Personally I think the powder blue is a very bad idea. They can be hard to keep (finicky eaters, ich magnets, and a lot of them when they first come in to a lfs have internal parasites) also they are aggressive fish once fully established. If you saw the way Doug's powder blue cruises back and forth in his 7 foot long tank you'd realize 36x36 is way to small for one.

Well put and I agree the powder blue tang is not a good choice. see http://wetwebmedia.com/powdbluetg.htm

They too ofter get sick for no apparent reason die and take many of their tank mates with them.

That's interesting cause my friend Paul with a 700g 10ft said the same thing that if you saw his tangs swim back and forth you'd see how 6ft isn't enough.

I agree about the aggression not so much about the room, fish are going to use up the space they have be it 3ft or 10ft when you compare it to where they come from I guess none of its really fair is it?

I don't buy the bit that this fish just dies for no reason that could be said for 50 different species when the diagnosis is done by hobbyist with no medical back ground no?

[quote=fishoholic;825741 If you saw the way Doug's powder blue cruises back and forth in his 7 foot long tank you'd realize 36x36 is way to small for one.[/QUOTE]

I hate these threads and I love them. :biggrin:

Proof that every fish is different. And every tank is different. At the end of the day every single fish tank is too small for any fish.

But if the tang police feel better cause there tank is 2 feet longer then I'm happy for you.
But I have never seen a 6 foot tank with only one tang. There is always a whole bunch In there competing. .

Just be responsible. If you truly feel the fish are suffering then do the right thing by them and pass them along.

To the op. 2 large fish seem reasonable for that size tank. But my experience is limited. And I know nothing about the characteristics of those two fish..

O the tang rants I love them

Having worked at a fish store with a dedicated QT back room you see enough fish to start to be able to recognize certain fish diseases. I never said they die for no reason, most have internal parasites that cause issues with eating ie: never will take to frozen or will try to nibble at/start to eat frozen but not gain any weight due to internal parasites. Seen enough super skinny lumpy tummy powder blues to be able to recognize eating issues when I see it. Not to mention the well known ich magnets they are. Add that with a tank that's to small for them and IMO you're asking for trouble/issues. The OP asked for opinions on tank size/compatibility so I gave him mine.

3' tank might be acceptable for a small tang if it has swimming room all around. I have a coral beauty in my 2' x 2' tank and the coral beauty cruise the 4 walls without interruption. If it is limited to 3 walls or 2 walls free for swimming then the fish is going to hit the wall, turn around, hit the other wall and turn around add nauseum. That start to look like a tiger in cage going from one side of its fence to the other all day long...sad.

Have you kept a powder blue? I've gone through probably 8 of them over the years, they like to die. It's their thing -lol The one that I bought "used" lived, but turned into a major bully and had to be removed to save my Achilles..one of the more difficult fish, IMO.

I too have had lots of PBTs in my time and it has also been my experience that PBT are very fragile fish. You may get lucky and find one that is more robust than most, but generally speaking they have a bad track record for long term survival. We could solve this by doing up a poll though :-)

As for your tank size, those are great dimensions Adam! Looking forward to your tank journal :biggrin:

yes and mine didnt die for unknown reasons it starved.... pretty simple to determine why that happened, im sure there are good reasons why the fish dies when it does but because of the fishes nice baby blue color it attracts alot of people who dont know when a fish is starving , sick or infected so when the fish dies its unknown.

i never said this fish was for beginners but i also dont buy it that they just up and die in mass numbers for unknown reasons either.

out of the eight you had i bet most of their deaths was explainable

All fish deaths are explainable, except when the hobbyist can't explain it. Then it's unexplainable.