Tang Poll! (Data Collection, Read Post)

Anemone_Fanatic · Feb 23, 2023

Let's collect some data on a controversial subject, shall we? I'm not trying to either promote, confirm, or put down anyone's ideals here, including my own. I'm just looking to see how people have either succeeded or failed in their tang keeping. I'm defining "success" for the purposes of this poll as being kept in a tank for over a year without death, injury, jumping, disease, or killing of other fish. Please don't debate or argue in the comments, I'm just trying to make an educational resource here. Hopefully people on this forum will be able to make educated decisions based on the data collected from this poll. Also, please don't vote if you haven't kept a tang! I want to keep this poll as unbiased, accurate, and informational as possible, and voting based off of non-personal experience won't help that. I think this subject gets bogged down in debate all too often, and it would be nice to have some good data available. Most common knowledge states that tangs do better in bigger tanks, and I expect that will be affirmed here, this poll isn't for my own personal use. Feel free to share species and advice in the comments! Please be civil and respectful of one another's experiences! Thanks!

Tanglover1 · Feb 23, 2023

Anemone_Fanatic said:
Let's collect some data on a controversial subject, shall we? I'm not trying to either promote, confirm, or put down anyone's ideals here, including my own. I'm just looking to see how people have either succeeded or failed in their tang keeping. I'm defining "success" for the purposes of this poll as being kept in a tank for over a year without death, injury, jumping, disease, or killing of other fish. Please don't debate or argue in the comments, I'm just trying to make an educational resource here. Hopefully people on this forum will be able to make educated decisions based on the data collected from this poll. Also, please don't vote if you haven't kept a tang! I want to keep this poll as unbiased, accurate, and informational as possible, and voting based off of non-personal experience won't help that. I think this subject gets bogged down in debate all too often, and it would be nice to have some good data available. Most common knowledge states that tangs do better in bigger tanks, and I expect that will be affirmed here, this poll isn't for my own personal use. Feel free to share species and advice in the comments! Please be civil and respectful of one another's experiences! Thanks!

I hv powder tang, Sailfin tang,2 convict tang and a yellow tang in my 370 gallon. Added a 2nd selfin tang few days ago. Surprisingly I hv not lost any fish from 3 yrs. All fishes stay in their own territory i.e, less fighting. Some fighting occurs only in feeding time by powder tang otherwise everyone is peaceful except new selfin tang

Anemone_Fanatic · Feb 24, 2023

Tanglover1 said:
I hv powder tang, Sailfin tang,2 convict tang and a yellow tang in my 370 gallon. Added a 2nd selfin tang few days ago. Surprisingly I hv not lost any fish from 3 yrs. All fishes stay in their own territory i.e, less fighting. Some fighting occurs only in feeding time by powder tang otherwise everyone is peaceful except new selfin tang

Wow! That's a lot of tangs! I've never heard of two sailfins getting along.

Enderg60 · Feb 24, 2023

I kept between 3 and 5 tangs in a 58g for about 10 years.

Tank was 36x18x21, tangs were sailfin, blue, yellow, purple and a clown. All were purchased the size of a quarter and spent 2-5 years in the tank until they reached 4"-5". At that point they were taken back to the LFS to exchange for a small one again. If you take this approach there is no issue keeping tangs in smaller tanks.

Long term I would not recommend less than a 6' tank.

Anemone_Fanatic · Feb 25, 2023

Bumping this up for more discussion!

jtf74 · Feb 26, 2023

Anemone_Fanatic said:
Let's collect some data on a controversial subject, shall we? I'm not trying to either promote, confirm, or put down anyone's ideals here, including my own. I'm just looking to see how people have either succeeded or failed in their tang keeping. I'm defining "success" for the purposes of this poll as being kept in a tank for over a year without death, injury, jumping, disease, or killing of other fish. Please don't debate or argue in the comments, I'm just trying to make an educational resource here. Hopefully people on this forum will be able to make educated decisions based on the data collected from this poll. Also, please don't vote if you haven't kept a tang! I want to keep this poll as unbiased, accurate, and informational as possible, and voting based off of non-personal experience won't help that. I think this subject gets bogged down in debate all too often, and it would be nice to have some good data available. Most common knowledge states that tangs do better in bigger tanks, and I expect that will be affirmed here, this poll isn't for my own personal use. Feel free to share species and advice in the comments! Please be civil and respectful of one another's experiences! Thanks!

I am 4 to 6 with "success" having a hippo for 3 years in a 5'. But it was 5' long x 3' 6" wide and taller, close to 280 gallons not the same as a 4' long x 18-24" wide. It died mysteriously no symptoms, no other fish with issues, no other tangs or bullies. Good eater. Didn't feel like success.

Tanglover1 · Feb 26, 2023

jtf74 said:
I am 4 to 6 with "success" having a hippo for 3 years in a 5'. But it was 5' long x 3' 6" wide and taller, close to 280 gallons not the same as a 4' long x 18-24" wide. It died mysteriously no symptoms, no other fish with issues, no other tangs or bullies. Good eater. Didn't feel like success.

I think stress sometime kill them. Did u put any salt in aquarium? Tangs r very delicate to changes. I hv also seen this problem like it dies from heart attack. Not your fault just try to give them stressless environment and they will be happy

Anemone_Fanatic · Mar 4, 2023

For those not inclined to do calculations:

69.2% success in tanks less than 4 feet.
96.3% success in tanks between 4 and 6 feet.
100% success in tanks over 6 feet.
86.1% success overall.

Shows pretty clearly that your chances of success go up as tank size does. People generally have pretty decent rates at any size, though. Surprising for fish as delicate as tangs, seems like the majority of people succeed at all sizes. I wish that more people with 6+ foot tanks would weigh in, I doubt that the actual rate is 100%. Probably pretty close, though.

Wizard677 · Mar 4, 2023

I think the type of tang is a huge factor here. I have successfully kept tangs in a 4' tank. Although they were Tomini / Bristletooth tangs. I'm sure my success would have been much lower if it were an Achilles.

Anemone_Fanatic · Mar 4, 2023

Wizard677 said:
I think the type of tang is a huge factor here. I have successfully kept tangs in a 4' tank. Although they were Tomini / Bristletooth tangs. I'm sure my success would have been much lower if it were an Achilles.

Agreed. I had wanted to be more specific about species, but I think that there would have been too many options to gather good data if I did that.

Lbrdsoxfan · Mar 4, 2023

Anemone_Fanatic said:
Wow! That's a lot of tangs! I've never heard of two sailfins getting along.

If it's big enough they can and do co exist. I have two yellows in a 4' 120g, they have been together since the beginning, so they tolerate each other, along with a purple who has always been with the yellows and a rapidly growing sailfin who may be removed in the next few months. It's a total pig and has more than doubled in size in a year.

Nemo&Friends · Mar 4, 2023

Currently have an hippo tang for over 3 years. It is in a 125G, FOWLR 72"x18" tank.

He was the last one in, and has not killed anyone.
I am not sure I would call keeping a tang 1 year a success. My 3 + year tang, has not reached his full size yet.
My LFS has an hyppo tang which is much bigger than mine. They have it for a few years, but I think they must have rescued it. The first time I saw it it was looking very sick, and they told me it was actually improving. That tang looks like he had a severe case of HLLE. It is doing much better now, but it does not look pretty. If mine reach the same size, even my 6'tank may be too small.

Anemone_Fanatic · Mar 8, 2023

Updated (more accurate) statistics:

80% success in tanks less than 4 feet.
97.1% success in tanks between 4 and 6 feet.
100% success in tanks over 6 feet.
90% success overall.

This is really interesting to me. Tangs are sensitive fish, but it looks like people have pretty decent luck with them at almost any tank size. I would have expected something more like 40% success at less than 4 feet, and 75% success between 4 and 6. I'm glad that we finally have some solid data in this regard. Thanks to everyone who voted!