Blue Tang Question

[Ladiebuggy]

I picked up some very cute and small Blue Tangs from Cichlids and Salt. These are durable fish and one has lived to ride the overflow box route to the sump and up through about 4 inches of crushed coral. I don't know how it lived, but must be a girl with that type of skill. So my question is how fast do these fish grow? I have three of them, and I am wondering how soon I need to plan on thinning them down. Does anyone have some information on the life cycle of the Blue Tang? Thanks for all.

Susie

[Guest Ahbrit]

i'm not sure about your questions, but if in the future you need to give one a home, i'll be more than happy to take it

[CraigH]

First off how big is your tank? I would keep an eye on them. That many in a smaller tank and they may become aggresive toward eachother as they mature. Maybe this link could answer some questions for you. HTHs.

 

http://www.2cah.com/pandora/P_hepatus.html

[nu2reef-n]

I have one he's a hoot to watch.

Always picking on the other fish.

He's a hog, attacks the other fish at feeding time.

For entertainment he picks up snails and hermit crabs and takes them for a ride sometimes to the top of the tank. He drops them of course. He seems to delight in watching them fall.

He's a freak, but he's fun to watch.

[Ladiebuggy]

How long have you had him? How quick did he grow? I love to watch mine and they are just babies. I have intentions of keeping just one of them, due to tank size but for now they are great to watch. So ofen they have given me heart pains, like when the one went down the overflow box and threw the coral, or when one was laying on the tank bottem sleeping and I thought it was dead. Good times, good times. I am hoping to raise them to half size before they out grow the tank and I have to go down to just one. How will I pick out which one to keep, uggh! Maybe I will just have to get a bigger tank and keep them all, hehe. I have kept all the fish alive for a week, they are all eating, and seem peaceful. What a relief.

Susie

[Nyles]

Mine gives the cleaner shrimps rides around the tank in exchange for cleaning duty. As far as growth rate, I have no idea.

[Ladiebuggy]

I guess I need to some what track the growth of these fish. They eat a whole bunch and seem healthy. When I ge tthe funds, I will be putting in coral and from what I am reading, they leave coral alone. I will find out. They really like to eat the brine shrimp and the marine mix frozen foods, so I will see if it is a matter of weeks, months, or years for them to grow to be a non threat for the overflow syatem. Maybe I should look into a fish counselor for the suicidal fishy, or maybe it just watched finding nemo before I bought it. hehe

[nu2reef-n]

Why don't you block off the overflow with some netting?

You can buy about 24' of gutter net at home depot for about $3.00 or $4.00.

I have a ton of it if you want some the next time you are in the Portland metro area give me as buzzzz.

[Lowman]

They are slow growers and live a lllloooonnnnggg time in a healthy system

[reefboy]

well my experiance in small system slow growth in large system medium growth i had blue tang in a fifty four years grew to about 6inch and seemed to stop growing but when i built my new fish room and threw him in my 350gal tide pool within three months he jumped to around 8inch and is fat and never looked better so even though they my survive a smaller tank they need swiming room to be happy and healthy beings my smaller tank was full of rock and corals as he grew he reached a point of almost getting stunted i think if i hadnt moved to larger system would have died so with this said i will not recommend these guys to clients or anyone setting up a tank under 100gal unless your leaving plenty of swiming room otherwise will not do well long term.Oh also as these guys grow in your small system they will kill till one remains more then one only works in large systems also just like most tangs in small tanks even the most docile can turn murderer be careful be best to get final fish additions while small.