Spectuhcle
New Member
I've had this hippo tang for probably 6 months now. He's maybe 3-4in long in a 4 ft tank. I know he will need a bigger tank as he gets bigger. He started glass surfing a couple days ago. I've tried a large (35-40% water change). No one else in the tank is having any issues. I have a magnificent fox face (yes I know he will need a bigger tank at some point too but he's still only a couple inches. I have a pair of clowns that stay in the other corner of the tank and Mandarin. Numerous cleanup crew as I'm fighting a little bit of algae.
The Hippo tang has been glass surfing mostly in one corner of the tank. He's an extremely active fish so I'm curious if this is just him being him or if he's starting to stress because the tank is too small? I wouldn't think so because he's only 3-4 inches in a 48 inch tank. I did switch the type of nori I feed around the time this happened so maybe he's searching for the good stuff I used to feed as he doesn't show much interest in the purple nori that I switched to because the lfs only had the purple. (I used to feed the green sea veggies) He still seems fat and well fed to me and there is a ton of algae around for him to eat if he's hungry.
Before anyone asks, yes I'm buying a house with room for a bigger tank within the year. He will have a 6ft tank when I move into the new house. If the tank is already too small, will he last that long or do I need to rehome him. He grew much faster than the LFS said he was going to. They said I had at least 2 or 3 years until he outgrew the tank.
Parameters:
Temp fluctuates between 78 and 79
Ph fluctuates between 7.9 and 8.2 with an average of 8.07
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 8 (I aim for between 5 and 10)
Phosphate - 0.04 (This is dosed to keep if from bottoming out)
Alk - 8.5 (I like to keep this around 9 but something has been sucking my alk for the last couple weeks and I haven't dialed in the doser yet)
Calc - 400 (I haven't figured out where is best for my tank yet but 400 isn't abnormal)
Mag - 1450 (I haven't figured out where is best for my tank yet but 1450 also isn't abnormal)
Lights are on from 10am to 9pm with an included hour ramp on both ends (I know this is probably a lot but I like to look at my fish tank all day)
Par is around 100 - 250 in the tank
I have 2 nero 5s running at 50% on random flow and a nero 3 on 10% (just to get rid of a dead spot in the tank)
My desk is in the background of the video and I sit at it pretty much all day so he should be used to me by now and he didn't seem too afraid when I was videoing him from 5 or 6 feet away but when I moved up to the glass he went and hid as he usually does
My fox face and him used to share a home in the tank but not as much now because he spends more time swimming around and glass surfing. I haven't seen any aggression toward the hippo other than the self-defense kinda "hey your getting too crazy. Settle down" where he shows him his spines and then the hippo just swims away
He does seem to breath significantly heavier than most fish I've kept but he's been that way since I got him
Does anyone have any thoughts? Is he just stressed with the tank? Possible disease? Anything I can do to calm him down?
The Hippo tang has been glass surfing mostly in one corner of the tank. He's an extremely active fish so I'm curious if this is just him being him or if he's starting to stress because the tank is too small? I wouldn't think so because he's only 3-4 inches in a 48 inch tank. I did switch the type of nori I feed around the time this happened so maybe he's searching for the good stuff I used to feed as he doesn't show much interest in the purple nori that I switched to because the lfs only had the purple. (I used to feed the green sea veggies) He still seems fat and well fed to me and there is a ton of algae around for him to eat if he's hungry.
Before anyone asks, yes I'm buying a house with room for a bigger tank within the year. He will have a 6ft tank when I move into the new house. If the tank is already too small, will he last that long or do I need to rehome him. He grew much faster than the LFS said he was going to. They said I had at least 2 or 3 years until he outgrew the tank.
Parameters:
Temp fluctuates between 78 and 79
Ph fluctuates between 7.9 and 8.2 with an average of 8.07
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 8 (I aim for between 5 and 10)
Phosphate - 0.04 (This is dosed to keep if from bottoming out)
Alk - 8.5 (I like to keep this around 9 but something has been sucking my alk for the last couple weeks and I haven't dialed in the doser yet)
Calc - 400 (I haven't figured out where is best for my tank yet but 400 isn't abnormal)
Mag - 1450 (I haven't figured out where is best for my tank yet but 1450 also isn't abnormal)
Lights are on from 10am to 9pm with an included hour ramp on both ends (I know this is probably a lot but I like to look at my fish tank all day)
Par is around 100 - 250 in the tank
I have 2 nero 5s running at 50% on random flow and a nero 3 on 10% (just to get rid of a dead spot in the tank)
My desk is in the background of the video and I sit at it pretty much all day so he should be used to me by now and he didn't seem too afraid when I was videoing him from 5 or 6 feet away but when I moved up to the glass he went and hid as he usually does
My fox face and him used to share a home in the tank but not as much now because he spends more time swimming around and glass surfing. I haven't seen any aggression toward the hippo other than the self-defense kinda "hey your getting too crazy. Settle down" where he shows him his spines and then the hippo just swims away
He does seem to breath significantly heavier than most fish I've kept but he's been that way since I got him
Does anyone have any thoughts? Is he just stressed with the tank? Possible disease? Anything I can do to calm him down?
