Sailfins/Powder Browns

[JTrigger]

Just wondering if anyone could provide some pros/cons to keeping a sailfin tang vs. powder brown aside from the fact that powder browns are pretty fragile and that sailfins might help with hair algae

[smokinreefer]

nothing except for the fact that i like red sea sailfins, and i dont like powder browns, but thats my personal preference only.

[Delphinus]

I've never had a tang that helped out with hair algae. It figures that I would always get the fussy ones.

[AJ_77]

Are you sure it's not fussy because it's gorging on "all-you-can-eat" Nori every day?

[Delphinus]

Oh, probably... And now that my seahare has "discovered" nori, now he doesn't seem to touch anything else either!

Anyhow, I don't know about the powder browns (or any Acanthurus sp. tang for that matter), but basically, I've never had a Zebrasoma sp. tang that was the "answer" to any hair algae or other nuisance algae (including caulerpa, which was never touched .. I had actually purchased the Red-Sea sailfin to help deal with unwanted caulerpa). If you have one that does graze the stuff down, treat it as a happy bonus; but probably best to not count on it.

[JTrigger]

Thx for the replies... any big difference in activitiy or parasite resistance between Red Sea and Pacific Sailfins?

Would you guys say that A. japonicus is a bit more resistant to ich compared to a powder blue?

JT

[smokinreefer]

i have had tangs that eat nuisance algae...
feathery type hair algae, grape caulerpra...

my experience is with yellow, red sea purple, red sea sailfin and the powder blue. all of which ate nuisance algae for me.

any big difference in activitiy or parasite resistance between Red Sea and Pacific Sailfins?

in short, no. the difference between the 2 are subtle body pattern and coloration differences, which IMO put the red sea on top. also, red sea fish are claimed to be some of the hardiest fish around.

Would you guys say that A. japonicus is a bit more resistant to ich compared to a powder blue?

no, but i havent had experience with japonicus (yet). but FWIW my powder blue never got ich.

my yellow tang had black ich develop after coming home from the LFS. all i did was drop in a pair of cleaner shrimps and it was eradicated in a couple of days.

my red sea sailfin and purple, were both introduced at the same time as small juveniles, they both developed ich due to the stress imposed by the resident (larger) yellow. once the yellow got used to the new tangs, the ich subsided, and that was probably within a week.

HTH

[sea gnome]

I have a sailfin tang, doesn't seem to like the algae much, but everything he eats. a very nice quiet fish, I would definately get another one if mine dies. Rachel. [/i]

[reefhawk]

don't know if this info is pertinant but when I got my foxface it started cleaning up the hair algae and my yellow tang learned or got greedy or something and started eating it too. So.. how do you teach a fish what to eat????

[johnny rock]

my powder brown never ever got ich, model citizen and I think there fairly tough as he went thru lots of changes as I upgraded because of my 500g construction.