Big and Yellow and Wife Pleasing?

[dlhirst]

Can I have all three?

My wife really likes the Yellow Tangs. I have purchased two in the past year...

The first, I bought from a less than reputable LFS. Well, I don't like stuff I have heard them tell customers, including myself. It was gaunt, and I was ignorant and thought that was how they look. In fact, it was so gaunt, I wanted to call it Iggy (Pop). But, he was dubbed Piano Teacher by our then two year old. PT1 never thrived. Never really ate. Never moved much, but never really HID either. And died after about a month. I justified the loss as me shopping poorly.

PT 2.0 was a nice plump fish, bought from a well respected fishmonger (right, Bryan?). I even bought the yummy green food that he was already eating. And, he DID prosper. Grew. Was sociable with the other fish. Chased down food. And had a brief love affair with the cleaner shrimp. So, it is distressing that he should just up and die on us.

Lose one, OK. Lose two? I start to worry. Can I really HAVE one of these little yellow critters? Should I try to talk her into something else? A foxface, for instance? It needs to live with a Coral Beauty, a Flasher Wrasse, two Banggai Cards, and an Assessor Basslet.

Any thoughts?

---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

Yes, OK, I realize the next question... we have a Red Sea Max 250 - which has about a 56 gallon display area. Maybe 50-60 lbs of LR, but LOTS of swimming lanes...

[AJ :)]

Can I have all three?

My wife really likes the Yellow Tangs. I have purchased two in the past year...

The first, I bought from a less than reputable LFS. Well, I don't like stuff I have heard them tell customers, including myself. It was gaunt, and I was ignorant and thought that was how they look. In fact, it was so gaunt, I wanted to call it Iggy (Pop). But, he was dubbed Piano Teacher by our then two year old. PT1 never thrived. Never really ate. Never moved much, but never really HID either. And died after about a month. I justified the loss as me shopping poorly.

PT 2.0 was a nice plump fish, bought from a well respected fishmonger (right, Bryan?). I even bought the yummy green food that he was already eating. And, he DID prosper. Grew. Was sociable with the other fish. Chased down food. And had a brief love affair with the cleaner shrimp. So, it is distressing that he should just up and die on us.

Lose one, OK. Lose two? I start to worry. Can I really HAVE one of these little yellow critters? Should I try to talk her into something else? A foxface, for instance? It needs to live with a Coral Beauty, a Flasher Wrasse, two Banggai Cards, and an Assessor Basslet.

Any thoughts?

---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

Yes, OK, I realize the next question... we have a Red Sea Max 250 - which has about a 56 gallon display area. Maybe 50-60 lbs of LR, but LOTS of swimming lanes...

You certainly can keep a yellow tang. ( if I can anyone, can)
I had a similar issue with clown fish long ago. Adding frozen food to their diet was the key for me.
What do you feed your fish? You said you have a cleaner shrimp. I would not keep tang without these useful creatures. I prefer to keep two.
There are two yellow tangs in our senior center tank. One is larger and was the first tang in our setup. It didn't look real good in the store. Good color, but very thin in the belly. This fish has been with us several years now, it still looks thin more often than not, but it seems to be in good heath otherwise.
We added a smaller yellow tang a couple years ago. It was fuller bodied , and continues to usually be a bit thcker than the larger tang. This tank gets a cube or two of saltwater multipack twice a day, and nori two to three times a week. So I don't really have any trick to show you, but maybe there is something in there that helps.
Sometimes fish die and we really don't know why. Don't give up on the yellow tang.

---------- Post added at 06:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 PM ----------

You certainly can keep a yellow tang. ( if I can anyone, can)
I had a similar issue with clown fish long ago. Adding frozen food to their diet was the key for me.
What do you feed your fish? You said you have a cleaner shrimp. I would not keep tang without these useful creatures. I prefer to keep two.
There are two yellow tangs in our senior center tank. One is larger and was the first tang in our setup. It didn't look real good in the store. Good color, but very thin in the belly. This fish has been with us several years now, it still looks thin more often than not, but it seems to be in good heath otherwise.
We added a smaller yellow tang a couple years ago. It was fuller bodied , and continues to usually be a bit thcker than the larger tang. This tank gets a cube or two of saltwater multipack twice a day, and nori two to three times a week. So I don't really have any trick to show you, but maybe there is something in there that helps.
Sometimes fish die and we really don't know why. Don't give up on the yellow tang.

BTW do you have good flow in your tank? We run a few vortechs on a 180.

[larryandlaura]

You can keep a yellow tang. Just figure out what keeps killing them. Just like the last rock death possibilty. +1 on the vareid diet.

[dlhirst]

Sue will be happy. Now I just gotta find a nice healthy / happy looking one.