So are tiny tangs hard to care for?

[friedoysterskin]

I read that tiny tangs are hard to care for, my lfs has some quarter sized yellow tangs, should i stay away and go for the medium tang?

[zemuron114]

they do fine as long as you can feed them multiple times a day. they have very very high metabolisms...

tiny yellows are really cool :) how much they going for?

[friedoysterskin]

Eww, sounds like too much work. Guess ill go for the medium one. The tiny ones go for $20, while a medium (about 15 times the size) goes for 25-ish.

[FOSELONE]

i like to see my fish grow...the smaller the better...if you dont feed he'll graze...

[friedoysterskin]

Hmm, i guess u are right, since a majority of the fish im going to get are relatively small, guess ill go for a small tang.

[agreeive?fish]

i would buy any yellow tang for 20 bucks no matter the size because here @ my LFS they run 79.99 plus tax no matter what size they are.

[forddna]

Ha..I love Yellow Tangs, but apparently, they are too common - to the point that they are hard to get rid of. I got mine for $10 from an individual. Nobody wanted him!

Anyway, do you have other Tangs in the tank? If you don't want to feed often, you can just use Nori on a clip so he can graze.

[Eklikewhoa]

I got this tiny tang from my LFS.... it was the size of a quarter or less and has been a blast raising.

[m0nk]

Smaller tangs are harder to care for because they're more susceptible to stressors than the larger/older ones. They need high dissolved oxygen levels (just make sure there's plenty of flow), watch out for aggression from other fish, and feed well with vitamins and garlic as well as supplement with lots of algae and they should survive.

[DamnPepShrimp]

I've kept many tiny tangs, smaller then 1" with no problems. I think all tangs need multiple feedings. If that scares you and seems like too much work, I wouldn't get a tang at all. They eat constantly all day on the reef and are nice and fat. If you don't feed him enough, they will get HLLE and look horrible and maybe eventually die. You will definitely need to add algae/nori sheets to keep them healthy. What size tank is he going in? My yellow destroyed all the algae in my tank, great fish IMO, they are common but such bright colors and known as THE saltwater fish.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Raised a tiny Hippo Tang from quarter-sized to over six inches, in about a year's time. Lots of eating, grazing, and LOTS of poop. :)

[friedoysterskin]

i was thinking of qting in a 10 gallon and putting in a 300g after.

[snorvich]

I would go with the ultra small one and simply hang nori or equivalent.

[friedoysterskin]

That sounds easy enough, i have bags of nori. Anyone know if i can keep a multiple of small yellows?

[crvz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13862884#post13862884 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by friedoysterskin
That sounds easy enough, i have bags of nori. Anyone know if i can keep a multiple of small yellows?

What size tank? In general, it's not the best idea long term, though as juveniles they'll tolerate each other for a while.

[semperfimarine1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13857347#post13857347 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FOSELONE
i like to see my fish grow...the smaller the better...if you dont feed he'll graze...

same goes with me..i love to watch my fish grow..if they grow that means your doing something right!! lol

my personally would go for a smaller one

[dwestUSF]

There are several contributing factors to poor success rates with baby tangs and pretty much baby fish of any species. The main one is their metabolisms. They need to be fed SEVERAL TIMES a day. I have been around larval pygmy angels and various tang species and we had to feed them 5-10 times a day with foods saturated with fats, calcium and proteins in order to keep our success rate high. Once the pygmy's reached 1" we reduced the feeding, we kept the tangs on a heavy feeding schedule until they were closer to 2".
Collection and transportation is another contributing factor. Baby Hippo Tangs seek refuge in large Acropora colonies and collectors either squirt the coral with Cyanide or they remove the entire colony and take it onto the boat and shake the coral until all of the fish fall out. Once they are collected they are then forced to go through typical shipping routines like purging, they are starved and make 2-3 stops before they make it to a store. By then they have not eaten for a few days and are to far gone to recover.
I know that I am going to get flamed for this but I hate going into a store with these baby tangs and hearing some guys girlfriend goo and gah over the "baby" tang. He gets it for her because he is just happy that she is letting him get anything and the fish is subsequently doomed. IMOP unless these baby fish are captive bred they should be left in the ocean until they are at least 1.5". We kill enough fish due to improper husbandry, we don't need to kill 1000's more that have no chance of surviving from the get go.

[b_c_fisher]

^Agreed! Also always go TR or AC first.