Tang Police or Tang Nazis?

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by Aquaria

just because you keep fish healthy and possibly happy does not take away from the ethics of keeping animals in glass boxes Weither there the recommended size or not to me it sounds like another justification I mean is there really a difference between keeping a tang healthy and happy in a 3' as in a 6'. Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like ur saying that there is a big diff in someone who keeps a tang healthy and happy in small tank compared to the guy with a tang in a 6' tank with bad husbandry

I think keeping a fish healthy and happy does mitigate the negatives of taking him out of the ocean. It doesn't eliminate them, and I'm not naive enough to think that it does. But I don't see the hypocrisy in saying I'm doing something destructive so I should do what I can to minimize the impact as much as possible. The person who crams 4 tangs into a 3' x 1' tank will likely kill them all and thus wasted a (diminishing) resource.

I think that there really is a difference in stress level for a tang in a 3' x 1' tank vs a 6'x1' tank. If no-one believed that the size of tank mattered we'd all be stuffing 10 gallons with all sorts of fish, when we get to the difference between a 5 or 6 foot tank then I think we're splitting hairs but definitely I believe a 3' x 1' tank is too small. A 3'x3' cube with the rocks set up appropriately on the other hand would probably provide lots of swimming room. In my own experience, a couple of years ago I had a 5'x18" tank and had a purple tang in there. It was a nice well behaved fish, I switched to a 4'x2' tank and when the move was made the tang became much more aggressive with it's tankmates. That said, he stayed healthy and didn't exhibit any other signs of elevated stress. Was a 4 foot tank too small for him, maybe or maybe not but for my own reference I feel that it would be the minimum size I would feel comfortable putting a larger fish like a tang in.

If a guy has a smaller tank and has a fish that's healthy and happy then the fish is better off there then he would be in a larger tank with bad husbandry. What I'm trying to say is that "Good Husbandry" takes into account all the factors that contribute to a fish's health and stress levels. This includes swimming area, water quality, food, etc. A fish that's in too small a tank will not be healthy and stress free. A fish that's in an enormous tank with crummy conditions is not healthy and stress free.