Daniel_Duan Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 i bought a small clown tang yesterday. that is about 6cm long. i found some information about the fish from internet. it said that clown tang is very difficult to keep, and they needs much space to swim....my god@!my tank is not big, and i am not a expert. is there any one who kept this kind of fish before?and can you please tell me how to keep my fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJackJack Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 what size tank do you have? shouldnt you have found the information BEFORE you bought it. always makes me shake my head when people research fish after they got them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Duan Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 76long, 40wide, about55high. do you have any suggestion to me? should i take the fish out and trade it, or just see how it is going? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 It will definately needs a larger tank than that, Clown tangs are notoriously agressive, especially to any new addtions to the tank. Generally if you want to keep one, it would be the very last fish you add to your tank. Do you live in ChCh by any chance? There are several reasons why Clown tangs are considered difficult to keep. First they are often caught with cyanide, meaning they die slowly of cyanide poisoning. And second people do not feed them the correct diet. Like all tangs, they are heavy feeders and require a lot of vegetable material to remain healthy. If you get these two problems sorted they are not particularly diffucult to keep. But yes, it will require a larger tank. I think a 6 foot tank is minimum for the optimum lifespan of the fish. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Duan Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 thank you very much for your suggestion! but i don't want to move every thing to a new larger tank, because that will be much troublesome. maybe i will try to catch the fish and sell it.but hard to catch! i don't know how to deal with the first problem as you said, and about the second problem it is also a dilemma for me, becasue i don't want to the fish grow so fast but the fish is a heavy feeder. do you have any idea about how to catch a tang fish from a reef tank? or should i just leave the fish in my tank and see how it will be? thank you very much! by the way, i live in Auckland city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 did you purchase it from a shop? If you did i would take it back as they should have given you better advice as they are hard to keep and they need a lot of feeding. actually it would be good to keep them in a small tank so you can fatten them up and clean any excess food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Duan Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 yes, i bought it from a shop. but how can i catch the fish which swim so fast? and there are just two fishes in my tank, one is a samll six line, another is that 6cm long clown tang. do you think it is not a matter to keep the clown tang? will it die in a short-term? a month? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 IT should not have been sold to you as it is a hard fish to keep., The only way you are going to catch it is by removing some of your rocks and then try to net it. Maybe you could ask the shop that sold it to you to come and catch it, since it is their mistake and it should not have been sold to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Duan Posted June 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 the staff in the shop have told me the fish needs a lot of space to keep, but i said i want to try and they said that it may be ok because the fish is not very big now. so i don't think they should take the responsibility. and actually i don't want to remove the rocks because it may harm coral( i just rebuild the landscape in my tank). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 if it is eating then it will be fine, needs to be feed lots of greens twice a day. In future you should do some research on the fish you are buying. there is lots of info on the net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 I think that the shops who initially set people up with their first marine tank need to be more proactive about informing their customers about what the limitations of the system they are buying are. They should tell the customer up front that if they get a tank of such and such a size, then they will not be able to keep specific species of fish. Or with this type of lighting you will not be able to keep particular kinds of coral etc. This means their customer is not left wondering why livestock purchased from their shop keep dying, when in fact they do not have a suitable tank setup to keep it alive. This of course does not replace the need for the hobbyist to research the animals they wish to keep. But when just starting off, there is not a whole lot of information around, (unless you look around the web) so people tend to take the advice of pet stores as gospel (which is not necessarily the case). Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 24, 2004 Report Share Posted June 24, 2004 What Layton said. Clown Tangs, like the Sohoal Tang Layton has can be a great addition to a tank, as long as you are ready for it, and big fish are your thing, as they get massive. Alois had a med clown, not sure if he still has it or not? Very pretty fish. Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackJackJack Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 sounds to me like the LFS told him it needs a larger tank but he said hed try it anyway. just a note, its not all the LFS fault, its not up to them to refuse service, people have to do research before they buy anything, blaming the LFS for this guy being too lazy to research his own fish doesnt seem right to me. of course better LFS will help customers more than others, but it shouldnt be up to them to 'baby' their customers. /rant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Reality - LFS = business. Must sell all fish and equipment, regardless... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 I don't think the shop that sold it to him is a fault really, but my comments above are still relevent. If people know the limitations of a system they are going to purchase, then they should have no reason to be surprised when they find they can't keep a particular animal. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 Pretty much agree. No point in pointing the fault and the shop, ultimatly you you take the time to research your purchases before you buy. We are talking about a live animal, an animal that will be 100% dependant on you to provide it the environment it needs to survive. Its not a trival purchase, but if you treat it as one, you will have these sorts of problems. fish = good. impulse buying fish = bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandit Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 well having no experiance what so ever in saltys i shouldnt reply here but impulse buying is catastrophic in both generes of fish keeping so i guess the rules are the same KNOW WHAT IT IS BEFORE ITS YOURS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 I've found most of my impulse buys to be some of the best purchases I've made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmatix Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 i wouldnt have really let daniel buy the tang, unless i knew he is 1. plannining on a bigger tank in the near future. 2. possibly leaving the country, in the not so distant future. In which case i will either take it off his hands, rehouse it or buy it back into the shop For any one interrested the tang has settled in and is doing very well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 cool othrwise it would look great in my friends big tank in takapuna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 Steve, a sohal would look better ;-) Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted July 2, 2004 Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 yeah true but when i speak to the fishgod he doesnt answer much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Duan Posted July 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2004 thank you all regard about the fish. it is very good in my tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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