what tang to get

[bigsink]

Charlie, I love my covict tang, but he stinks as an algae grazer. My Kole does a great job. The Bristletooths and Yellow Tang do a good job as well. Atlantic Blue gets too big and is very territorial as stated. PW just got a bunch of new Yellows.

 

[charliethetuna88]

Actually that's y I thought of the convict from seeing urs I thought he did a great job at algea grazing ,guess ill go with a yellow or kole

 

[Gabe]

I have a 4 1/2" scopas if you are interested

 

[jedimaster1138]

My Kole Tang doesn't stop to graze even to sleep. Well OK maybe she does, but then she wakes up and grazes some more

:eat:

 

[Reef Fixations]

+1 on all Ctenochaetus sp.

Imo the younger they are, the more they look to graze on stuff growing in the tank. IME young ones can be slow to learn to accept prepared foods which can be a plus for algae issues but if there isn't enough food some don't take to eating prepared foods and can starve.

I've had young chevrons, koles and others in the bristletooth/ctenochaetus family and for the most part they were all the same. Some didn't even take to Nori even tho they were looking for algae.

 

[Awibrandy]

Charlie, out of all my tangs, and the ones in the past the Yellow Eye Kole was the one that was always grazing. But I have to tell you that although the 2 I had never stopped grazing they did not lasted long because they refused to eat anything I offered. The ones I've had for a few years Yellow, hippo, sailfin, purple it is the sailfin & the purple that I see going around the tank nipping at rocks, glass, and pumps.

 

[Reef Fixations]

Charlie, out of all my tangs, and the ones in the past the Yellow Eye Kole was the one that was always grazing. But I have to tell you that although the 2 I had never stopped grazing they did not lasted long because they refused to eat anything I offered.

my luck has been a little different....

If they make it past 2-4 weeks in a system, then chances are that they start to pick up prepared foods. In my bare bottom holding tanks, food falls to the bottom and I think that while they're picking at algae on the floor of the tank, they start to get a taste little by little of the prepared foods that are on the floor and next thing you know, they start eating prepared foods well.

It may look funky sometimes but sometimes I don't clean the glass when I have bristletooth/kole/chevron tangs in stock because that algae will buy me time if they aren't taking to prepared foods in time and I can just move them into a tank that still has algae on the glass. If I were to guess, I'd say that I've lost about 5 of all of the Ctenochaetus species because they wouldn't transition into eating prepared foods.

IME, it seems like the bigger ones (3+ inches) are easier to get to accept everything.

The Chevron adult that I just got in is the first Ctenochaetus sp. to ever eat pellet on the first day with in 2 hours of acclimation. He's about 5" and I was worried as to how hard it might be to get him to eat. =)

Meanwhile the juvie Chevron that I just QT'd for someone took 4-6 weeks before it accepted prepared foods well and he started off at about 2.25" and now eats everything from Nori to pellet and flake to frozen like a champ.

 

[ducati335i]

My achillies grazes all day and in currents, by far best for algae that I own

 

[FaviaFreak]

Scopas or Kole but for sheer looks go with a yellow....all are reasonably priced

 

[charliethetuna88]

I would love an achillies

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[charliethetuna88]

Aren't they hard to keep

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Reef Fixations]

+1 for Achilles being great for algae

It can be tough sometimes finding one small enough for a frag tank tho. The smallest ones I ever come across are 3-4".

 

[charliethetuna88]

Yeah I would like a small one my frag tank is 75gallons

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Reef Fixations]

I dunno how your tank is setup but the smaller the better I would think so it can fit thru your tiers (if you have tiers).

I dunno how difficult they can be. I think one mistake a lot of people make is that they usually put an Achilles after they have established tangs & angels in the tank and then they beat the poor fish up before he ever really gets a chance to acclimate. I've had quite a few pass thru my holding tanks and 90-95% of them ate well. Most learned to eat all prepared foods very quickly but they all tried cleaning the glass and floor non-stop. IME, I've had better luck with them than Powder Blues but that's just how it's gone for me.

The ones I've seen thriving in tanks seem to clean all day long and love to play in front of a vortech MP. They come from hi-flow surge waters so they like hi-flow usually. I had one that took a while to learn to chase down prepared foods like all of the other fish would do and in his case, while all of the fish were chasing down food, he would quickly dart over to the powerhead I had in there and (like an outfielder) catch the food as each piece was shot out of the powerhead. It took him about a week to start chasing the food and start picking it up off the floor.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

The ones I've seen thriving in tanks seem to clean all day long and love to play in front of a vortech MP. They come from hi-flow surge waters so they like hi-flow usually. I had one that took a while to learn to chase down prepared foods like all of the other fish would do and in his case, while all of the fish were chasing down food, he would quickly dart over to the powerhead I had in there and (like an outfielder) catch the food as each piece was shot out of the powerhead. It took him about a week to start chasing the food and start picking it up off the floor.

are you talking about my achilles? she spends her time all day grazing and surfing in front of the vortech.
i'm taking her to a surfing competition next time i go to california.....lol.
at feeding time she's a gold glove shortstop catching food off the vortech current.

it's a bit of a challenge to get an achilles to be fully acclimated and accepting dry food but it can be done with some patience and isolation with only peaceful fish.

for the ctenochaetus genus, how about something less common... a blue spotted kole tang (c. truncatus) or a tomini? the tomini is one of the smaller size tang, grazes all day, non aggressive, and reasonably priced.

pics of different tangs
http://www.ultimatereef.net/info/iddb/tangs.php

 

[ducati335i]

Achillies are not hard to keep IMO.... Just hypo it slowly when u get it in qt and feed only nori... Hey eat that ASAP.. Then wait through hypo process, done..

 

[rickytsui]

i try 5 of them and had 2 live=)

 

[charliethetuna88]

Well to Ricky Ur anti feed man cause Ur so worried about Ur nitrates and phosphate lol

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mr325]

Achilles all day CHUCK...all my does is pick on rocks...