Possible to keep a tang in a 55 gallon?

[Blood Shrimp]

I really want a tang and only have a 55 gallon tank. I know they like lot of room to swim. What if I got one that was really young? I know they won't stay small forever.

 

[Cwazy Clown]

yea im planning to do the same. but my tank is 40g. im thinking a baby one too. ima tag along here. ...bump to any experts. =)

 

[Brenden]

Depends on the type tang. You are pushing the limits with that tank but something like a kole or convict would be OK

 

[saltwater newbe]

hi shrimp,
i have a 55 gallon also and have been successfully
keeping a sailfin,and 2 yellow tangs in my tank almost
since i started it. your experince could be totally different though, depending on what type of tang you want to keep,what kind of filtration you have,lighting,food choices of the fish,if you want to keep specific types of corals,ect.
so theres alot to consider but yes it can be done

 

[Cwazy Clown]

holy smokes a sailfin and a yellow?? damnnnn..im just planning to keep a yello

 

[jezzeaepi]

Keep in mind that succes is measured in years, not months.

 

[saltwater newbe]

LOL
cwazy they all are getting along fine
i put the sailfin in first then 2 yellows about 2 weeks later
check out my avatar,thats my sailfin

 

[Cwazy Clown]

lol thats always good swnewb..hah still 3 tangs =O...thats pretty packed..=) ..btw, dont sailfins get pretty big?i went to hawaii this winterbreak and they were like 10"+

 

[Cwazy Clown]

yea bro! ticket factory owns....

 

[saltwater newbe]

yeah they can get 12 to 15 inches from what i hear but i'm planning on having alot bigger tank by then lol
been planning on building about a 400 gallon acrylic
within the next year

 

[Brenden]

Poor tangs

 

[mmkeeper]

I have a Kole in a 46 bowed and he seems very happy. I have had him for over a year. He has 3 clowns and 2 blennies and a goby as tank mates.

 

[Blood Shrimp]

hi shrimp,
i have a 55 gallon also and have been successfully
keeping a sailfin,and 2 yellow tangs in my tank almost
since i started it. your experince could be totally different though, depending on what type of tang you want to keep,what kind of filtration you have,lighting,food choices of the fish,if you want to keep specific types of corals,ect.
so theres alot to consider but yes it can be done

Funny, I was debating between yellow tang and sailfin (possible power blue). Definitely not more than one though. I feel a lot better about this now since you have 3 of them

For filtration I have an aqua c remora skimmer and a large aquafuge 2 refugium with a DSB, a few small piece of live rock, and chaeto. From what I heard the tangs will eat the chaeto (and anything that's green for that matter). The tank has around 80 pounds of live rock in it, but it's the really dense kind so there's still lots of room. I picked out most of the smaller pieces and put them in the fuge, I think I'm going to pick up one more big piece at the LFS. For lighting I have a T5 216 watt with lunar lighting.

I have actually been somewhast careless in my past few years of tank ownership and therefore lost lots of nice fish. Although my two clowns have always stayed with me I got some new equipment and I'm giving it another go. I want to add a green mandarin, flame angel, and a tang. Maybe a royal gramma.

 

[darklcd]

I have a yellow tang well I had one lol... got sick and died when I tried to treat it but thats ok. before that he was just fine and my tank is only a 55 gal and he was very happy

that my two cents on this one lol

 

[Cwazy Clown]

hahah cool cool.

 

[Blood Shrimp]

I'm sooo mad a few weeks ago the LFS had small yellow tangs for $24.99. I wish I would have bought one.

 

[saltwater newbe]

sounded like a good price depending on their size
maybe they will order you one

 

[returnofsid]

A Sailfin and 2 Yellow tangs?? For that amount of fish, assuming that you don't have even more in that small tank, you should have at least a 200 gallon tank. As was said above....poor tangs.

 

[jezzeaepi]

The problem is people see other people housing them in small tanks and think that that makes it justifiable, it doesnt. Just because you have the means or money to do something, doesnt make it right.

I could house a killer whale in a swimming pool if I got a small one kept feeding it and constantly replaced water, but it doesnt mean its a good idea, or will work long term.

 

[saltwater newbe]

no one said it was justifiable i just said what was working for me just my opinon that it is possible to keep a tang in a 55 gallon tank