Tang Growth

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

My point to all this is the speculation that a tang will outgrow a given tank. IME, if you buy a 3 inch YT and put it a 75g, it isn't going to outgrow it, usually.

My 3" sailfin did fine in that 75g for something close to 8 or 9 years. Towards the end maybe there was a size issue but he never seemed distressed or uncomfortable to me. I wouldn't have purchased him at that larger size and put him in the 75g, but having grown up into the tank seems to have made a difference maybe.

Thing is though I think there is a time that a fish does stop if not significantly slowdown its growth. If you purchase after that point then conceivably that's going to be their size permanently. It would be interesting to observe if a change in environment can trigger a new growth phase though (ie., transferring to a much larger tank).

There must be something that influences growth rates though, there is just no comparison to the sizes of fish in the wild (and large public aquaria) versus those in the hobby.