blue tang

[kui loach]

I did something yesterday that I know was not the best thing to do.
I have a 58 gallon tank with 5+ coral; snails; yellow tang;green chromis; and 2 oscellaris. The tank is doing great. But yesterday, I fell in love with a baby blue tang and bought it. The salesperson said that it would get along with the yellow tang since it was a different color and they have been getting along fine. However he said that I would probably have to remove it from the tank after 2 yrs because it would become too big. It is so cute now and is smaller than the smaller oscellaris and all the fish get along swimmingly. Did I make a mistake?

[carpenterwrasse]

never a mistake in my eyes if its something that you love...you might just have to buy a bigger tank in 2 yrs...wheres the problem

[cweber]

As long as you are going to upgrade the tank, i dont see a problem. you just dont want to wait til the fish is to big to do so.

[kui loach]

Will it take that long to grow? It is so small now. How much time do I have before I have to think of getting a larger tank vs giving it to another saltwater fish lover?

[carpenterwrasse]

its hard to say i have a shrimp thats a year old to me and its almost the same as it was when i got him...

[Sweetpea]

I have had a Tomini tang for almost a year. He was 3 or so inches when I got him, and he's supposed to grow to 6-7 inches. He doesn't seem to have grown at all, but he eats like a pig, lol! If your baby tang is really very small, you could possibly have some time to see him grow out of your tank. Until then, you have plenty of time to fall in love with him enough to mandate a new, larger system just so you can keep your baby as he grows!

[kui loach]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. My blue tang is cute and is so small that my green chromis is picking on him at times

[Gohn]

What a great excuse to upgrade to a bigger tank if it comes to that. In the meanwhile you may want to add some new LR for protection and escape routes/hidey holes. Sometimes just rearranging some of your LR will keep your older established fish busy re-establishing territory while li'l blue is finding his place in the reef + getting bolder and a little bigger but hopefully not too big or too fast. Good luck and enjoy.

[dberrong]

I have a yellow tang and a Blue Hippo tang and they have buddied up. I had the Yellow tang for quit sometime before I added the Blue Hippo. They are about the same size and after hiding for about three days he and the Yellow swim around together and sorta run the tank if you will. I think they will be fine and will get along fine. I too love the color on the powder blue tang. They are gorgeous.