Tangs in nanos

[malawi freak]

hey everyone

 

I know this is a topic that some poeple dont agree and some poeple wont even looks at. But can you keep tangs in nanos in the range of 25-33 gal tanks? This has just came into my head as i was walking around my LFS. I saw some small tangs in there tangs and they were

1" regal tangs

1.5" sail fins

2" yellow tangs

2" purple tangs

 

I know these fish WILL grow to big for nanos but are they ok in nanos for a wee while? as i know a few people who have small regal tangs in there 29 gal (3 dif poeple) and they know they will grow to big eventualy. so they are in the mids of getting bigger tanks. so if your prepard (spelling)to put them in a bigger tank when they are bigger is it such a bad idea?

[reefsrule]

I would say a small baby about the size of a baby clownfish would be fine. However, don't always do what your LFS does. Most fish are just improperly kept or may be in a small tank because they will be sold soon. And, don't do this unless you are SURE you will have a place for the fish to go in the future, which may be in 1 year.

[revance]

I think despite how often this is discussed and argued about, people don't realize the reason these fish need larger tanks. It's not like freshwater where most fish on the market are from tropical streams and rivers and spend their time lurking in plants and tree roots. With these freshwater fish, as long as you have enough water to keep parameters stable, you can have small tanks. Tangs are different, its not just the water quality issue. They are very active and athletic fish. They like to swim, and dart around. Small ones may not be too much for the bio load of the tank, but they will still be stressed and more likely to get sick and die if they don't have ample swimming room. Even in 200g aquariums they don't have anywhere near the swimming room they are accustomed to.

[malawi freak]

i know what your saying but if you think about it a 1" regal tang in a 30" tank it has 30x its own body length to swim.

[lgreen]

i wouldn't pay attention to any rules about how many inches of this or that for this or that.

 

simply, a tang is not a nano fish.

 

perhaps it would be ok for a while, but in the long run, you should not purchase one unless you plan on providing it at least a 125 gallon tank, as all the tangs you listed above get to be 7-13 inches.

[malawi freak]

i know thts why im also saying they would be going into a 72x30x30 would this be ok in the short term?

[MrMoFo]

its fine if you like torturing fish

[Cloudy]

I dunno... I mean, I think you wouldn't really have to worry about the tang for a while, 30x body room is okay, and I would imagine that in nature tangs roam over a smaller area anyway when they are younger as stronger currents could be too much for them (i relized that statement could be very wrong, I havn't researched their behavior as much as some other fish... just thinking about the mechanics of swimming)... but I think that the whole "I'm going to set up a bigger tank, or i'll bring it back to the LFS" is really bad thinking for a couple reasons...

 

first of all, I'm working on a 30gal cube project, and to get it done right i've been planning for a month and a half, i just got the tank and it'll prolly be another month before it's ready to start cycleing, let alone take fish, and that's if my money sitution holds up, which you never can really know about.

 

secondly, LFS are businesses. My lfs has one huge tank, and for a while they were houseing a truely huge porc-puffer that had out grown someone's tank. It was a great fish, and I would have bought it in a second if I could have housed it... but of course i couldn't, and it's hard to sell something like that, huge fish arn't an impulse buy. So as soon as the owner got in some really nice, better selling fish that needed the tank the puffer moved to the live rock tank, and it was dead within a week because that system was grossly inapporiate for such a fish...

 

unless you are physically begining to put togather a much larger tank when you buy the tang, i think it is a bad idea.

 

or something else, that's just how my thoughts are running now...

-S

[malawi freak]

ok thanks everyone for there in put

[bobioden]

If you plan on getting a larger tank anyway, why not just wait til then to get a tang?

 

Just a thought.

 

 

Bob

[Cloudy]

yea... just for me... don't get a tang.

 

-S

[Web Guy]

Here ya go!...lol

 

He is only staying for 4-6 months until he is big enough to go into my buddies tank where he was geting picked on. He is awesome and has already partnered up with my lubbocks wrasse.