Tang or Angelfish?

Hey guys, i was wondering if there are any angelfish or tangs that would be fine in a 40g breeder tank. I know for most this is quite small, but i was just interested in knowing if i could house one of these beautiful fish!? ;D I about 9 months i will be upgrading to a 90g or 100g tank, so maybe i could pick one up as a juvenile that maybe matures slowly?

 

I have a pygmy angel in my 12 gal cube with a 10 gallon sump....

 

A yellow tang, or Kole yellow eye tang would be Okay (preferably the yellow eye, which can go in a smaller tank when its mature, whereas the yellow might need a bigger tank when mature due to its size or aggression), but an upgrade to 90g or 100g in the future would be more than enough room when he gets big. If you want an angel, get a dwarf, like a coral beauty or flame. both of those angelfish aren't known to be Coral unsafe but you are really taking a roll with some dice, if you plan on doing a reef, if not, almost all the dwarves would be fine in a 40g and some true angels would be okay in a 100g. Ive got a yellow tang and a coral beauty in a 55g and they've got plenty of room IMO, and my tang shows not one bit of aggression like i was told by LFS it would. My tang is like 5" now and when i add fish all it does is tag along with it and learn how it acts. Then it goes to work eating my hair algae

 

If you have corals, stay away from any angels. I've had bad exp. with angels. Tangs on the other hand are awesome. I have both a yellow and kole tang.

 

I would just hold off until you upgrade. The possible stress to the fish could cause illness and end up whipping out all the fish in your tank.

j

 

If you do decide to go with an angel though not as reef safe as tangs, I would go with one of the hardy centropyge angels(dwarf).
Flame or coral beauty angles are very beautiful.

 

I wouldn't even entertain a tang at all. There are a few angels in Genicanthus family that are considered safe with corals and will stay small enough to not be driven nuts from being stuffed in a 40. Can even get a nice male and female pair.

HTH

 

I had a Coral Beauty in a 40 breeder that did pretty well with a Powder Brown Tang (this was 1992 - when the Internet was orange text and there were no Tang Police ;D ) Yes, I am old. There are black & white photos of this on the site somewhere. No joke. hahaaha...

Anyway... I like Jason's suggestion of holding off until you get that bigger tank. If you can't wait... get the dwarf Angel. Beware, although I had luck with them, many have not, they appear to be a roll of the dice. Some become nippy.

I think aquaboy is pretty lucky, yellow tangs are generally the most agressive. I like Kole Tangs or Powder Browns...


EDIT - what other fish do you have though?

 

Well at the moment i have a single lonely damsel in there. After having a major wiping of a pair of damsels before, i have just put another one in to see if i fixed the problem. So far so good. I am planning to get a gold stripe maroon clown, if not a mating pair, possibly a basslet (probably a lantern) or a coris or lunare wrasse. Any suggestions on those kinds of fish would be much appreciated as well. I know those particular clowns are pretty aggressive, but my damsel seems to be somewhat of a wimp in that the crabs scare him a bit

 

Your lucky with the damsel being a wimp then, I had 2 black and white striped and a gregory damsel that were a bunch of bullies, finally took them out (after much, much, much, much effort) and took them back to the store to just get them out. As much as I hate molly's I think I would use them to cycle if I ever had to again... but then again I just really don't like damsels anymore even though they can be pretty.