Which Tang? and why?

Cool tetras! I agree, FW can be a lot of work. But it is cheaper and less risky

 

I vote for Naso Tang. Great personality and beautiful colors. I wanted a Blonde Naso, but couldn't find a small one so I just got the regular Naso.

 

all these mullets i cant distinguish who is who!!

 

I've kept a large variety of tangs and going to wholesalers over the years I've seen which ones do the best in regards to stress.

My first vote would go to a Desjardini sailfin tang, it may be hard to find one but they are so much prettier and eat a larger variety of algae than the regular sailfin tangs. They are also pretty passive once established and will always work on any algae problems that may turn up. If you get a 3-4" one it will take a few years for it to outgrow your tank, unless you feed it tons. They can be very friendly, I had one once that was super sweet and would actually let me hold her on my hand.

After that my choice would be a blue hippo tang a little smaller than the sailfin because they can grow pretty fast in comparison. It is true, hippo tangs and purple tangs can be susceptible to ich because they have smaller scales. It is normal for these fish even once they are established to get occasional outbreaks of ich when there is a ph change or when something happens with your water chemistry. My advice is first find a reputable lfs that doesn't run a lot of copper in their water and has healthy looking fish. Purchase the fattest, healthiest looking fish you can because this fish will have the best chance of fighting off ich if he gets it. Then acclimate it slowly and feed it well while it is getting used to your tank. If it develops ich be sure to feed New Life Spectrum or some other related marine food that has garlic in it. Hippo's are cool cause they are very perky and probably the least shy of the bunch.

I would introduce the Sailfin and Hippo tang at the same time. Its never good to let one tang establish its territory alone for a long time if you're planning to introduce other tangs later on. Unless the tang you are introducing later is much more aggressive.

Its your choice whether you would like to add a small yellow or purple tang a few weeks later. Purple tangs don't grow too fast, yellow tangs grow a little faster. I think purple tangs are more aggressive than yellow tangs so they are really good at holding their own against tangs twice their size. Some yellow tangs are very aggressive, others aren't so much. I feel its more a case by case thing with them.

I've never kept a Naso tang personally so I can't really say much about them. What I would say is out of the four they are probably prone to stress and shyness the most. Also, their adult size is 17" so I'm not sure how long you would be able to keep one before it out grows your tank. They are also pretty aggressive from what I know.

The really hard to keep tangs are the powder brown, white cheek/shoulder, powder blue, clown tang, etc.

Some other very hardy tangs that you could consider are the Tomini, which is fairly social once established and has different coloration compared to other tangs.

The Chocolate/mimic tang is also nice, the juvenile mimics of this tang are the: Lemonpeel tang, Halfblack, and Eibli mimic tang. Lemonpeel is the most common, with the other mimic types being very hard to find. They all turn into (just because we gave the different color patterns names) the Chocolate/Mimic tang. Pound for pound this is a feisty little tang that can hold its own against much larger tangs, but once its established will usually settle down and even develop "friendships" with other tangs. They are one of the few tangs that stays small and won't outgrow your tank. Its also neat to see their coloration change from their juvenile mimic form to the chocolate adult.

So anyway good luck and hope this helps. At the end of the day its always nice to have a troup of algae eaters in case you any nutrient problems oocur in the future. The sailfin, purple, and yellow tangs are best for this. As a side comment I probably wouldn't keep a yellow and purple tang in the same tank, they would most likelt best the heck out of each other.


The goddess........ ;]