fish list

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I am hoping to get a 120 gal tank very soon for my powder blue tang and am wondering what would be good tankmates for him. I was looking at possibly a lionfish,triggerfish,some lyretail anthias,a couple dwarf angels and an eel. What would make a good combination out of these fish? I'm looking for good personality and color. If there are any other fish combinations that are cool let me know. TIA

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I would skip the trigger & probably the lionfish. The trigger may one day decide to eat the tang or at least bite it & lionfish are carnivores that poop a lot so keeping the water quality high for an ick-magnet like a powder blue would be challenging. I would think that a nice quiet tank of non-aggressive fish would suit the pb best or else it'll stress out & get icky or worse. After all, isn't the pb supposed to be the center-piece fish in this new tank?

JMO

Anthony

[Edmonton Eskimo]

what kind of fish would you suggest?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Are you planning this mainly as a fish tank or a reef tank with a few reef-safe fish? Your original post made it look like a fish-only setup. Your ultimate goal will play a big part in which fish we can suggest for this new 120g tank.

Some possible suggestions are -

Reef: fairy or flasher wrasse, bicolour blenny, anthias, a small school of bangai cardinals, marine comet (although these are shrimp eaters), a cherub or other dwarf angel, jawfish, heniochus (banner fish), maybe another tang but different family (ie. small yellow or purple tang if your PB is friendly but adding tangs together is an iffy proposition usually).

Mainly Fish: hawkfish (generally non-shrimp-safe), raccoon butterfly (if small & eating already), juv. angelfish (personally love the Queen, Blue, and Flagfin), or Lemon-peel/Flame angel (to contrast the PB)

JMO,

Anthony

OK, who's next?

[Coldwater]

For the eel I say go with a Snowflake Moray. They stay sorta small. They also have great colouring and have a great personality. They eat almost everything that they can get their mouths around. Never had any of the other fish so I dont know alot about them. FOWLR setups are the way to go.

Matt

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I am looking at fowlr. I thought that tangs and lions were compatible. My pb seems very calm. He hasn't been the least bit aggresive to anything. Are all pb's aggresive or just the larger ones?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

PBs are generally not very aggressive, except tangs tend to not get along with other tangs (at least for the first week). Lions and large tangs are compatible, just be sure your water quality stays high since any large carnivore will add greatly to the tank's bioload & PBs are sensitive to poor water quality and stress (ie. Ick magnets).

Anthony

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I would really love to have a hippo tang is there any way to do that? I can add fish in any order to help success as I have yet to set up the larger tank(actually I haven't found one yet)

[Beverly]

I've got a 120g, 4'x2'x2, not for sale btw, and I think it would be too small for a tang. JMO, though.

[Edmonton Eskimo]

a 120 too small for a tang? Seriously?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Check out this site:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/powdbluetg.htm

They recommend a 100g min. tank size for a PB.

Of course, bigger is better :biggrin: and much will be determined based on what sort of system you'll have set up for it (ie. sumps/refugiums/etc) to increase water capacity and bioload.

Anthony

[Beverly]

They recommend a 100g min. tank size for a PB.

Most tangs get pretty large, right? I would think the largest tank you could possibly give them would be better for their overall mental health, especially once they start getting near their mature size.

From the link provided:

This is a wide-ranging, fast-swimming vigorous fish that needs plenty of room. The smallest tank I recommend for their keeping is one hundred gallons. At full potential size of about a foot in length, this would only be six times the length of the fish… not too much to ask for.

For instance, I had (before the recent tragedy in my 120g) a 4" blue sided wrasse (adult size 6") and a 3" chevron butterfly (adult size 5"-6") along with two smaller fish. I could tell that both the wrasse and butterfly would have liked a much bigger tank. They were great swimmers and liked going into and out of the rockwork, but they also spent a lot of time pacing the tank.

After watching them for the time they were with us, I kinda felt bad for them for the pacing. But due to space constraints, I could only provide a 120g. Both fish were still young and had a lot of growing to do. I could only imagine that they felt stuck in this tiny glass box, whereas in their natural environment, they would have had a territory at least the size of our 1500 sq ft condo.

For fish that grow large, the bigger the better. JMO, though.

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I understand where you are coming from Bev but on the other hand from what I have read with most fish they don't reach their max size in a home aquarium. I have always wondered if the fish realize where they came from-the ocean because if they did I wonder if any fish would survive a home aquarium. I have read that fish don't have a very good memory so would they remember being in the ocean and that they are supposed to have all that space. I realise instincts never really go away but memory does. I'm not saying to put a 10" fish in a coffee cup because they don't know any better I'm just playing a little devil's advocate. It's kind of like if I had no memory of living in Canada would I miss it?

[Beverly]

EE,

I don't think fish have memories either. I think it is hardwired into their brains that they require so much room to live comfortably. Call it a range or territory, depending on the species of fish we're talking about.

Imagine that you are somehow locked in a bathroom, or even a one bedroom apartment for your entire life, without ever having been outside the given space. Don't you think you'd have some innate need to be "outside" of this enclosed environment even though you have no memory of ever being "outside"? Would you become stunted as a human being in your restricted space like the fish being stunted by the limitations of living in a small tank?

I know fish are not human, but they have needs that are unique to fish, just like humans have needs unique to humans.

I'm just as guilty of having fish in aquariums that are way smaller than their natural range would be, no doubt about that. It bothers me sometimes, is all. I'm just hoping that by expressing this idea that other people might think about their fishes' environments in a different way.

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I hear ya bev I try to provide the best environment I can afford$$ :mrgreen: