tang question

[rolikesfish]

Is there any tang that you could keep in a 50 gallon tank? I am just curious, I definitely would NOT want one if they require more space for swimming room. I do not want to have an unhappy fish :( But I would like to know if there is any tang that would be okay in a 50 gallon.

[MCCOOL]

a 4ft 55g or a 3ft 50g? either way, it's less than ideal.

[rolikesfish]

its a 36"L x 15"W x 20"H

[shifty51008]

IMO I would say no,

[mike_cmu04]

I would say no 4 foot minumum

[chimmike]

I think gallonage is a better determination than tank length. A 4' 40 gallon tank isn't going to be better than a 4'x4' cube of much greater volume.

[rolikesfish]

I am just wondering because I always see purple tangs and other kind of tangs in 50 gallon tanks and they seem pretty happy.

[tkeracer619]

Not if you care about what you keep.

Purples get very aggressive when they grow.

[blennydude]

I disagree with the above tang police squad. You can keep a tomani tang in a 3 ft tank and he'll be fine. Buy a young one and by the time he matures you'll be upgrading to a larger tank. They don't get any bigger than 4" anyway. TJMHO.

[Mavrk]

I disagree with the above tang police squad. You can keep a tomani tang in a 3 ft tank and he'll be fine. Buy a young one and by the time he matures you'll be upgrading to a larger tank. They don't get any bigger than 4" anyway. TJMHO.

Don't they get closer to 6 inches? Not saying anything about tank size, just thought that the 4 inches didn't sound right to me.

[blennydude]

Okay, maybe 5 in

[shifty51008]

I would like to see where you have seen a tang onlty reach 4-5". every tang I have seen including tomini reach a min. of 6"

[Tuscaquatics]

A 3 foot tank really is too small. There was a thread a few days ago where we were debating tangs in a 4 foot 75 gallon, and most were saying that was pushing it.

A tomini tang reaches 6 inches. I don't know of any other tangs that would be small enough to stay happy in a tank that size.

You should probably wait until you upgrade to get a tang.

[rolikesfish]

Okay, I was just wondering. I just think they are really cool fish and thought there might have been like a dwarf species of some sort

[RcToners]

I disagree with the above tang police squad. You can keep a tomani tang in a 3 ft tank and he'll be fine. Buy a young one and by the time he matures you'll be upgrading to a larger tank. They don't get any bigger than 4" anyway. TJMHO.

Oh look one of the top five excuses to get a tang with to small of a tank:hammer:


You can get a tang with any size tank, the smaller the tank the less ideal it becomes. Tangs can get a bit irritated in smaller tanks and become a little on the aggressive side. I would stay away from tangs with anything less then a 6ft long tank but thats just me. I am in the ocean pretty much daily and I see alot of tangs in the wild, they are a fish that love to swim. There are alot of other reef fish that will pick a smaller area and be completly happy but IMO tangs are not one of these species.