Tang Police or Tang Nazis?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

For the stress level, I always thought that fish were more stressed in the wild because they constantly have to watch for predator and death is in every corners. In aquarium usualy the fish are well fed and safe. How stressfull can that be? at least if there is no aggression in the tank that is.

I don't think the fish know that there aren't any sharks behind the rock, so the normal stress of trying to avoid being eaten is still there.

[daniella3d]

nah...the fish are more intelligent than you think and they do learn to feel comfortable in an aquarium. My fish got the routine right and they pretty much know the feeding hours and come right at the spot to get fed. They learn to trust us, as well as they learn to trust their environment with time. That is if there is no aggressive fish in there that harras another fish to death, then the fish will be relaxed and learn that they can't be harmed there.

At leat that is from my own observation of my fish. At the begining they are scared and skittish but with a few weeks they get really relaxed. I think with time they get the idea and the stress of being eated goes away.

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I don't think the fish know that there aren't any sharks behind the rock, so the normal stress of trying to avoid being eaten is still there.

[Magma]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

nah...the fish are more intelligent than you think and they do learn to feel comfortable in an aquarium. My fish got the routine right and they pretty much know the feeding hours and come right at the spot to get fed. They learn to trust us, as well as they learn to trust their environment with time. That is if there is no aggressive fish in there that harras another fish to death, then the fish will be relaxed and learn that they can't be harmed there.

At leat that is from my own observation of my fish. At the begining they are scared and skittish but with a few weeks they get really relaxed. I think with time they get the idea and the stress of being eated goes away.

I think the same way, when you put a new fish into the tank, they hide and dont show there face much, I put in a Royal Gramma and didnt see him for a week, but he slowly started to show his face more and more and now hes fine with me sticking my arms in tank to move corals or whatever needs to be done...

They get used to the captivity now if that lowers the stress of the fish who knows but I think its still there primal instinct to watch there back..

[Lance]

I just knew this article would bring out some some good stuff.

[Magma]

Originally Posted by Lance

I just knew this article would bring out some some good stuff.

is there an online copy of this article? sounds like a good read.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Magma

is there an online copy of this article? sounds like a good read.

I'm not sure, but I'll look into it.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

nah...the fish are more intelligent than you think

I don't know about that, my Border Collies are way smarter than my fish and they're still convinced that there are grizzlies in the backyard

[Lance]

Here you go. I think this works.

http://p0.vresp.com/bDvvro

[Magma]

Originally Posted by Lance

Here you go. I think this works.

http://p0.vresp.com/bDvvro

http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/cont...refuse-confess

Full article there :P

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by lastlight

*lays a man-slapping on lance*

+1

I do advocate for tangs to have a decent sized tank to swim in and I often recommend at least a 90g for smaller tangs like koles/scopas/yellows and 180g and up for larger tangs and even more space 8-10 feet long tanks for naso tangs. IMO a baby tang under 2" is not going to need as much room to swim in as when the tang gets larger (over 6") so if you want to keep a baby tang in a smaller tank and plan (and actually do) re-home it then go for it, however the problem is when the person gets attached to the baby tang they have in their small (say under 40g tank) and the next thing you know you see a 6-7" tang who is the same length as the tank they are in, which at that point I will get on a soap box and say that isn't right. However I have seen the smaller tangs koles and scopas in 45g tanks and they seem perfectly fine and healthy so I while I would recommend a 90g to that person I am not going to freak out on them, however if it was a 8" unicorn tang in a 45g I would, but one of the smaller tangs no.

Now I am far from perfect and even admit that while I think bigger/longer tanks for tangs are better I have a 230g which is only 6 feet long and I do plan on adding a blonde naso to it. So really I'm not much better then the person who keeps a yellow tang in their 40g tank. This is a bit of a selfish hobby and while I do believe you should try to do you best to provide a decent home for the fish, there are times when we talk ourselves into adding a certain fish that we know might not be "ideally" suited to our tank.

A quote from the article "The members of the genus Naso and Prionurus are the true open water swimmers; they are the ones that require special consideration." I have to agree with this 100%. When I was cycling my 230g reef tank I saw a great deal on a naso tang he was 2-2 1/2" and I knew I wanted to add a naso to my 230g reef, so the deal was to tempting to pass up. However at the time the tank I had available to house the small naso in while the 230g finished cycling was a 30g cube I knew it was wrong to put a naso (even a small one) in a 30g cube but because I knew a had a bigger home for him to go into in a few weeks I talked myself into it being ok. He was in the 30g for 2 months before the 230g reef finished cycling and he was a dark grey stressed out colour the whole time he was in there. He also swam speractically all over the tank, at the time I convinced myself that he was eating so he was fine. However I didn't even realize the colour change and the (IMO) stressed out swimming patterns until I transferred him to the 230g. After the transfer he was no longer a dark blotchy pattern colour and changed to a lighter solid grey colour and he no longer did jerky swimming movements, he swam across the length of the tank and IMO seemed significantly less stressed.

I think this part of the article is important to point out, so that people do not get the wrong idea from the article "Hopefully you don’t think that I advocate keeping fish in overly-small aquariums, as I do not. I always strive to give my captive fish the best possible environment. The exhibits I use for tangs at the public aquarium where I work range from 450 to 1,300 gallons. What I am advocating for here is a more civil discourse, more careful consideration of measurable husbandry parameters, and less reliance on subjective personal opinion."