Kole tang vs Yellow tang - feeding habits
 

Hey everyone, i'm trying to decide which of the two would be best suited to my tank; i know that they both feed on filamentous algae, but the Kole tang will apparently eat a wider variety of algae like substances. My tank seems to grow everything except for nice long green algae, more like a shorter patchy matt of algea, diatoms, a little cyano, possibly dinoflagellates again (grrrr). Is the Yellow tang gonna touch any of that stuff or is it gonna stick to only the nice green stringy type algae?

Thanks in advance

What size is your tank?

My Kole religiously eats anything filamentous. I've seen him nibble at hair algae and bryopsis on a few occasions but he doesn't eat the stuff.

Koles are from the bristletooth family. They'll use their teeth to scrape filamentous algae off your rocks and glass. Never had a yellow but I'm pretty sure they stick to the hair algae type stuff. If your tank is big enough, you could add both to work as a team.

Sorry to semi hi-jack this thread, I am looking for an algae eater as well. What footprint is best for the 2 tangs mentioned? I have a 5ft 142 or 143ish gallon tank. Tank is pretty new, but the radions is already causing some green algae growth. Would love to attack it before it spreads like wild fire :mrgreen:

My tangs have constantly picked at algae, and stir up the surface of my rocks with the picking, I very much like them. I have a bariene tang and recently lost a kole tang :(. The biggest helper in the tank for actual algae control has been my lawnmower blenny, that guy is an algae machine! Foxface is another good choice and even picks at my bubble algae, and also adds some yellow to the tank.

Perfect, thats all I need to know. I have a blenny I need to move to my big tank, and I picked up a foxface last night. I put in an order for a kole tang as well, I am hoping the trio will keep the algae to a minimum.

Thanks for the quick responses! I'd kinda forgotten about the Lawnmower Blenny, but you're right it would be a good fit as well. I was thinking one of those two tangs might be nice as I don't have any larger swimmers in the tank at this time, and cliche as it is I like the look and personality of the Yellow tang.

For the record I have a 70gal DT with lots of swimming room (light on the rockwork). I know the tank may be a touch on the small size for natural food production but I am OK with supplementing its diet with outside food.

for his size I'll bet my tailspot does even more work than the kole. he's in a permanent state of grazing. funny because he looks so angry and violent the way he goes about it!

Those three should keep your algaes in check. Except for Valonia, my personal scourge.

You can have my foxface, he loves valonia

My sailfin tang loves valonia also. Any time I move a rock he is waiting to pounce on any growing in the nooks and crannies.

in a 70, I personally would choose one or the other tang.....and I would probably choose the kole......bristletooth tangs are incredible "working" fish.....I would get a blenny of some sort too:wink:

Yeah no, would definitly be one or the other. I think that if i could find a kole with good coloration i'd be happy. Will keep the blenny in mind too though, they seem like they have a lot of charactor (been watching some youtube vids!)

Coral Beauty ate hair algae and whatever green algae it could find left the corals alone but sadly lost him to my big clown.

Just a quick update; I picked up a Kole Tang and am very happy with the decision. I was trolling the big 3 LFS in the area looking for the right fish, and after a couple weeks of watching took a chance on a pale and somewhat thin but otherwise healthy looking specimen. Fortunatly I'd done my homework and new that a stressed tang will appear pale, and since it was surrounded by about 50 yellow tangs and a few other species I figured it was just kinda stressed in the LFS. Sure enough once it settled into it's temporary home (QT) it colored up and began cleaning up the brown film algae in the QT. After a few weeks in the now very clean QT it's moved to the DT and looks great. In my travels I also came across some Tomini tangs which I considered, but decided to stick with the more common (and I felt better understood) Kole tang. Thanks again for the input. I may still do the Blenny but I will watch the food supply for a while before adding another grazing fish.

P.S. for the first couple days it was harassing and being harassed by the Azure Damsel, but they've settled in now and everyone is getting along.

Your choice of a kole over a yellow is a good choice because with the exception of the kole that kinda hangs around, all tangs require swimming room to do what they do best. 6 foot tanks provide that room
Kole tangs may appear to eat algae on the rocks but in order to thrive they require film algae as you have experienced. You can provide them with film algae by keeping the back of your tank 'dirty'. You can also get a bunch of those smooth stones you see for freshwater. Pile them in the corner of your tank and as well as providing a surface for film algae to grow, these pod piles provide safe homes for pods and their little one.
Good Luck

Why would the film that grows on rockwork be a different algae than on the glass? The same film covers everything but isn't too visible on the rocks if it's mature rock. My kole works the rockwork ALL day and only occasionally the glass. I'm thinking he's eating something worth all the effort =)

My kole seemed very happy in my 97 (36x24x26) but there's no denying the wy in which he moves around changed in the big tank. I suppose everything's relative but seems much happier.

I understand that film algae is found on smooth rock surfaces in the wild and obviously glass in our aquariums. The Kole's mouth is designed to suck the film algae off the glass.s iIf you observe him he has a sucker-type mouth.
Like all fish they will do their best to find what they need and sometimes adopt to aquarium food but ultimately they will start to go downhill if their specific food needs are not met.

Thanks for the feeding advice naesco, I do leave the back 3 walls "wild" so there's lots of grazing area. Will see what I can do about some smooth stones as well.

Hummmmm good to know, I'm housing yellow tangs in my 80g (until the 260g is up and running) but when they're moved over I think I'll get a kole as I have horrible algae growth all over the sides and back of my 80g.

I'm not claiming to know anything that's for sure just speaking from experience here. My kole is the nicest one I've personally ever seen. He doesn't really go for nori... all his algal needs are from the tank with most of that from the rocks. I've certainly had the glass get dirty many times and yeah you see all the sucker marks all over it but he still prefers to graze the rock for whatever reason.

Koles are a bristle tooth Tang, and while they appear to be sucking they are in fact scraping the algae from surfaces with many very small teeth. My wife likes the little kiss marks they leave all over the aquarium. I had a fat and health Kole in my 180 for years, a great, hardy fish and hard working reef custodian.

Agreed it looks like a suction but there are definitely teeth at work. You can easily see them in the mouth.

Keep this on topic please.... Oh wait forgot I am not a moderator... :lol:

The mouth determines the feeding habits. I think I'm alright =)

I think we are all on the same page here. They have tiny teeth you can see but they appear to use their 'mouthpiece' to vacuum up the food they need whether it is on the glass or on the rock.

My kole tang is one of the best decisions I ever made for my tank, he is a cleaner. I also have a yellow but I would say the tank is much cleaner since adding the kole.