# How hard is it to keep yellow tangs?



## goldfish (Nov 22, 2011)

Hi Forum.

I have a 4ft - 90gallon tank with about 100lbs of live rocks + 35g sump.

I have the following livestock so far and would like to add a yellow tang as my last fish:

3 bangaii cardinals
3 firefish
2 clowns

how hard is it to keep them? Are they as delicate (very prone to ich) as online articles have suggested? How aggressive are they? Is is true that it will be harder to add new fish once a yellow tang is already in the tank.

Please share your experience and tips/tricks....I would love to have one as my show piece.

Thanks


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## Nicholas (May 6, 2012)

Hi, yellow tangs are not very hard to keep in my experience. Yes, they are very prone to marine ich and will most likely get it from being stressed out from moving them from the store to your house. However if your tank is healthy and you feed them lots of algae (mine eats it off of a clip) the ich will go away. They are very good at recovering. Mine somehow got its fin under its belly ripped and in a few days it looked like nothing had happened. As far as them being bullies, I had never had that experience. Mine absolutely is in love with my flame angel and they follow each other everywhere. I have heard problems of them ruling aquariums with an iron fist. It all depends on their personality, its not set in stone that they are mean or nice. Hope this helped.


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## KG20 (Aug 13, 2011)

How much is the yellow tang?


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## goldfish (Nov 22, 2011)

I think last time I saw at SUM for $30 (medium size).

Thanks Nicholas for your response - did you have your YT in quarantine tank for a few weeks? Did you treat it with any type of medication?


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## KG20 (Aug 13, 2011)

Not being rude but u r in the wrong section for questions of this nature


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## goldfish (Nov 22, 2011)

*sorry - my bad*

thanks for pointing it out - can one of the mods move this thread to the appropriate location?


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## Nicholas (May 6, 2012)

goldfish said:


> I think last time I saw at SUM for $30 (medium size).
> 
> Thanks Nicholas for your response - did you have your YT in quarantine tank for a few weeks? Did you treat it with any type of medication?


I'm not going to lie... I just acclimated him, and dropped him in. When I saw him at the store he had no ich. But the stress from the move brought it out. Right when I saw him in my tank I could tell he had ich. I just feed him normal frozen/flake food with some algae, tested the water and hoped for the best. In a few days it was gone, and he's been fine ever since. If you have a quarantine tank and you see your YT has ich, by all means put him in there but for me it was either main tank, or toilet. If I had the means to buy a quarantine tank or had one set up, I would put all new fish in there for at least two weeks, but if you don't have one don't worry about it. There is always going to be risk no matter what you put in, so don't worry about it, just buy what you like.


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## loonie (Mar 29, 2008)

I bought mine from a fellow hobbies n its more then a year now, doing well, not a hard fish to keep. The only question is if your tank has fish, will they accept a newcomer. My tank has been running for a few years and I cannot introduce any new fish, they will kill him. The only way is to box him with eggcate in a corner n hope they will accept him after a couple of weeks. I feed romain lettuce to my SW fish besides other food.


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## nynick (Jul 25, 2012)

They are very easy, or very hard, depending on if you have Ick in your system. If you have not quarantined your fish or have a VERY solid UV filter I would skip the Tang. 

I also find them too large for anything but a mega sized tank. Sure they do ok but it is no fun watching a fish pace back and forth, looks a bit depressing. Having said that, the Yellow and it's likes (Scopas, purple etc) aren't too bad. It is the ones that are built like bullets (Sohol for example) that really make me sad. 

I have seen a Sohol in a 60g once. Owner did a great job on aquascaping, tank was pristine, spent thousands and thousands. Spent countless hours perfecting everything. Then he added a Sohol Tang and made the whole thing look like a prison. All you would notice was the poor fish going from side to side in under a second, over and over and over again  I stood there and quietly wished he would get Ick to be taken out of his misery.

Sry for ranting but..... What I really want to say is, before you buy a Tang, think it over carefully. They are not hard given that you have taken into consideration what they need, a LARGE Ick free environment and lots of algae or nori. Like most things that eat enormous amounts of food they also poop enormous amounts. One Tang is the bio-load of a whole bunch of other fishes so your filtration must be good.

But who wouldn't love to have a HUGE tank with multiple Tangs  Given the right space they are amazing fish. One day........


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## Nicholas (May 6, 2012)

A yellow tang will do fine in anything above 70g, not all tangs need 100g+, another option could be a bristletooth tang for something like 70 gallons. Just watch their behaviour, if you see them swimming back and forth rapidly, you know its too small, if they go around the tank, into the rocks like normal their fine. What size is your tank Goldfish?


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## goldfish (Nov 22, 2011)

Mine is a 90g (4 ft) + 35g sump.

After some of your feedback and doing more research, I'm now leaning towards a kole tang. Just as colorful as a yellow but less aggressive and don't need a big tank as other tangs.


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## CrankbaitJon (Mar 26, 2012)

Kole tangs can be mean too. It really depends on the individual. 90 should be fine for a yellow if you get a small one and grow it up in the 90.


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## goldfish (Nov 22, 2011)

*help - got a kole tang but.....*

I got a small kole tang on Friday but he hasn't eaten anything at all since - I've tried pellets, nori, brine shrimp (dipped in garlic).

he mostly stays in the PVC pipe and doesn't come out much.

I've read somewhere else to put a live rock with nori attached to it so he might come out.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

it will be easier if you will change User ID 

Put some nori attached to the holder, but do not forget to remove it later.
Do not stay close to the tank. Leave him alone. If he is healthy he will eat. 2-3 days are nothing

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