20+ year old tangs

[t5Nitro]

Great work! My purple and yellow have been in my friends tank about 7 years, now joining me after he left the hobby. How big is your tank? I'll need to upgrade for these friends!

 

[Smarkow]

Just grazed on your youtube channel and saw you’ve been using tap water. Curious do you condition or filter? Have you ever had it tested?

Thanks for sharing

 

[Timfish]

For 13 years now I've been using straight tap treated with ammo detox or prime or run through a water softener or filtered through GAC or RO/DI depending on whether my clients express a preference. Prior to that I was using just RO or RO/DI. There was about a 10 year transition period from '07 to '17 where some of my own tanks and some of my clients tanks got just RO. I have had the water for the 90 gallon (tap treated with dechlorinator) corner tank Elvis was housed tested with ATI ICP. You can see the results of the tap water and tank water here

 

[Timfish]

Here's a cute video of Elvis:

 

[Zionas]

Are Tangs in general really long-lived fish? Even the smaller ones? (8” and below)

 

[VJM 21]

In fact, one of the more interesting behaviors it demonstrated was recognition of strangers and very typical display behavior trying to chase the "intruder" away.

Great post, and congrats on the fish. Just to clarify, are you saying that he tries to intimidate humans that he doesn’t recognize?

 

[Timfish]

The Purple Tang was rehomed from the 90 Corner to a 110 in 2007 and is still going strong. WHile I lost the Yellow a few years ago the Purple has been housed with another Yellow Tang (itself 12+ years old now) since it was rehomed in 2007

 

[Timfish]

Sadly and with a heavy heart I need to report the loss of Elvis, the sailfin tang and the 16 year old blond naso living with him duing the recent freeze. (as well as other fish and corals, some over 25 years).

Here's a video from last year. :'(

 

[Timfish]

Happy to say the purple tang is still going strong at 28+

 

[i cant think]

This thread was fun to read!
Just a quick question, how big were/are all the tangs and how long did it take for them to get to said size?

 

[LgTas]

Amazing. Thanks for keeping this thread updated

 

[Timfish]

This thread was fun to read!
Just a quick question, how big were/are all the tangs and how long did it take for them to get to said size?

Can't say I paid much attention to how fast they actually grew the first few years. They were initially in a 75 in '94 and I'd estimate about half of maximum size for their individual species. In 2000 they were upgraded to a 90 corner, largely due to the growth of the sailfin which was pushing 9"-10" .

In 2007 the system was rehomed and the purple tang was rehomed to a different system. At that time the purple tang was about 7", yellow tang was about 6" and the sailfin about 10" - 11". In 2014 when the sailfin was rehomed again it was 1 foot.

At teh time of thier loss the yellow and sailfin were75% - 85% of max recorded size, ~6"7" fo rthe yellow tang and !2" - 13" for the sailfin. The Purple tang I'd estimate at 7" - 8". Sorry I can't do better than estimates on their growth.

 

[Timfish]

Happy to say the purple tang is still going strong at 28+

Sadly I have to report the death of the 15+ year old Yellow Tang and the 15+ year old Flame Hawk in this video. Fortunately the Purple Tang is still going strong. Power was lost for about 4 days during the recent freeze resulting in the loss of most of the animals. Also lost was brown finger Sinularia which had been in this system since the early 90s (92-94). Also lost was the Sinularia foliata (Ofwegen 2008) which had been in this system since '97.

 

[Zionas]

Sorry to hear that Do you think they died of old age or something else?

Edit: Darn power grid again!

 

[Gp!]

@Timfish Thank you for sharing this and the continued updates over time. Not sure how I haven't read this before now but it is inspiring.

Can you offer any tips you would recommend as important contributions to your success in keeping these fish to such an age?

 

[Timfish]

@Timfish Thank you for sharing this and the continued updates over time. Not sure how I haven't read this before now but it is inspiring.

Can you offer any tips you would recommend as important contributions to your success in keeping these fish to such an age?

Thank you!

Luck.
Consistant maintenance including water changes (weekly) is obviously important.
FWIW this system has been getting NLS Spectrum pellets in an autofeeder for a very long time.
Judicious addition of new fish to avoid compatability issues.
Many would conisder this system understocked. (180 gallons and the 2 tangs were the only large fish)
Redundancy, multiple returnm pumps and an air pump and an auto backup air pump when power fails.

 

[Timfish]

Purple tang is 30+ now! (and for what it's worth the xenia, green trash pallies. GSP and yellow cryptic sponge m{lower right corner} trace back to the 90s also but the birdsnests only go back to the late 2000s.)

 

[Cthulukelele]

Purple tang is 30+ now! (and for what it's worth the xenia, green trash pallies. GSP and yellow cryptic sponge m{lower right corner} trace back to the 90s also but the birdsnests only go back to the late 2000s.)

That fish is probably around my age. Wild

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Purple tang is 30+ now! (and for what it's worth the xenia, green trash pallies. GSP and yellow cryptic sponge m{lower right corner} trace back to the 90s also but the birdsnests only go back to the late 2000s.)

That 30+ year old purple is amazing!

 

[Timfish]

That fish is probably around my age. Wild

FWIW, most tang species have documented life expectancies in the wild of 35 top 40 years. But if they follow the example of the majority of species in captivity it's barely middle age.