the fish that walk around... :oops:, so having lots of swimming "length" is probably your best bet, and I don't mean the tank needs to be really long just more length to swim. So I wouldn't be too concerned about height.

That said, the space we put tangs in in our tangs pales in comparison to what they do in the wild, but eh it is what it is. But I wouldn't go for a 2' x 2' footprint that's 6 feet tall, well unless it was a cylinder then they could swim in circles... eh I'll shut up now.
 
You should think about the number of tangs. You could have one or three, but two could be a bad idea.


The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this post belong solely to me and are not necessarily those of BAR.
 
What I hear after talking to a tang for a while.....
Sorry, there are no good research articles I have ever seen, so everyone is just guessing.
My guess is that general surface area of the live rock is most important.

If you have a normal rectangular shape, the recommended gallons per tang type is probably fine since a lot of people have had success in that range.
Like "100G for a yellow tang" generally assumes around 4 feet long normal tank.

More is better, and they will "thrive"
Less is worse, and they will "survive"
 
This is a good question for the Tang police....of which I am not a member.

Anyway, I would tend to agree with others have stated. IME, Tangs do use the whole tank, so the more room you give them, the better. I would also say that 4' long is a good place to start. Tomini Tangs are smaller and don't need as much room as some others.
 
I don’t want to have another tang police debate but as the owner of three different types of tang I have a 55 gallon. I’m going to focus on the blue tang since that’s the one people usually focus on what size tank you just have. In 8 months time
My juvenile blue tang has barely grown bigger and seems very happy in the 55 gallon. My tank is 4 feet long.
 
Randyadammartin said:
I don’t want to have another tang police debate but as the owner of three different types of tang I have a 55 gallon. I’m going to focus on the blue tang since that’s the one people usually focus on what size tank you just have. In 8 months time
My juvenile blue tang has barely grown bigger and seems very happy in the 55 gallon. My tank is 4 feet long.
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You may want to be feeding more sounds like... and planning for an upgrade! they grow fast!
 
Overall swimming space.

You wouldn't throw a 12" hippo tang in a bio cube plumbed into a 500g system and try to argue that its fine since there is 529g of volume. Similarly, a 280 tank absolutely jammed full of live rock and giant coral colonies would also give limited space for a large fish to actually move.

But really, has a lot to do with the fish you buy. A juvenile tang can last a while in a smaller tank. So for less expensive fish, it might not be a big deal to buy with the intent to eventually remove the fish.. I probably wouldn't go buy a $400 tang that was going to out grow my tank in a few years

I'd argue that my flame back dwarf angel would be a lot happier in a bigger tank than my 65g tank. But there aren't dwarf angel police trying to impose 100g+ restrictions on those fish even though they are very active swimmers.

Reality is, most active fish would be "better" in larger tanks. And its hard to have a tank that is really big enough for a

With tangs, it comes down more to having adequate space to actually move. They will swim laps around the tank regardless of size, but they need to be able to turn and "fit" in whatever saquascape you have.
 
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one thing to consider that hasn’t been brought up is depth of the tank. Most tanks are rectangular so most people recommend a “long” tank. I’ve watched several blue tangs swim in shallow coral tanks that are more square. They were doing a “s” or “figure 8” swim through the coral. So that’s another option if you want to go more of a square shape. Tall and narrow like a hexagon I wouldn’t recommend because blue tangs are not really vertical swimmers.

... with that said my new tank is 2 feet in depth.
 
Large tangs...
at least 24”front to back and nothing less than 24” high
I have a 13 year old 12” fowleri tang in 8’x2’x30”h 300gal (with several other tangs)
I consider this tank too small at this point
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Tangs graze all day
they must be fed many times each day...with a variety of available frozen and dry foods

a hungry tang is an angry fish...with a knife!
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They really need to make something like a Nori auto-feeder, like the rollermat thing.
Long ribbon of Nori rolled up on a roller, and every hour or so it unrolls a bit.
 
rygh said:
They really need to make something like a Nori auto-feeder, like the rollermat thing.
Long ribbon of Nori rolled up on a roller, and every hour or so it unrolls a bit.
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Or just don't keep your tank spotless clean and free of algae, and they'll scrape and pick at everything in your tank.
 
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