purple tang
 

so I was wanting to add one of these guys to my 90g I have a kole and a convict tang in there atm no fighting, just a little chasing. since this guy is NOT con specific I know it will be ok. what I want to know is what is a fair price to pay for a small purple tang?

Purple tangs go in Edmonton for about 150.00 to 200.00

I know where I can find one for 100.00 still very small too! a couple weeks and thay litte guy is goin home with me! if I could have one of each tang all in the same place I would. I've often wondered how with seemingly such sucess so many yellow tangs can be housed together in one of the tanks at west ed, thats for another posting though.

I know it's the one at Red Coral for $100.00, I have one already.

The tang police would say a 90 is to small for any tangs never mind 3. That being said I've found koles to be non aggressive. Not sure about the convict as I have no experience with them.

Purple tang is the most aggressive fish in my 225... I wouldn't want to see what he would do to other tangs in a 90. :sad:

Have to agree on that purples are aggressive at least mine sure was.

It is great that you love tangs as I do but you really need to carefully consider providing them with the optimum conditions. You do don't you?
So plan to move up a couple of feet to a 6 footer and add tangs to your hearts content.

IME it would be poor judgement to add a purple tang which is known to be aggressive to a small tank that already has two tangs in it as has already been posted.

Do you have some app that alerts you to the word Tang?? :razz:

Other than my sohal buy far the most aggressive tang I had

not sure if he needs an app. I'm pretty sure his Tang-senses start to tingle and he develops an uncontrollable twitch until he finds the culprit thread.

You mean my spider that searches most reef boards?

Yup, that's the one -lol

right, that's why the purple tang is the last tang , and has to be the smallest of the three. the convict is rather small, and the tank boss is my 5 inch kole. I have roughly 250 lbs of LR stacked up in the middle of the tank seperating front from back. lotsa outta sight places for them to be away from each other. I've had sucess with a unicorn, yellow, and scopas in the past because of the immense amount of lr setup in the tank. go Berlin method:mrgreen:

roflmao culprit indeed!

Absolutely I 1000% agree

Not to be rude but I will ask Red coral not to sell it to you. The purple tang will torment and attack and stress out your other two tangs. It's not fair to any of your fish to add him to such a small tank. You need a minimum of at least a 180g if you want a purple tang. Plus when I saw you at the store you mentioned you were having some issues with your tank. I would get the issues you have under control first before even thinking about adding anything else never mind a fish that has no business in being in there!

I have a 4+" purple tang with a 4" mimic tang, a 4" maroon clown and a couple other random fish in a 90G with no issues. The two tangs are best friends and are rarely more than a couple of inches apart. Having said that I would not have voluntarily put these two into my tank were it not for a friend shutting his system down. They came out of another 90G and were in with a decent size Kole and Scopus as well.
Dan

there aren't any issues with my tank other than me raising my salinity. which my tank is now doing nicely from. I do a minimum 20% change every week which consists of two 15 gallon water changes. my total system is 150 gallons. I rarely have any issues with fish in my tank, and always take any appropriate measures to make sure all are healthy. a purple tang is not conspecific to anything I have in my tank. like I've said I have kept a scopas,unicorn, and yellow tang all housed together at the same time in this tank. just because other people have had no sucess for what ever reason, dosent mean that I won't be sucessful. In all likelyhood I won't be getting the fish from steve now because of the animosity you are all stirring up about this. but that dosent mean that I still won't go out next week when I'm sure my tank can handle it and purchase one. if I were an irresponsible aquariast that fish would already be in my tank period. and end of discussion. I started this thread not to rile the tang police but instead to find out what is a fair price is for this particular fish. oh one more thing, the reason for my sucess with tangs is the fact that I have nearly three grand worth of live rock in my tank. lotsa territory to name and hide in on my small reef by that measure.

The more live rock you have in your tank means the less swimming space for your tangs.

I'm going to add in that I previously had a purple that lived with 6 other tangs and it was NOT aggressive. Of all the yellow, purple, sailfin, tangs I would place the purple as the LEAST aggressive of the zebrasoma (sp?).

Before immediately rushing to prevent a business from selling to a client, I'd probably ask a few other questions first; how large are your existing tangs, what are your long term tank plans, etc.

What if all these fish are 2-3" in length? What if they are all 4-5"? It makes a difference.

I'm not saying either "side" here is right, but I am saying step back and ask more questions.

Sorry I know the poster personally so I am aware of his tank set up and situation, due to this I may have come off a bit harsher then necessary, attempting to knock some sense into him. He has told me that he thinks his 90g tank size is fine (even when years ago told him the unicorn tang he had would get way to big for his tank, he didn't seem to care) and he's told me that he has no plans on upgrading tank size. I personally think a purple tang has no business being in a 90g, regardless of how small it is.

However people will do what they want (and honestly I've been guiltily of it, but I usually regretted not listening to the good advice given) anyway all we can do is make people aware of the bad decision they are about to make. I know I would of saved some money over the years if I had just listened to what others told me instead of trying it out anyway regardless of consequences.

FYI my purple tang is aggressive, he picks on my mimic tang, my angelfish and my rabbitfish. He doesn't care if the fish looks like him or not.

Sounds like theres not alot of swimming room left. I dont think you people are going to change this guys mind. I don't agree with his decision either but i'd say the tang will be in his tank this weekend.

ps. Marko did you change your name?:biggrin:

hahah i bet it is marko :P

people are going to buy the fish they see fit , while some may be influenced not to buy because others say not to most will buy as they please.


the way i see it is people need to do what they see is best , he may rehome the tang one week later or upgrade and keep the tang for 10yrs either way its their own call best we can do is inform the person of the fishes needs and hope he does whats best for the animal long term , not everyone does the right thing but there are still some good people left.

While not an expert in fish or this hobby and still learning, from my own experiences with fish recently, it is really difficult to say how fish are going to react in a tank.

I've spoken with a number of people who could not believe my blue hippo would go after my trigger the way it did, even causing him to jump out of the tank. My tominini goes after my goby. They are all in a 180 gl tank. I researched my fish choices before adding, and yes have made poor choices, not understanding reef safe doesn't necessarily just pertain to corals, but inverts, rocks etc.

I think everyone has a story or two about fish they thought would be "reef safe" and turned into the complete opposite.

The op is asking about pricing, not whether its suitable in his tank. I've lost a number of fish recently and I'd be a little upset if I was told a store won't sell me one because I don't have a cover and my tank isn't suitable for say wrasses.

exactly a store is a business hence being a store , sure an employee may feel like a bluespot stingray is to large for a 25g tank and decide not to sell it for that reason but no store is going to nit pick with a customer over future upgrades, opinions on fish behaviors and whether or not the customer is experienced enough or not.


its up to the general public to spread whats best for fish and ultimately its up to the customer to dfo his own reserarch and decide if a fish is right for him system.


some people would say my house is to small for my dog.....does that mean i shouldnt have been sold my dog?

realistically he gets a walk every morning before work , fed twice a day and has play dates with other dogs.....statistically my place is too small for a 100lb active animal but theres a good posibility he has a better home now with me then he could with someone in a large acreage who leaves him to sleep outside and fed every other day.

opinions.....

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Man...
You are on fire today.

Wow...
you are self entitled aren't you?
I hate to say it, but you have absolutely no right to control what someone else does with their money if they are not buying directly from you.

This is one of the most self righteous things I have ever seen or read.

Naesco should be proud.

:pop2: I just love these Tang threads!

Ya, they're my second favorite thread topic :)

And the first?

Don't even wanna go there today :) Besides, it might derail this Tang thread. :razz:

i have fish in a 25g.....


that is all:P

WHeeeee! Where is that smily face that beats a dead horse? Ahhh here we go :deadhorse:

I've had a purple tang in my 120gal since 2006, its the only tang in there and I won't add second one to that tank. For some reason its highly aggressive towards my snowflake moray and initially beat up on the CBB that I bought in 2008. Removing the tang from the tank for a week allowed the CBB to settle in but it never has warmed up the the eel.

Both of my tangs (there is a powder blue in my 140gal frag tank) came from people who were shutting down. If you consider that the alternative would have been a long and possibly fatal stay at Total Pet I think I've given them a good home. Oh and I guess I could mention that the purple tang cost me $50 since that was apparently the real purpose of this thread.

And I am because there is a chance that the purple tang will not be purchased and killl some other fish in his tank. It is his decision alone and I hope he considers the tang first.

Look, sometimes I may go overboard on what I see, in my opinion, as an unethical practise.

I have condemned LFS both on this board and at the LFS for bringing in fish like Moorish Idols.

Poor judgment is another issue. Some reefers take advice/criticism on this board and make the decision to do the right thing and postpone their purchase.

However some reefers with an attitude just do what they want regardless of the adivise or cautions of others.

It has been my experience that the ones with attitude quidkly come and go on this board because eventually they will have a major disaster and quit the hobby. The others will enjoy there tanks and the crittters therein for a very long time.

I'm 99% sure if you just posted the price question, everything would be fine... But, it really sounds like you were poking for some reassurance that it would be a good decision.

I've seen peoples tanks packed with seemingly happy and healthy fish, but they truly care for them and provide the best care possible. I've also seen people put fish together that do not belong, some get lucky and some don't. Everything I've read here points to a couple of very basic things.

1. Any tang should be provided as much swimming space as possible. When you start cooping up several larger tangs together, is when it becomes an ethical problem. What's the limit? Who knows...

2. Adding a purple tang is a risk to your current fish. Some people are more lucky than others, but for the most part they are aggressive. Everyone here has taken some sort of risk when new additions hit the tank. I'd just say keep an eye on your tank and take corrective action if required.

$100 is a great deal... It's your money, but be happy that people are trying to share their experience to help you make an educated decision.

Man these posts drive me nuts. Buy a 6 foot tank and then you can add a whole bunch of them there tangs! How does adding a measly 45 gallons then mean you can have a whole bunch of tangs but a person shouldn't have any in a 90?

You used to own the smallest 6 foot tank a person can buy i think. 135 gallons and it was a BULLNOSE to boot so technically it averages out to a little less than 6 feet. Not to mention it was a narrow tank at only 18 inches. You had multiple tangs... and a tang that gets massive and nearly always murderous in the case of the sohal.

- regal tang
- sohal tang
- purple tang
- acanthuus pyroferus

Give it a rest already. I'm sure you've annoyed more people into buying the suspect tang than steered people clear.

0.02

Sorry to Hyjack the thread a bit but i'm still in the process of stocking my 120g and want to add a tang and I have been trying to decide between a Purple and a Sailfin tang. I currenly have a snowflake that's around 13 inches. how aggressive is your purple to the snowfalke whatcaneyedo? would i be looking at long term heartache with a purple and a snowflake together?

also is there a good tang thread that i can read? i keep finding conflicting info about the sailfin and don't know if i should consider it.

The moray often travels through the tang's preferred area during feeding time which irritates the tang. It will threaten the moray by swatting at it with its tail but has never caused any damage that I could see. The moray is barely bothered by this most of the time but I think they would be happier together with a larger tank to give each of them more territory. My intension is to give them a 5'x3'x'2 tank one day, just not in the house where I currently live.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/IMG_9026.jpg

Look you bleeding heart...
If you feel so strongly about this, you shouldnt have an aquarium at all.
This hobby is horrible for the environment and the animals that you purport to care so much for.

ANY animal you pull out of the ocean is going to live a more stressed, unhealthier, shorter life than it would in the wild.

Even if splitting splitting hairs makes you feel righteous...it's just a feeling.

f you want to be an activist, don't be a reefer.

And another thing, while I have seen some pretty lame statements under your name, equating success in reefing to attitude tops them all.
Just because you feel like you have some good advice to offer, doesn't really mean you do.

here's some light reading for ya..
http://reeftools.com/news/tang-polic...um-vigilantes/
http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...refuse-confess

When I got my purple tang 3 years ago he was $80. Since then I've noticed their prices have gone up and fluctuate quite a bit. Speaking with a few LFS I've heard that they are getting increasingly difficult and more expensive to get in. They can range from $100 to upwards of $200 depending on where they are coming from.