Chocolate tang Acanthurus pyroferus sub adult

[Electrokate]

Hi,

I have a big Chocolate tang that needs a better home. Thought I had a thread going on this but can't find it... if anyone already spoke up for this let me know, and many apologies!

This fish was a mimic of the eibli angel and still shows some traits of that species but has the orange rim on the tail and throat of the adult chocolate tang. These pictures are very close:

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/apyroferus.htm

I can't get a good picture of my fish because he is constantly hiding in my 55. He's like 5 inches long in body alone and I don't blame him for hiding. He is fat and healthy though, keeps my tank free of hair algae and browses any glass not scraped as well, and supposedly eats bryopsis though I can't confirm that... He does not eat bubble algae. He needs a very large tank as he is a powerful and energetic swimmer, and he also likes to have a couple caves which he will dig under and enlarge. Last place he lived was a 72 with no substrate or rock (just coral), and included a trio of flasher wrasses, a bangai cardinal and a raccoon butterfly. He did not fight with any of those fish though displayed a lot of desire to fight the raccoon. Owner before that one said he was mean and killed everything, yet last owner had no trouble and I can't see much going on in my tank, though he does display with the niger trigger.

Never had ich, no diseases or flatworms in tank.

If you want a unique tang that will not get too big for a large tank and don't want to deal with the health risks of online ordering or pet store fish, check out this fish. I am in the Hollywood area of Portland close to 84.

Thanks,

Kate

[R-3]

What are you asking for him? Thanks

[jadams7]

I would love to take him off of your hands...they are beautiful fish. I have a 72 bowfront I think he would work out great in. I will send a PM. Thanks

[jadams7]

Is this still available/alive?

[Arsonmfg]

Jay, not to sound like a dick but a 72 Gallon tank is far too small for a Tang that size. It would actually be cruel to house a fish that size in such a small tank.

 

Kate, hopefully you find this fish a good home where he actually has room to swim, a 55 is near torture.

 

IMHO this fish needs to go to someone with a 6 foot long tank minimum.

 

I hate to sound like the Tang police, I myself have an addiction to Tangs but you really have to think of the animal first in this situation.

[jadams7]

Well seeing as she said he was previously in a 72 bow, and is currently in a 55 I figured getting him out of the 55 was more important. 'Cruel' is keeping the tang in a 55 if he is clearly unhappy. Seeing as nobody else showed interest in the tang, and my tank is fairly empty, I figured it would work temporarily at least. I have a total of about 100 gallons cycling through my tank currently, and have temporarily housed fish that size with no ill effects. Seeing as most of my fish are fairly small (firefish, damsels etc) I dont think keeping a 5 inch fish would be the end of the world (for me or for the tang). I know you are just looking out for whats best for the fish, but the main issue here should be getting him out of the 55gal.

[Arsonmfg]

I can understand wanting to get him out of the 55, really the best thing would be to take this fish to Joel at Waves or another LFS that has a large display tank.

 

Personally I don't think any tang over an inch or so should be in anything less than a 120. It really has nothing to do with the volume of water in your system vs. actual tank size. Tangs are swimmers and they really do need lots of room to swim. You start confining a fish like that and it will either end up drastically shortening their life span or just getting ick over and over from stress.

[jadams7]

Well as nice as it would be to have a 120+ gallon tank to house one tang, it is not practical for everyone. The nature of this hobby takes a fish from the never ending ocean, and plops them into a 5 gal display tank at some LFS for a couple weeks (after a long, stressful journey of course) until someone can buy him and put him into a tank which is smaller than anything he was every even close to in the wild. If we all had 500+ gallon aquariums we could dedicate to a damsel then we could consider it a bit more humane, but we dont. From everything I have read, all of my experiences, and in talking to many other aquarium owners, a 5 inch tang would have plenty of room to swim in my tank. Although I respect your opinion (no larger than 1 inch tang in less than 120 gal) it is both not practical, and going against everything I have read and heard, let alone my own experiences with tangs. I have had great 'luck' with tangs so far, and that is in my 72 bow. Seeing as it is a very popular size tank, and my tangs seem to love both my aqua scape (caves for them to swim in and around) and plenty of open room to swim. And, IMHO the volume and quality of water does hold importance in keeping tangs healthy. I am not saying that it would be the best-case scenario for the fish to keep him in a 72 bow, but on the other hand, it is worse than where he currently is, and I think he would do just fine. Taking ANY fish from the ocean and putting him into a tank is not 'putting the animal first'. What we can do is best replicate the ocean possible, and judging by the rate at how fast I upgrade tanks, worst case is he would be in there 2 months. Obviously if I noticed a fish was unhappy, or not doing well I would attempt to change that. And from the original post about the tang "Never had ich, no diseases or flatworms" this is from being moved from tank to tank, with what sounds like a 72 bow, and currently a 55. He obviously does fine in a smaller tank (as far as ich goes) and I think the issue here is getting him into a setting where he will not fight with other tankmates.

 

Either way seeing as there has been no reply from the owner in quite some time, I believe this is somewhat of a mute point.