Tang schools?

[AuntKaren]

I just finished 3 hours of reading through postings about Atlantic Blue Tangs. I understand that they will for the most part only do well in schools. There were a few postings that indicated that several species of tang would school together...is this true?

I'd like to hear success stories about atlantic blues. We are considering getting 3 or more tangs for our 180 gallon 6' tank. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

Oh yeah, and how long do I have to be an amoeba around here?!?!?! Sheesh!

[AuntKaren]

ooops I have just been promoted to a brine shrimp! Woohoo!!! LOL

[jojo22]

Congrats on the promotion!!!!!!! Now as you may know whenever someone gets promoted it is customary for them to send a coral frag to all members ranked higher than themself. Feel free to pm me for my address!!!!! LOL

I have heard that different tangs will school but have no info to back it up. Hopefully someone a little more informed than me will chime in.

[lReef lKeeper]

well take it from me ... Powder brown tangs WILL NOT school. i just had to reaquascape my tank, because i had to get one out. keep in mind ... i have 300lbs. of LR in my 125 !!

BTW ... niether will Clown Tangs !!

[RWalston]

I have a yellow, sohal, and a red sea sailfin that get along just fine in a 110 reef tank. the sohal runs the show

[Reef_Angel]

Here's the grand list of all the tangs I've had in our 180g at once. They did will together impart by having a way to get away from each other if there is a disagreement. You must have good caves and almost like a maze through your live rock to be successful with a load of tangs. As far as Tangs schooling, they may do it when they are small, but when they get to be larger, it's each fish for their own.

I've had a Yellow Tang, Convict Tang, Sailfin Tang, Powder Blue Tang and a few Blue Hippo Tangs. All these fish together were fine in the 180g tank, but once put in a taller tank with less width in the 45g tank, the fighting started to begin.

First the yellow: She was sweet and and welcomed all new incoming fish to the tank. She never bothered any other fish, and showed affection toward me as I worked in and around the tank. When our 180G crashed, this was the big start in a negative change with all the tangs. This caused her untimely death. The powder blue tang did her in.

The Convict Tank: We caller her Martha Stewart, was also a sweet by nature tank. She was constantly pick on by the bigger tangs, and we honestly don't know what killed her.

Sally the Sailfin: She is my biggest tang, and can have a mild and sweet nature. After the 180g was no more, things started to really change in the tank. She started eating any coral I put in the 45g she is housed in now. So for the time being until I get he back into at least the 55g long tank, there will be no more coral in the tank. She is a piggy, but I love her! When she's got her fins flared out and showing off, she's anywhere between 8-10" wide and about 9-11" from nose to tail. She can be quite mild mannered but she competes with my Powder Blue Tang. Sally has become quite afraid of the Powder Blue tang now, and she makes good use of her nooks and crannies in the tank. I think she'll be fine with the powder blue until we get them in the longer 55g tank.

The Powder Blue: He started out at about 2 strong inches long and 3" wide. As he has grow, approximately 5" long and 4" wide, he has become the bully of the tank. There was a warning about this in the article I read before I bought him. I thought I'd take my chances anyway, as he is one pretty fish. He remains healthy and lively as ever.

The hippo tangs were just a waste of money. Every time we got one, it got ich a week later and we were never able to save one. So I totally give up on those.

I guess the moral of this story is, I'm left with only two tangs now...my Sailfin and the Powder Blue. I'd love 2 more....one being an Achilles, and at this hour I can't remember the other one. I would buy them to be equal in size to the two I have now so their arguments would be a little more fair! As the fish kept dieing when they were moved to the 45g, I found the culprit who was doing the killing. It was the Powder Blue Tang, just as the manual stated. He became extremely dominant over the tank. He was after my yellow tang all the time until he knifed her enough with his tail fin. She was bruised up all over one side, she healed up, and then I noticed she was gone. So he finally succeeded in killing her.

I may be looking to sell these two fish, so they don't kill off anything new when I restart the 55g tank. I don't want to lose any more money on expensive fish, that's for sure. I get to attached and it breaks my heart to see one being victimized until it's killed. The downside of reefing I guess.

Well, that's my input on schooling tangs. I hope it works out for you if you decide to do it. I just suggest reading all about each one you're thinking of buying very thoroughly so you don't have to go through the heart ache!
Right now, I'm so into my Seahorse hobby that I don't even care to think about the reef until I look back at some of the old pictures of our 180g. I do miss it, but I don't miss h ow hard it was to keep clean. Good luck to you on your endeavour! ....Angel :angel1: