Fish compatibility

Can I keep a purple tang, a hippo tang, and about 4 clown fish in a soft coral reef tank with ornamental shrimp with out any problems. 75 gallon tank. Also how hard is to keep a purple tang and I have heard they were very aggressive.

 

usually you can't keep two different types of tangs together, the clownfish shouldn't be a problem as long as they are all the same species

 

so only 1 tang and same species clown. cant do maroon a black percula and percula(orange and white). also what other larger colorful fish could I keep with a tang. I prefer the purple tang and also with the shrimp and soft corals

 

you might be able to get away with the clowns if all put in together, but as they grow, their aggression will become much more apparent, so it is best to avoid different species. You could have two yellow tailed blue hippo tangs together in that size tank, but not different species of tangs. You could go with a dwarf angel, the coral beauty or flame are both great choices for beginners, but the angel should be added last to avoid possible aggression. Again, only one type of angel per tank, unless really big. Also maybe a rabbit fish of some sort

 

You can do just about any mix of tangs as long as they are not the same species and/or of very similar color/body shape, although it sometimes works. I've seen many tanks large enough with several blue tangs and several yellow tangs all togther. They're only gonna get territorial if they don't have enough room.

I think in a 75 you'll be fine with that. I would do the clowns first in a fully cycled and mature tank, and all the same species of clowns four at the same time all juveniles under 1-1/2" so they aren't sexed yet. Then some weeks later add the tangs, not much further apart from each other or at the same time so neither are territorial and pick 2 the yellow and purple about the same size if you can for best shot at survival. Nothing is certain in fish compatibility. There is only best-chance scenarios and what has/hasn't worked for some may work for others.

 

Where is those pics from

 

That's my little tank.






































j/k that's from the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Ca. I was there in June.

 

Dude, I have heard just the opposite WRT the tangs. Two tangs may be kept together if they look nothing like each other. I have a yellow tang and was planning on adding a hippo. Also having two in the same species, they tend to fight. Three tends to be the magic number (maybe they decide to school in odd numbers???). Once again, just things I have heard at a few different LFS.

I do agree with the one angel per tank rule. I had a coral beauty beat up a flame angel pretty bad. The FA ended up dying of disease.......probably because it was so stressed out.