How to keep a powder blue tang

[fishcounter]

I love powder blue tangs. I have heard so many bad things about this fish though. Are there any tips on how to keep one successfully? If I get one for my tank in the future I plan on a good quarantine process, what else would I need to consider?

[pham411]

powder blues are beutiful and very elegant but also very agressive and sensitive. like any other tangs, they are very vulnarable to ick. but we all know your water quality is awsome so just keep lots of algae in his diet and he will be fine. they are constant grazers on live rock.

[fishcounter]

Thanks for the info pham!

Well I spent the night researching the powder blue a bit more. I have decided against it. I just cannot seem to find enough evidence that I will be able to keep one successfully. So, I have decided to keep a purple tang-Zebrasoma xanthurus. I love its colors and the benefits it brings to the tank. If anyone is interested in keeing a purple tang, here is a great article on them: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/z_xanthurum.htm

[Amphibious]

fishcounter

Purple Tangs are a great fish. It will need veggies in it's diet. I recommend Nori, which can be found in Oriental food shops or Asian depts in major food stores. It's dried, stores easily, and is cheap.

I would recommend staying away from terrestrial grown veggies such as Romain lettuce. Even though the tangs will eat it if offered, it just doesn't supply the necessary nutrients needed to keep tangs healthy. Nori is a marine algae that's dried and used as a wrap in fixing sushi.

If you are interested in seeing the effects of a Romain diet verses a Nori diet, my Purple Tang is a good example. My favorite fish store in Madison, WI got five Purple Tangs in and began feeding them Romain lettuce along with flake and other stuff. Since one should never buy a fish until it has a chance to rest and begin eating, I waited on buying one. A couple of weeks later all five were still in the store showing the effects of a poor diet. All of them were suffering from Lateral Line disease. Nobody was going to buy these Tangs because they were doomed if something wasn't done. I felt confident a change of diet would fix the problem. Hint, I'd done it before.

I challanged the owner, a friend, that it was the diet. He refused to believe me because Romain lettuce was commonly feed to a variety of fish and was an accepted food source. He took my challange, sold me one of the tangs at cost because I certainly wouldn't buy a diseased fish anyother way. He continued feeding Romain and I feed mine Nori, plus other usual offerings. The results are staggering. Here's a link to my website where I have two pictures one of the tang in the store the day I bought it and the other of the tang about a year and a half later. It only took two weeks on Nori to clear up the lateral line disease. The store owner switched to Nori once he saw the results. Here's the link - Purple Tang Pics - scroll down to see both pics.

Dick

[Amphibious]

fishcounter

I'm curious, what size tank is this tang going into and what other tankmates are present.

Dick

[Scott]

Dick...that is some differance! wow, beautiful fish.

[fishcounter]

fishcounter



I would recommend staying away from terrestrial grown veggies such as Romain lettuce. Even though the tangs will eat it if offered, it just doesn't supply the necessary nutrients needed to keep tangs healthy. Nori is a marine algae that's dried and used as a wrap in fixing sushi.

Dick

I am with you ont this. I don't understand why so many people give their tangs lettuce, broccoli, etc for two reasons. First, aquarists try so hard to get their water parameters just right and then they throw a wad of this stuff in there. I cannot imagine what that would do to create unwawnted spikes let alone add possible pesticides to their tank. Second of all, its just not natural. Last time I checked, Broccoli and lettuce didn't grow in the ocean.

Thanks for your comments on keeping a tang. I don't have my tank set up yet, but it is a 4 foot 90 gallon. My purple tang is going to be the largest fish in the tank if it grows to its full 10". It will be the center species and It will probably be added close to last nexk to my tomato clown.

By the way,your tang is beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos!!!! Its inspiring. I am deffinately going to feed mine Nori and possibly Kombu as well. I also read that some people feed their tangs a small amount of brine shrimp. Do you recommend this?

Thanks again!

[Rob]

I also read that some people feed their tangs a small amount of brine shrimp. Do you recommend this?

Thanks again!

Adult brine shrimp should only be fed as a special treat to your fish as there is almost no nutrition in it, napaulii (bbs) on the other hand is much better.
all of my tangs regularly took meaty foods, so it can be fed, but veggie is critical to there health and must be fed on a regular basis

i have not kept purple or powder blue/ i stayed away from purples because my initial research showed them to be aggressive, then i got the yellow tang, and didn't want to put the two together. i almost got a powder blue, but decided i wanted a few small reef fish instead (wrasse and mandarins). i have kept hippo tangs, yellow tangs, Naso tangs, and Kole tangs.

[Reefbaby]

I've also got a purple tang. He was one of my first inhabitants and has proven to be a good buy. He's not aggressive at all (my desjardinii is much more the bully). We used to have a fake coral wall covering the back of the tank and he somehow got in back there. I don't know how long he had been behind the wall, but it took me two days to figure it out. I didn't see him anywhere...not on the floor, not hiding in the rocks and he didn't come out to feed. We discovered to our horror that he was stuck between this coral wall and the glass. I eased him out , fixed the wall so that it couldn't happen again, and pampered him back to a full recovery. His right fin was completely missing and his right eye was cloudy and didn't look so hot. But, he was hungry and was a fighter and has been healthy and happy for another year and half.
fishcounter - I'm sure you'll be happy with your choice!
and yes, I use Nori as well...bought from the local asian shop.

[FibberMcGee]

Christi good call on the Nori at the local asian shop I have had friends pay double the price if not more at LFS. My Powder Blue and Purple both were my favorite fish until I had to take my last reef down. I had both for 4 years, just feed them well and give them plenty of swimming room. I think most who have kept PBT or Purples that ended up with problems came from a bad fish to start with. (Thanks to many LFS!), I agree with Amphibious great diet and all should be well, healthy fish will fend off ICK. Oh, by the way their other tank mate was a Clown tang that ate out of my hand. All were in a 120 gallon tank, BTW all three are still alive in other tanks.

Now if I can just get my friends to give me my fish back!

[Amphibious]

FibberMcGee and fishcounter

I bought three Powder Blue Tangs one time thinking, they school in large numbers in their natural environment, so I'll get a group. They all appeared to be healthy and were eating. Put them into a 125 high, a 60" tank. They were great the first few days, ate voraciously, dashed around the tank mostly together and sparred with each other often. It was exciting to have three in the tank. What a showie fish. Easily one of my favorites.

Then it happened. One day two were buddies and kept the other at bay, wouldn't share food and before I was totally aware of the seriousness of the situation, one died of fright, starvation, harrassment, lonelyness, stress and/or all of the above. I thought, okay, I've still got two and they are getting along fine. Everything was good for a few days when a change in behavior happened, almost overnight. There's always a dominant fish and this time he/she (Don't want to blame a particular gender ) seperated from the other and drove it into hiding and harrassed it so bad I had to tear the tank apart to catch it to give it away. So my rule for PBTs is one at a time like for most Tangs.

They are beautiful!!!

[Rob]

Amphibious is very right here.
tangs may school in nature, but will almost always fight in a tank.
unless you have a HUGE tank, and by huge, i mean well over 500 gallons, you should not mix two tangs of the same species or of similar body shape. (ie, a yellow tang and a sailfin tang, or purple tang) as they will very likely fight, or bully each other to death

even if you do have a "huge" tank, you still have to be careful on which species you try to combine in there

[jeepjon]

I LOVE purple tangs...one of my top 5 favorite reef fish. BEAUTIFUL, and great for the aquarium. They will get ich occasionally if anything is awry in the tank, but they are pretty good once established. I pretty much expect that when I add a purple tang, they will have some ich that will clear up.

Mine always LOVED mysis shrimp...and I gave him nori constantly too. But man....that fish could DOWN the meaty foods. It was like he had never eaten every time I fed the tank!
-Jon

[Reefbaby]

Yes....and keep in mind that they are quite messy as well. Usually most of what they eat comes right back out the other end!!

[sailfin]

I've also got a purple tang. He was one of my first inhabitants and has proven to be a good buy. He's not aggressive at all (my desjardinii is much more the bully).

Hi,

I love my desjardinii, I call her Bella. She's like a dog with gills. She is very sociable and very entertaining. But I agree with you that sailfins tend to show a bit of attitude towards the other inhabitants. She established herself quickly as the boss of the tank and now everybody ( 2 ocellaris + 1 yellow wrasse) gets along. Will she act up again when I put in a hippo tang? The one I have in quarantine right now is much smaller and I don't want to subject it to Bella's bad temper.

Any thought?

Thanks!

Ann

[thrlride]

Not sure how your experience went since this is almost 2 months old but most likely Bella showed some attitude.

I picked up a PBT yesterday and my desjardini went at him almost immediatly. I through some food in the tank to divert his attention and it worked. After the food ran out the fighting started again. I simply turned out the lights and they went their seperate ways. Not sure how things are going today though.

[sailfin]

Not sure how your experience went since this is almost 2 months old but most likely Bella showed some attitude.

Hey there!

Yes, she did indeed. But it didn't last too long. The regal tang has now been fully accepted as a member of the tank and Bella now tolerates him quite well. She even lets him seek refuge in "her" cave during daylight hours, when she has little use for it. It was difficult to watch her chase him out at first but he just wouldn't quit. I guess he wore her down

Ann

[dpmamay]

How are tangs on mainly caulerpa? or grape algae.

[fat walrus]

Hey there!

Yes, she did indeed. But it didn't last too long. The regal tang has now been fully accepted as a member of the tank and Bella now tolerates him quite well. She even lets him seek refuge in "her" cave during daylight hours, when she has little use for it. It was difficult to watch her chase him out at first but he just wouldn't quit. I guess he wore her down

Ann

wow, great example. almost romantic.

[fat walrus]

How are tangs on mainly caulerpa? or grape algae.

it's not just caulerpa, but also what resides on and within the caulerpa. keeping up production to sustain a tang may be tough.
also, don't forget that many tangs are also planktonic feeders.

[V]

one thing i found with my BPT was that swimming space at the rear of the tank was prefered in large amounts