High Tide Aquatics

Two blue tangs, porcupine puffer, huma huma and six clowns

T

Tim Obert

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I have four questions and would love any personal experiences to help make some decisions.

I’m in the process of adding fish from my three tanks to the new 670 gallon 10 footer. The tank will be a reef tank with a lot of coral.

Question one:
Does anyone have experience keeping two blue tangs together in a tank? Other tangs in this tank are two yellow tangs, kole tang, and desjardin tang.

Question two: I love my porcupine puffer and want to put him in this tank. He is currently in a tank with a bunch of soft coral and hasn’t touched it (mushrooms, Zoas, bta, Kenya tree, rock flower men’s) but no hard corals. Any stories of porcupines in a reef tank eating or not eating stony corals?

Question three: Any experience with a huma in a reef tank? Mine is in the same tank with the porcupine above.

Question four: I have six clowns all in hosted pairs, two regular percula, another two percula and a snowflake and black clown. Any stories on more than one pair of clowns in a tank?

For reference other fish in the tank will be: two yellow tangs, two blue tangs, kole tang, desjardin tang, clown pair, yellow goby, six line wrasse, leopard wrasse, file fish, blue damsel, two dotty backs, pistol shrimp
 
I just read about doing 3 tangs of a kind instead of 2 so that any aggression is split between fish. I don’t have any direct experience with this though.
 
I've seen many people with large tanks have multiple yellow and blue tangs together without problems. Your tank is even bigger than the ones I've seen, thus I don't think you'll have any problems.
I think the 3 pairs of clowns will also be fine since the tank is so huge. There's plenty of real estate to prevent aggression.
 
The article that I read was saying that his believe was the only reason that we see aggression was because of scarcity. Scarcity of food, territory, or mates. So feed heavy and you should be good.
 
They'll all get along fine, especially if you add them all at the same time...for the tangs. If there's aggression, adding more of the same does spread out aggression...same reasoning with keeping betta soriorities.

The pairs of clowns will be a problem if they are not already together. The hierarchy can only be one dominant female.

However, with the ginormous tank of yours, what'll likely happen is the will pick opposite ends (and maybe middle) to hang around and spread out.

Data point. I added these 2 at separate times...lil tussle in the beginning for a few days then settled.

20210928_164800.jpg
 
I’ll add my experience with two adult blue tangs. Added one juvenial with an adult. Fine for several years. Once they were both xl the brutal fighting began. Not sure if it was a maturity issue, two males/2females, or bad luck. Def wasn’t underfeeding. Was only 225 gal, but I’ll never do that again.
Multiple yellows will be fine. The more the better.
Multiple pairs of clowns I wouldn’t expect to work long term, although I’d venture to say it will be hit or miss.
 
I should have just cited my source instead of relaying the information.

www.marinecollectors.com

How to pt. 1: Success with Acanthurus Tangs

Intro: Acanthurus, more specifically, Powder Browns, Powder Blues, Achilles, Goldrims, and all the hybrids in between; the fish that everyone labels “ich magnets” or “impossible to keep”! These are the fish believe it or not, that got Marine Collectors Started started and our specialty that...
www.marinecollectors.com www.marinecollectors.com

Coral reefer said:
Anyone with experience and not just opinions based on…?
Click to expand...
I think they’ve got a good amount of first hand experience.
 
Flagg37 said:
I should have just cited my source instead of relaying the information.

www.marinecollectors.com

How to pt. 1: Success with Acanthurus Tangs

Intro: Acanthurus, more specifically, Powder Browns, Powder Blues, Achilles, Goldrims, and all the hybrids in between; the fish that everyone labels “ich magnets” or “impossible to keep”! These are the fish believe it or not, that got Marine Collectors Started started and our specialty that...
www.marinecollectors.com www.marinecollectors.com


I think they’ve got a good amount of first hand experience.
Click to expand...
That is specifically about a different type of tang than the blues or yellows fyi, but does include the dejardini. They aren’t all the same. The part I’m worried about is the two blue tangs.
Thanks tho. Haven’t read it all, will look it over. Not much new in there for me I don’t think. Can always learn something tho.
 
As far as the clowns it will depend on where they settle into the tank. It is a big tank. I think 4 pairs might be too many. You can introduce and see how they do. Likely only 2 pairs will be able to coexist in the long run. If you have 2 pairs you prefer I would only introduce those they will likely pick an end of the tank. If you introduce all of them you will have to remove the ones that cannot handle the aggression. Once they have set themselves as a pair they cannot go back and only one of each sex will be able to survive in each area.
 
Joe's anemone tank at Riverhead Aquarium on Long Island houses quite a few pairs and I don't think the volume is much different then yours. His is more of a cube though, so IMO you're in a better position to house more.

Check out this video Larry from LRS shot while there a while ago:

The massive amount of anemones might also be a factor ;)
 
BAYMAC said:
Joe's anemone tank at Riverhead Aquarium on Long Island houses quite a few pairs and I don't think the volume is much different then yours. His is more of a cube though, so IMO you're in a better position to house more.

Check out this video Larry from LRS shot while there a while ago:

The massive amount of anemones might also be a factor ;)
Click to expand...
Clown pairs in the wild only occupy a small space usually just a couple feet. I agree the difference is likely the number of anemones.
 
BAYMAC said:
Joe's anemone tank at Riverhead Aquarium on Long Island houses quite a few pairs and I don't think the volume is much different then yours. His is more of a cube though, so IMO you're in a better position to house more.

Check out this video Larry from LRS shot while there a while ago:

The massive amount of anemones might also be a factor ;)
Click to expand...
Seems like Joe's having success with multiple blue tangs in a tank.
 
I don't think you'll have a problem with the size of your tank. There's plenty of room to claim territory for the tangs and clowns. the only issue you might run into with the humu and puffer is if you decide on adding a CUC of inverts (oin other words snacks)
 
Reefinglens said:
I don't think you'll have a problem with the size of your tank. There's plenty of room to claim territory for the tangs and clowns. the only issue you might run into with the humu and puffer is if you decide on adding a CUC of inverts (oin other words snacks)
Click to expand...
You don’t see them munching on stony corals?
 
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