Apartmaent for a tang

Sorry I keep posting tang q's... Anyway, my lfs has an adult yellow that has sat in a 55 breeder for some time and seems to be happy (he is swimming around in his own frag tank). I just thought it would be more ethical to get him instead of a kole because he has lived in this tiny little space. Do you think he would acclimate better than a wild tang into my 55 long?

 

It may be better, but still not ideal. If the fish were ill or not being taken care of, maybe. I would let it stay until someone with a better suited tank comes along.

 

I would not have an adult yellow tang in a 55, you could get away with a smaller yellow tang, but not an adult. What exactly are the dimensions of your tank?

 

difficult one to answer for many people the pan fish

it would be easy to take the moral high ground and say, Min tank size for a tang is 75 or 90 or whatever size is recomended for the tang in question

those that do keep tangs in tanks smaller than the generally accepted min requirements wont normall post and admit it, for fear of others then comimg on and embarrasing them ( worse happens on other sites and people here are aware of that)

if I where going to keep a tang in a 55 it would be a Kole tang

what we cant know is
if a yellow tang is put in a 4ft tank and lives 2 years and then dies
would that yellow tang still be alive if it was in a 6ft tank?
nobody can honestly answer that question as there are so many variables in the equation

but aquarists experience over the years has proven that on average the larger the tank you house your tang in, the better its chances are of long term survival

by going for a rescue fish (your not the 1st and wont be the last) what you are doing is trying to compensate for the moral dilema you are going through by trying to justify that it would be better off in your less than ideal circumstances, than it was /is in its existing less than ideal circumstances ?

but if the people that performed these rescue missions were all honest, some of them would later admit the rescue went badly wrong and the fish didnt last as long as they would have liked , and that if someone with more ideal circumstances had rescued the fish, it may have lasted longer

I fully appreciate / understand and feel your dilema, there are a large number of beautiful fish that I would really like, but I cant keep in my 5ft tank, and many of these are Tangs , I accept this and even when I see incredibly good looking powder blues, clowns, pyjama, Naso etc in 2 or 3 ft stock tanks , I walk past them.

my advice , dont do it
or if you really want to do this tang a favour, set up a larger tank, of at least the min required size and then claim a genuine rescue attempt.

Steve

 

I feel that my purple tang and my yellow tang are cramped in my 90.... so.....

 

I think Steve has said it all.