Catching a tang...
 

I know this has probably been discussed to death, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to catch a wiley tang? It's 275 gallons and full of rock, so I'm not really thrilled about the idea of taking it all apart.

Do these guys get fooled by traps? he's a blue eyed bristle tooth tang, and he's about full grown.

I've caught tangs in a trap. Just don't feed anywhere but in the trap

There is always old fateful :razz:

http://www.seawear.com/images/fish-h...-live-bait.jpg

I've caught any tang I've tried to catch in a fish trap.. Just be patient for a day or two and they will go in. If its a nori eater put the algea clip inside, if it's a mysis eater superglue a big blob onto a disk or rock and put that inside. :mrgreen:

I did the same thing with a big net to catch a red coris wrasse. Dropped the net in to let them get used to it for a day, then started putting food in it. Caught the wrasse within an hour.

I've used a mirror as bait for aggressive wrasses before.. They go in to pick a fight and badaboom!

I think I'll try the trap route. Lord it will nice for him to be gone...

What's his issue Adam?

Am ready to give this one a try myself. I also need to get a few tangs out.

Since i never learn, he was the first fish that went in the tank. When I got him, he was all sickly and skinny and timid and I didn't think he was going to make it, but I had an algae explosion I wasn't patient enough to let die down on it's own and I figured if he died of some disease I could just let the tank be fallow before adding more fish...

Needless to say he recovered completely, bordering on overweight now. Problem is, he's not the prettiest specimen of his species, he only looks good when he's being a dick and puts on his "i'm gonna shank you" colours. The rest of the time he's a rather drab browny/purple.

I recently got my hands on a much, MUCH nicer tang (an achilles to be exact) and while the aggression directed towards the achilles went from 'moderate' to 'barely' after about 5 hours, it's still low grade enough that I think the achilles is having a harder time acclimating. The achilles is showing a few spots of ich and if the bristle tooth catches him grazing on the rocks he'll take a run at him.

So, $40 fish vs. $350 fish. Guess who goes... To the sump anyway, I'll decide if I'm going to try re-introducing them after the achilles is as fat as he is.

I just went through the same thing getting a powder brown out due to aggression to my new Achilles. I took apart half my rock work

I cought a tang yesterday by just waiting while feeding and when he came to the top..BANG.... First try. All the tang were good eaters tho and came up and would eat out of my hands

Well I have had great, success with a red light and a net at night

Sump equals ich!!!!
 

If you put a tang in a sump you are guaranteed of an ich outbreak.

The first tang to perish will be the achilles.

Advertise to give away the tang to a reefer who has a large tank like you.

Lol ich doesn't appear just cuz a tang is a sump.

I my Achilles had ich the first week I got it, but he's all good now

Often ich lies dormant. The fish seem to be able to deal with a very minor problem themselves if they are healthy.

Tangs are ich magnets. The stress of being placed in a noisy environment IMO will cause the OP an ich outbreak. In addition the size of the sump is far too small for a tang which will add to the stress.

As you have experienced with your own achilles, achilles are really iffy tangs. IMO it will be the first to succumb to ich.

I do not believe that anyone on this board would support placing a tang in a sump.

Thank you
Wayne

Putting a blue eyed kole tang in a sump won't give the Achilles tang ich. Not removing it will.

No a sump is not ideal for a tang. But its an ok 2-3 day solution.

+1

if it doesn't work out... then it might turn into this

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...d/26bf8fa0.jpg

then

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...d/3bacb391.jpg

5 minutes later

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/s...d/a419cd41.jpg

You meant to say it often goes unseen, right ?
ICH is either in a tank or not

Peter, I know where you live ... I'll call SPCA right now :mrgreen:

evidence has been flush down the toilet already.

HAHAHAHAHA :mrgreen: You're smart !

Yes

I'm not a scientist (yet) but I think hes right when he said it lies dormant (in a way). Ich, from what I know about freshwater and assume is similar to saltwater, is that every fish either has been exposed to ich at one point in its life or has it, and most tanks always have the ich parasite present in their water. The only time the fish is actually affected by it is when their slime coat is reduced, caused by many things. Most commonly stress. When a fish is at its healthiest, the ich parasite cannot penetrate the fish's slime coat and affect the fish. But as soon as a fish is feeling down the ich is able to take advantage.

This is why the OP needs to get the other tang out of the tank, so the tang can be relieved of stress and fight off the infection on his own. Once he is healthy and back to normal, the ich will still always be in your water, but it won't affect your fish unless they become stressed/sick from another cause.

Here's some very good reading

Marine Ich myths and facts

Disregard everything I said above. This article tells all!!!! Sorry about jumping in with info about freshwater. I should know better than to assume they are the same thing.

It's all good
I'm guilty of posting info that I had thought to be rock-solid
Thankfully the more experienced members had corrected me

Update:

I had to go out of town for work this week so I left instructions with my fiancé about the feeding regime for the achilles. Got the news that it had stopped eating on Tuesday or Wednesday (to quote: "I dunno, I didn't look that closely". Sigh.), but since I'm the only one who knows anything about fish in the house and I was in doing field work out of cell range near Brooks, there wasn't much I could do to trouble shoot.

I got home late Thursday night after the lights in the tank were off but was told the Achilles had been out swimming around all day (but not eating). Woke up this morning to find it dead as a door nail. :hurt:

I did a little post-mortem on it with my field scope and it looks like either a bacteria or fungus attacked it's mouth, like to the point where it's lower lip was practically gone. The upper lip was covered in this white fluffy goo that came off when I rubbed it, and seemed to be in the process of also eroding away. Needless to say I'm pretty devastated, as much because I lost the fish as because I could have probably done something about it had I been here and seen the infection when it started. I've got a hospital tank down stairs ready to go :(

I did a thorough inspection of him on Monday morning before I left and everything seemed normal, so whatever this was it moved fast. I talked to the LFS that I bought him from and have searched thoroughly online and the general consensus is that fungus is really rare in aquariums, so it's more likely that his mouth got injured and due to either a weakened immune system, stress, or both, he developed a bacterial infection. The other tang was still harassing him at night when the lights were preparing to go out (chasing him away from ALL the sleeping sights), so the chances are good he was a contributing factor. For all I know, the other tang was responsible for the original mouth injury.

So, the other tang is going. He's a cool fish, with loads of personality, but a bristle tooth tang was never on the list of 'must haves' and this aquarium is all about the 'must haves'. And the thought that a 40 dollar fish could have assisted in the demise of a 350 dollar fish makes me ill. I'm going to get another tang eventually, one I really want, and it's not going to have to deal with one second of harassment from an incumbent.

It took most of the day with the trap, but I finally caught him a few minutes ago, so if anybody is looking for a feisty little blue eyed bristle tooth tang in the absolute prime of health (borderline obese), he's yours.

Also, I know it was mentioned that a sump isn't appropriate for a tang, and in general I would agree, but my sump isn't a normal sump. The largest chamber in it is used for water changes and is over 50 gallons, which is larger than a lot of people's display tanks. He won't be in there long.

ive found the best way is at night time middle of the night for me lol
they are so sleepy then lol

I hope its ok that I piggy back on here, tried searching how to catch a tang an this is one of the only threads I could find! I have a tang to catch as well.. But two other tangs I don't want to catch.. Lots of rock work.. They hide and sleep in the rocks at night so I don't think the red light at night would work... How do I make a trap? Thanks!

I got tired of trying to catch things, now if I need a fish out, I drain the tank, pick up fish, put water back.

now that is quick and pain less i like that idea Brad

Borrowed my friend's fish trap and it works great for tangs. X-lg Sgt. Majors hmmm, works ok.

The trap is built from one of those cheap plastic critter cages. He glued 2 small blocks of granite (any heavy stone will do) on the bottom and one larger piece on the lid (to make it shut faster). Then some fish line and some bait (a tiny net with mysis in it placed inside the chamber) and your good to go. My yellow, mata & lg. Naso all go inside constantly. Caught out on Sgt. Major & one to go.

Anthony

hehe, I would love to do that, but I've got no where to put an extra 275 gallon of water...

My tang came out surprisingly easy with the right trap. I think it depends on the personality of the fish. My guy was pretty bold and aggressive, so after the trap had been in the water for an hour or so, I put food in it, and he was trapped inside of 5 minutes. I used an AquaMedic fish trap that i picked up at a LFS here (but you can get them online too), and it was super easy.

Catching anyone else after they've seen the tang fall for it... good luck.

I'm lucky. My LFS is just down the road and he lends me the requisite 50g barrels, enough for 200g. You'd only need one more :razz:

i catch them at night like midnight when their sleeping lol. since my tank is small and i have minimized the amount of rock i can catch them using my hands :lol:

Well my friend's trap worked and I caught the other Sgt. Major and my big Naso at the same time. Only took the damsel to the LFS though:wink: