Sohal or Unicorn Tang?

[SCH14]

Hey everyone,

Alright so I have a 10” blue spine unicorn tang. I’ve had him for a while and eats out of my hand. He’s in my 310g which I plan to add a big blonde Naso and 4-5 other smaller tangs. (Achilles, gem, purple, blue hippo, maybe white tail)

I have someone interested in buying the unicorn and I’ve always wanted a Sohal Tang. Ik they can be very aggressive but if I got one around 3-4” and was last one in how do my chances sound?

I can’t decide which route to go, I love my unicorn but also love fish with brighter colors. Any input would be amazing. Would love to hear stories as well.

 

[JC1977]

I know you want somebody to tell you it’s going to be ok to put a sohal in your tank but the truth is the odds are against you. Not a matter of if but when it decides to go rogue and terrorize your other fish. There are lots of alternatives much better suited if you’re looking for color. Bottom line skip the sohal I think you’re asking for trouble.

 

[Kodski]

Personally, I see a lot of Sohal's around where I am and don't see anything that would turn me off from one. One day I'd love to have a large enough tank for one. Of course I think several things need to be factored into this decision. #1) The sohal should be the very last fish or with the last batch of fish. #2) You need to have two things in your tank. A lot of swimming space and a lot of hiding space. Enough for each fish to have two hiding holes each to call their own is my rule of thumb and it has held up very well for me. Personally, putting an aggressive fish into a new tank is probably not the best practice unless you really make sure to have lots of fish habitat in your aquascape. Corals really help add hiding spots and visual breaks for fish. 3) Food aggression/territory agression. Territory aggression comes with hiding spots and tank size, as I said prior. Feed 3-4 or even more times a day becomes more and more important with fish like tangs and angels. With my tangs I can tell when I forget to feed them once through a day where I would normally feed them 3-4 times. They tend to stick to their own territories and guard them more strictly. Whereas normally, they all swim around together through each other's territories showing little to no aggression. Fish get hangry too..

 

[Largeangels]

Always have an exit strategy, like how are you going to get that fish out if things go south. I have it arrainged so that I can put eggcrate dividers in a few places in the tank to divide it up so that I only have to remove some of the rock work and not all to catch a fish.

Sohol's can be very aggressive and some are worse than others. I'm going on 3 years + with a very nice 6-7" sohol with other tangs (clown tang, hippo, powder blue, convict, purple) who is playing nice with others. It's definitely the boss and stays mostly on the left side of the tank, which is where I feed, where as the others swim all over the place. I spent 9 months having the sohol and clown tang in a seperate tank with a large specimen container seperating them so they could get to know each other and made sure they were fed often. I then moved them to the main tank and there was some back and forth but the funny thing is they seemed to think there was still a piece of plexiglass between then so they stopped short of actual harm. Convict was there before but purple and powder blue were added as very small. All fish added are always QT'd and fattened up for a while before being placed in a specimen container close to were I feed. I feed the the tank and specimen container at the same time multiple times per week. After a few weeks new fish get added during lights out. This seems to work so far.

But, I always keep a close eye out and ready to put dividers to remove anyone.

I'd add Sohol last. QT all fish first and make sure they are fat and happy before adding to main tank and do that with a specimen container for a few days to a week before releasing.

Most likely you will have issues with the Sohol, but it can be done.

 

[0MNSH1ZLLC]

My tank is 6x3x3 my sohal is about a foot with streamers. Everything they say is true. You can drop a fish in and it won’t care or you can drop a fish in and it’s in the sump a few minutes later headed back to the lfs. It’s the worst fish in this tank but gd it’s cool.


When it hit about 10” there was a month that it was an absolute menace and did not put the scalpel away.

The mirror will become a tank accessory.