Regarding my Tang..

[ThatDarnDragon]

I was talking to my parents, and they wont let me get a 50-100 gall tank for the tang, but what if I get another 10 or 20 gall just for the tang alone, would that be better?

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

and aside from pellets, what else is best to feed them? I forgot to ask the petshop owners.. bloodworm or something?

 

[Navarre]

Can you get frozen food? I use the following. Mysis Shrimp, Krill and MArine mix. I dont recomend Brine shrimp as it is practically nutrient free.

If you have a tang then i would suggest green stuff as they are mainly veggies. You can purchase dried seaweed for the tank and this can be clipped to the tank to allow the tang to feed.

I would not use bloodworm unless its a last resort as its not a natural food. I have used it in the past to get difficult fish to feed and it does seem to work but i would prefer to give them a natural and cosnistant diet of what they would feed on normally.


A seprate tank for the tang will help but only for the short term as 20 gallons (us) is still too small. In another forum i use there is a member with all sorts of problems with his tang and he has a 75 gallon tank (uk gallons... so roughly 90 US gallons).

What you must consider is the lifestyle of the fish you are caring for. Tangs are open water swimmers and have huge territories. They will travel for miles just grazing the rocks for algea in their natural state.
They are also an extreemly easy fish to stress. This usually means they will come down with whitespot or some other illness and die, this ilness in turn will infect other fishes and thus you get a tank wipeout.

I used to have a video footage of a tang that was kept in a tank that was too small and was driven mad by this. It spent the entire daylit period just performing somersaults in the tank as it was so stressed by its cramped envrionment
If i can fins this footage again i will post the link.

You say your parents will not allow you a 100 gallon tank. but they will allow a 2nd 20 gallon? how about they allow you to get rid of the 10 gallon and up the 1 tank to 30 0r 40 gallons as a comprimise? Still not ideal but it gives the tang some growing room and in this period you might be able to find someone willing to swap or trade for something more suitable?

 

[Ed4567]

I agree with Navarre- cant really add much except to say why not post on something like reefcentral to try and find someone prepared to take it off your hands.
Ed

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

well, when the fish gets bigger, I'll try to talk my parents into letting me get a bigger tank for them, or at least one for the tang.

another question, I noticed the shrimp takes free rides on the tang, they dont appear to be harming eachother (Tang appears to be curious), is it normal for the shrimp to ride on other fish? I tried to take a pic of it, but my camera didnt turn on fast enough, heh

 

[hyrookin]

is it the pistol shrimpon your sig?if so, that is a little odd, as they are not
cleaners, nor have tendencies to. as they mostly will stay on the bottom
near thier burrow. if it is a cleaner,(scarlet, coral,etc) this is common
behavior.

 

[Navarre]

Are you sure you have a pistol? It sounds like a family of the cleaners to me. You can tell a pistol by the claws.. 1 claw is enormous whilst the other is normal size.

If you have a cleaner then it will take a ride on any fish to clean parasites on them. If its riding the tang them im worried it might be ating whitespot parasites

Could just be a coincidence though, cleaning shrimps do this. Pistols dont )

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

I have to double check on the name of the shrimp.. someone told me its not a pistol.. and the petshop told me it was.. again, its the stupid, idiotic *bleep* petshop whose name does not deserve to be mentioned for the motto is "Friendliest forum around" hehehehehe

I'll try to take a piccie of it, its always hiding in the suken ship and its hard.. then you guys can play "Name that shrimp!"

 

[ostrow]

It's not likely to get bigger in that small of a tank. It will die first.

Post in the club forum for whichever region of NY you are from and find someone to take these demanding fish from you. If you insist and are diligent you can try to keep a nano tank, will take a lot of work. Keep one clownfish.

 

[Navarre]

If the shrimp has a yellowishbody with red stripes downits back then its a cleaner. if it is deep crimson with white legs and white spots then its a blood (or fire) shrimp. If its red with white stripes then its probably a Dancing (camel) shrimp.

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

Nav, by your descriptions, it looks like the shrimp may be a dancing shrimp. its still hiding so I cant get a good look now