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I made a mistake.. impulse buy


SChrisEV

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I was at a LFS and saw this fish, it was awesome. I asked the "right" questions, but was given the WRONG (read incorrect) answers. I was told it was a slow grower and that a 90-100 gal tank was fine..... Well I could easily get mad and blame the store employee for giving me bad information, but I take 100% ownership of this. It's my tank, I should NOT buy anything that I don't know how it will do, what it is, etc....

It's the clown tang to the right of the yellow:

post-2161-0-68523900-1374514631_thumb.jp

I got him, and was in a hurry due an appointment, he was acclimating like normal but I was busy doing other things. Finally, after the fish was put in the tank, got around to reading more about the fish... oh no. My 92g tank is WAY to small for this fish, or at least would become too small. He is doing great now, eating well, appears very healthy, but apparently he is a fast grower and needs a large tank, like 240++ gallons.

I've actually had him in the tank now for about 3 weeks. The first four days or so were really tough on him, the yellow tang was beating the crud out of him, no matter where he was in the tank if the yellow saw him it was an all out chase, and lots of swipes with his tail barb. Then day 5, as if the first 4 days did not exist, there seems to be almost no issues between them. There is still the occasional chase if the clown is in the spot the yellow likes to sleep but that's expected.

I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep him, and it will be a real pain in the ^&* once I need to take him out, but until that time I am going to enjoy him! It's an awesome looking fish!! But I really REALLY should have done my research before I brought him home.

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I've seen this in a 90 and looks OK, but again wasn't full grown, so I would say keep it till you can't.

And I agree it's a beautiful fish, but has a lot of energy, I would say the same that applies to a Hippo applies to him.

Edited by lenver
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You went to Aquadome...! LOL. I bought one too. He's getting beatup in my tank too but that's because I have 5 other tangs. He's eating well and healthy so I'm giving him time. They may take him back, you probably wont get your monies worth back though

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there are a few people in town who would probably take him. Personally, I'd do it now instead of later. You're just going to grow attached and either a) end up getting a huge tank down the road (not a bad thing) or keep him past the time that it may be wise to do so as a result of the aforementioned affection. Do the right thing bro! sell him to someone with a monster tank and make them pay you in frags :)

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I've had one in my 90g for a couple of years now and he seems to be doing just fine (he's about 4-41/2"). In fact, he's become the more aggressive of the fish in the tank. I also have a Naso Tang and Yellow Tang in with him. He used to beat up on the Naso when I first got it but they all seem to be living in harmony now.

I'd keep it :) He truly is a beautiful fish!

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Can't tell you how close I've come to buying one of those guys. I have a 130 and will not be making the jump to a large tank so it is just a no-no. But oh so tempting.

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I had a clown tang in my 180. He'll act very aggressively to new fish when they get around medium size. Very active swimmer. I would probably also agree that they are slow growers. I had mine for 3 years and he didn't grow fast enough to double in size.

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Well aside from a Blenny I have my eye on I don't plan to add any more fish. I plan to keep him a while, our current "soft" plan is to sell the house and move in a couple years time. If there are no issues before that time I'll either find a home for him, or plan to set up a bigger tank in the new place, that was already my plan, a bigger tank. If there are issue before then I'll deal with it. acfilmz and Sascha's posts are pretty encouraging, he may become overly aggressive, but my biggest concern is having him NEED more space, I'm sure almost all of our fish would want more space.

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I don't know if you can tell from the pic, but he is about 3 to 3.5 inches. And yes he is an eater, he likes to eat. It took him a few days, but notw he eat anything I put in the tank, flake food, my DIY frozen, pellets and loves nori, especially if it is soaked in garlic.

Edited by SChrisEV
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While those vegetables may be good for terrestrials, they lack proper nutrition for marine fish. The mollies in my grow out tanks triple in size eating marine macros.

Patrick

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Awesome fish, I think you'll be fine with him for a while but if not give me a ring. The biggest issue with the clowns is when they quit eating, so make sure he's getting his share and you should be ok.

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While those vegetables may be good for terrestrials, they lack proper nutrition for marine fish. The mollies in my grow out tanks triple in size eating marine macros.

Patrick

Supplementing with land based vegitables is recommended. It's not supposed to be the basis of proper nutrition for marine fish.

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Awesome fish, I think you'll be fine with him for a while but if not give me a ring. The biggest issue with the clowns is when they quit eating, so make sure he's getting his share and you should be ok.

Good to know, I'll keep an eye on that, right now the opposite is the case, he is such a fast swimmer that when I feed he darts around so fast that the other fish need to work hard to eat. :)

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While those vegetables may be good for terrestrials, they lack proper nutrition for marine fish. The mollies in my grow out tanks triple in size eating marine macros.

Patrick

Supplementing with land based vegitables is recommended. It's not supposed to be the basis of proper nutrition for marine fish.

I am not an expert on the diet of tangs, is it a roughage issue?

I am studied up on the chemical composition on what I put in my tanks. As a rule, macro has one molecule of phosphate to one hundred molecules of nitrate. General agriculture practice is to fertilize with 8-24-24. That is a lot of phosphate feed to the land vegetables. I can see where it could be one more source of phosphate going into the tank.

Patrick

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