Kole tang vs Yellow tang - feeding habits

jostafew · #1 12-15-2011, 06:05 AM

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

Mandosh · #2 12-15-2011, 06:07 AM

What size is your tank?

lastlight · #3 12-15-2011, 06:09 AM

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.

MMAX · #4 12-15-2011, 01:18 PM

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.

Sumfingwong · #5 12-15-2011, 02:34 PM

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

Lampshade · #6 12-15-2011, 03:04 PM

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.