The Clown Tang

[RockinSmall]

This is such a lovely fish. Why doesnt everyone have one? I am considering the purchase but thought i'd double check. your thoughts?

[Ev's Reef]

They require a large tank, close to 150 gallons, and they can become quite the bully.

[Ev's Reef]

They are a gorgeous fish though!

[kirkaz]

This is such a lovely fish. Why doesnt everyone have one? I am considering the purchase but thought i'd double check. your thoughts?


Reasons in order of importance....
They have horrible survival record in captivity
They can be horribly aggressive
They require a very large tank (I would say 240 minimum) long term

They are stunning fish and typically far less expensive than their close cousin the Sohal, but those are 3 good reasons this is a fish to avoid.

[Ev's Reef]

Do they really require that large of a aquarium, looks like I was off a bit:eek1:

[joejoe1055]

i've read 180 from 1 book, and 150 from LA

[pheromo]

why so specialized in diet ... they are an acantharus species? ...

[RealReef7]

300 gallon minimum. Sure they can be kept in a 180 but it will most likely die of stress..in the wild they are big, fast moving fish. They're mean too. Please don't put one in your 75.

[JamesJR]

The aggressive nature of these fish can't be overstated.

[snorvich]

They require a large tank, close to 150 gallons, and they can become quite the bully.

Uh, 150 gallons is not even close. More like 500-1000 gallons minimum. Plus their aggressiveness is legendary.

[username in use]

I was gonna say close to a thousand myself.

[RockinSmall]

so your saying it would not fair well in my 75? ha ha ha... thank u much.. reef central has performed its primamry function.... i guess i will get a blenny. =)

[snorvich]

I was gonna say close to a thousand myself.

Funny, but the only one I have seen kept successfully was in a 1000 gallon tank.

[tcmfish]

snorvich, don't know if you have ever been, but the couple who owns dark lord coral has one in their 500 gallon they frag out of. Quite a bit south of you but they have some nice coral and a cool display!

[snorvich]

Tim, I have not been but have heard good things about them. However, I think I heard they were out of business??

[tcmfish]

They weren't out of business in August so I would think they are still in business now. They just cut back a little on the reef stuff, now it is just frags out of the big tank because of the economy. They also specialize in rare morphs of geckos and pythons so they are concentrating more on those. They also used to import fish but stopped because of the losses.

[Luiz Rocha]

You have to be *very* careful when handling these guys too, their "scalpel" is worse than all surgeonfishes. You know, that modified scalpel-like scale in the base of the caudal fin that gives them the common "surgeon" fish name? Any surgeonfish species inflicts deep and painful wounds in anybody (it has nasty bacteria around it), but it has a more toxic substance specifically in A. lineatus, a friend of mine almost lost one of his fingers when he was hit, and I had a very painful encounter myself! Had fever for days...

[tcmfish]

Wow didn't know that! ^ Thanks.

Luiz you should post your awesome clown tang pic here! Also was that fish like that on both sides?

[Luiz Rocha]

Wow didn't know that! ^ Thanks.

Luiz you should post your awesome clown tang pic here! Also was that fish like that on both sides?

I'm on my laptop and don't have it here, but yes, he was like that on both sides and there were about 4 others with odd patterns like that in the same place! It was in Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), I will post more shots tomorrow when I am back in my office, along with some of the normal ones...

I have really no idea what was going on there. I collected samples from a few and ran some basic genetic tests but found nothing abnormal.

[Luiz Rocha]

Oh, hold on, it is online, hahaha...

http://www.luizrocha.com/fish/A_lineatus.jpg

I will post some others tomorrow.

[tcmfish]

Thats crazy that there was more than one!!! Could it be that there is an isolated population there and not much diversity?

[Hartdude]

Super cool pic, Luiz!

[Wolverine]

i've read 180 from 1 book, and 150 from LA

The books often underestimate the sizes, and/or give sizes based on the idea that there will be no other fish in the tank.

Stores don't want to restrict their buyer pool by making the tank sizes too big.

[rachenbrazil]

You need to find a nice one to start or one from someone who is giving up of them .... survival rate of collected ones are very low , due stress , due not feeding and diseases like itch.

They do need high oxigen levels... in power failure or overheat events they are one of the first species to suffer (or die...)

if they are ok , they are very agressive ...not with tangs, but with most of fishes added after them ...

If you find a fine small one ...beware they grow fast... fromm 1 inch to 5-6 inches in 8 months like mine is doing now... in 210 G tank...

[forddna]

I had one in my 220g, and he didn't make it. :(

Luiz, that fish is STUNNING!

[Ev's Reef]

Uh, 150 gallons is not even close. More like 500-1000 gallons minimum. Plus their aggressiveness is legendary.

sorry snorvich, I knew they needed a large aquarium, but I was going off of Liveaquaria. Thats my mistake.

[ambergris caye]

I had one in a 55g for years. I had no problems with aggression,disease, etc. I must've been lucky.

[Ev's Reef]

I saw one is a very small tank all by itself, at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, but I assume they were going to move it eventually.

[agreeive?fish]

would a circular tank make any diffrence in the size of tank you would need to inprove chance of keeping this fish...ofcourse iam not keeping one nor am i gonna because of other issues besides the tank size requirments just throwing the circular tank question out there for disscussion purpouses

[jmaneyapanda]

I had one in a 55g for years. I had no problems with aggression,disease, etc. I must've been lucky.

Go play the lottery immediately. You are THAT lucky.

[Eric the half-bee]

Tis a beautiful fish. I tried one 2 months back. He looked healthy, was eating at the store and was about 4-5". He seemed to do fine for 2-3 days out swimming and getting along with the rest of my clan. Then, he turned up dead. Very sad and frustrating. I've tried 2 sohals, an Achilles and clown with 0 success.

[NexDog]

It's up there in top 3 of fish I must have. Sadly I probably will never own one, even in my 340.

[Luiz Rocha]

Alright, as promised a few more pics, here is the normal one at the Great Barrier Reef:

http://www.luizrocha.com/fish/A_lineatus2.jpg

And another one of the aberrant ones at Christmas Island, this one even more stunning:
http://www.luizrocha.com/fish/A_lineatus3.jpg

[tcmfish]

You need to find out what causes that. That is awesome!

FWIW, I haven't experienced the poor track record of these fish. I have kept two at two different times. Both were small and in a 75 gallon and were fed sheets of nori daily (I think this is key). If the fish is actively picking at the rocks you can usually get it eating. I know at least one of them that I kept (it was a while ago) didn't eat other foods except nori for a while and getting it to eat nori was a little difficult, but nothing too hard.

[anbosu]

They are really cool looking fish, I just have no desire to get a fish that I can keep for less than a year. They had some nice looking juvies yesterday when I went to the lfs -- cheap too.

[maddog2002]

I have one in my 135G tank. He is already in my tank for about 9 months, very health. The size of fish is about 4".

[kirkaz]

You have to be *very* careful when handling these guys too, their "scalpel" is worse than all surgeonfishes. You know, that modified scalpel-like scale in the base of the caudal fin that gives them the common "surgeon" fish name? Any surgeonfish species inflicts deep and painful wounds in anybody (it has nasty bacteria around it), but it has a more toxic substance specifically in A. lineatus, a friend of mine almost lost one of his fingers when he was hit, and I had a very painful encounter myself! Had fever for days...

FOR SURE! I always wear gloves when working on the tank, but my Sohal did take a swipe one day....Hope the Coralife gloves are "Sohal-proof":eek1:

That aberrant is amazing Luiz!!

[Monkeyfish]

My clown tang is about 6 inches long and eats like a pig. Spectrum pellets, mysis and nori galore. He's in a 180 with an Emperor angel, Picasso trigger and a foxface. I got him from another hobbyist who had him "sequestered" because he was beating up the other fish. He's been a model citizen so far.

[Ev's Reef]

Do the Clown Tangs from the christmas islands cost more?

[Luiz Rocha]

Do the Clown Tangs from the christmas islands cost more?

As far as I know they were never in the aquarium trade...

[forddna]

I think my problem was that I had too many other tangs aggressively stealing all the food.

[nicks387]

I have one in my 300 gallon. I have had him for over 9 months now. The clown doesn't bother any fish in the tank (ever) He will not eat any pellets. He only eats algae off the rocks, some nori, and Mysys and brine shrimp. He prefers the brine over the mysys but I feed him both. He is as gentle of a tang as I have ever owned and I have had them all. I have him, a powder blue, a yellow, and an achilles. They all get along great and I have no problems with aggression. That being said all fish are not the same. I once had a coral beauty that was so aggressive I had to get rid of it. It would harass My Gold stripe maroon clowns so bad they would not leave the anemone.

[Crazy One]

I have had my Clown Tang in my 450 for a year now and has grown from about 2.5" to around 5" in length. They are fast growing and seem to do well in a highly oxygenated tank with ALOT of water movement, I think that keeps thier aggression down somewhat I suppose.
I also feed twice a day, but everything is growing so fast it looks like it's time to start finding some fish new homes or go back to the LFS for store credit.

[victor90]

The survival rate of this fish is very poor. i find that they do very poorly in QT. If you do get one make sure it is collected from indo it will do much better. Make sure you have some schooling fish that goes crazy when you feed the tank. This way it will know what floating is food. yes they get very aggressive much similar to a sohal. i had one for almost 5 years, even to date it is my favorite fish. I could hand feed the fish. Unfortunately i didn't know what flukes was so all my fish perished

[silverfly]

Unfortunately i didn't know what flukes was so all my fish perished

How did you get the flukes? Another unquaranteened fish?

Richie

[victor90]

I have a problem i can never stop purchasing fish. Its doesn't help when i visit the wholesalers every week. I bought an angel and it passed flukes to most of my tank. I was really depressed and was going to take down the tank at the time. I was wrong on the clown tang from indo you want one from sir lanka. sorry for the mis info

[silverfly]

Sorry to hear that.

Richie