Allowing fish to grow out

So as you may have learned from a previous thread of mine, my wife absolutely loves angels and tangs which with a 46gallon for at least the next few year is not best idea for us. Since it is in the living room she wants to love everything in the tank.

I know keeping a fish in a smaller tank without a larger one already set up is against most advice. However, I know many angels and tangs can be purchased as 1-2inch juvies. How fast do they usually grow? Is it possible to buy juvies and allow them to grow out to 4-5inches and then sell them back to a lfs or fellow hobbiest?

Another option that I believe from everything I read to be a no go would be 2 dwarf angels. It seems that most say they will fight if not a pair unless in a large tank. Is it possible to get two dwarfs that look totally different from each other that they would leave each other alone (kind of like we do with certain goby species)? Is it possible to get 2 small ones of the same species and somehow pair them up to have a male female pair?

Picture of my tank is in my signature since I know the aquascape will have a lot to do with how you can stock a tank.

 

Just do not do it is the best advice I can give you, it may not be the answer you are looking for. Forty six gallons dry.

Stay strong!!!!!

 

Its a bad idea. Any tang in a 46 gets angsty.

 

I am going to elaborate on my answer.

You seem to be asking the same question on different threads. Can I have a tang in a 46 gallon tank?

Ask your self would you put a Great Dane puppy in a small bedroom because it's a puppy? No probably not.

Get a larger tank, or smaller fish, or do whatever you like, but you are going to get the same answer from individuals that either have been in this hobby long enough to know better or have made the same mistake of adding larger types of fish to small tanks, I qualify as both but there were no forums back in the day to answer that question for me.

 

My wife made the mistake of buying me a Yellow Tang for my 40 gallon breeder. I had mentioned that one day I want one, so you got it for me while I was at work one day. Good intentions on her part, but the tang didn't make it. I almost had a 90+ gallon tank to before he died, that is how bad my wife felt after she found out more about the requirements for a tang.

 

Since it is impossible to sex angels(without surgery) your chances are probably not too good.Try explaining to your wife that if she truly "loves" these types of fish she will not be a very happy person when they die. Also you have been given good advice so far, to ignore it is not being a responsible reefer.If she cannot resist the"I want" urge she will not be successfull in this hobby and its the animal who pays the ultimate price for our selfishness.
There is a very good reason why places like Live Aquaria have minimum tank size requirements on the fish they sell. If you notice it doesn't say Minimum tank size 180 gallons for an adult and 30 gallons for a juvenile. It is in the fish sellers best interest to have as many potential customers as possible so tank size requirements have as much to do with a fishes behavioral characteristics as it does with there mature size.Tangs for instance are the marathon runners of the reef swimming miles of ocean every day. Adding one to a small tank is just sad IMO and usually ends in the fishes death.

 

I did some reading on dwarf angels and it stated that if bought small they are kind of like clowns where they are both females and after a few months they will change sex to become a pair. Does anybody now if this is true?

 

The advice given above is solid. One Coral beauty and a couple of different fish would be about the limit you would want.

 

Not sure on the angels, a lot of variables there, including the individual fish personality. You can always try if the LFS will accept trade ins.
The only tang you could do would be a baby hippo. I kept a small one in a 40 breeder for almost two years without problems. Got moved to a 275 later. Grew maybe half an inch in the three years I had it, it was extremely slow growing. But be prepared for the tang police to be all over it.

 

Very litttle is known about the breeding habits of most marine Angelfish.
It appears that harem formation and sex inversion is common among the species of Centropyge and Genicanthus. Other angels such as the Queen form monogamous pairings.