Tang Compatibility Question

I am planning on housing 2 or 3 tangs in my 125g. I have been doing research for weeks and "think" i found the 3 i will end up with, but i wanted to ask the community for their advice on my selection.

I am going for a very very peaceful tank with as little to 0 aggression so i understand the need for choosing tangs from different groups.

How would these 3 do?

[FONT=&quot]Desjardini Sailfin Tang
(Zebrasoma desjardini) - Small: 1½”-2½”[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Yellow Eye Tang
(Ctenochaetus strigosus) - Small: 1½”-2½”[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Mimic Eibli Tang
(Acanthurus pyroferus) - Size: 1.5"-3"[/FONT]

getting them all at a small age/size and introducing them at the same time would also help, i think.

Thoughts?
Suggestions on replacement tangs?


Other tanks mates include in my 125g reef tank:
Army of shrimps, snails, crabs, etc..
Melanurus Wrasse (who still hasn't come out of hiding after 5 days...)
Carpenter Wrasse
4 B/G Chromis
Firefish
Purple Firefish
Mandarin Goby
Neon Goby

Not added yet but plan to:
Some type of sand sifting goby
haram of anthis
pair of clownfish

 

Sounds good IMO. You must be planning on upgrading in the near future with all those future adds because its going to be crowded.

 

or eliminate the haram of Anthis, still undecided on them. They will be last in for sure so i'll how everything goes when i'm stocked up on everything else.

Also have a 25g sump and 15g refugium (my pod factory) so the water volume is a bit more than 125g.

 

I think you should be fine with that mix of tangs but either way there tangs and theres always a chance of them getting agressive in the future but i think you should be fine. good luck and keep us updated with alot of pics

I would skip the b/g chromis jmo they get aggressive and once they get in your tank there a pain to take out lol

 

sailfin tangs get too large for a 125 gallon, IMO.

 

+1 Absolutely. I would not put a sailfin in that small of a tank.Also as has been stated your tank will not be able to support all the fish on your list. Heavily stocked tanks are ticking time bombs IMO.

 

ok, well...

i thought the rule of thumb was ~.5"-1" (.5" being more on the safer side of things) of adult fish per gallon of water in your system, give or take?

My tank is a 125, i have a 25g sump and 15g refugium giving my a water volume of about 165 gallons. With the rock and such maybe around 140ish maybe a bit less? so that yields me around 70" of fish according to the informatio i have read here on 3 reef.

Current Fish:
Melanurus Wrasse 4”
Carpenter Wrasse 3”
4 B/G Chromis 12”(I know one is not going to make it but I’ll still count him)
Firefish 3”
Purple Firefish 3”
Mandarin Goby 4”
Neon Goby 2”
Current Total: 28"

Not added yet but plan to:
Some type of sand sifting goby 4”
pair of clownfish 6”
Kole Tang 5”
Mimic Eibli 8”
Projected Total before Sailfin: 54”

Sailfin Tang at full adult size I guess you could say 15”. I plan on keeping mine until I see him not having enough space to swim both vertically and horizontally. Before I got told i was overstocking and the sailfin tang was a horrible idea in my tank, nobody even asked if my rock was laid out for a tang tank, which it is - creating lots of valleys and as many 6’ swimming paths as possible with plenty of height for his large fins. (a 200g tank with improper live rock placement/aquascaping would be even worse then a slightly smaller tank with proper live rock placement imo.)
So even with the full adult size sailfin of 15”, I’m still under the .5”fish/Gallon water volume at 69 total inches. Knowing that I “could” support his full size I won’t. as I said once I see him not having proper swimming space I’ll turn him into a nice credit at my LFS.
I don’t see where you can say I have a heavy stocking list. Many more posts with much higher stocking lists get by without having somebody say their list is on the “heavy” side.
I know you are just trying to help, I hope, but I was actually a bit offended when you called my stocking list, which i researched for weeks, on the heavy side-since the majority of all the reading I did was here on 3 reef. But maybe I just read some bad and/or wrong information, or maybe I just misunderstood the information I was reading and shouldn’t take this personally. Maybe even despite my research and math my stocking list is still on the heavy side, I thought I was playing it VERY safe keeping my total adult fish size less than .5” of adult fish per gallon of water volume in system. Maybe I just skip out on the sailfin knowing it’s going to be hard to sell him once he gets too “tall” for my tank due to my relationship with him. Maybe i leave the sailfin out and replace with a few Anthis.

Thanks for the help and comments and sorry-it is early, that first hour of work is a killer

 

i have already made several attempts to remove them with no luck. And Yes, they are starting to get aggressive, I need to get creative on methods of capture because so far it's chromis 5 me 0. Any suggestions? lol

FWIW, they only seem to be aggressive with each other , for the most part at least.

 

Inches per gallon is an outdated way of selecting a stocking level for SW aquariums. More important factors are the species, aggresion, and minimum tank size recomended for each fish.The ammount of water you have only pertains to your filtration capacity not to the ammount of swimming room you have for the animals. Everyones system is different and the ammount of rock and its placement are also important factors.Your wrasses are really not good tankmates for the Mandarin as they will compete with it for pods.Buying an inappropriate fish with the premise of removing him after he has outgrown the tank is not good husbandry IMO. Trying to remove a healthy fish from a stocked tank is quite difficult.(As you have obviously experienced already) There are plenty of great fish that will safely exist in your system and I would suggest doing that. I have seen far to many tanks crash because the aquarist has overstocked the tank. When it does crash the chances of losing all the inhabitants is great. Overstocking leads to aggresion which leads to disease. A disease outbreak in a heavily stocked system will usually spread like wildfire.These animals are used to being in the ocean not packed together like sardines in a glass box.Good luck.
P.S.I have also seen people who set themselves on fire but I will not be trying that either.LOL
P.S.S. I am only trying to help so if you take it personally don't. What I suggest is only my opinion from years of experience.