powder blue tang - anyone have opinions or suggestions?

[fungia]

anyone keep powder blue tangs. are they aggressive? are they too fragile? any tricks of special foods for them?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, in a 125. Very aggressive. I keep it with a lion, dogface puffer, bursa trigger, and some blue devil damsels. Undisputed boss of the tank. Get a good fat specimen, feed it nori/broccoli/algae etc. Mine likes to eat a lot of meaty foods as well. Feed it often, give it good quality water, and don't house it with any other tangs in anything less than a few hundred gallons. I'd say 125 is probably the minimum for this fish.

 

[vair]

I have a powder blue, purple and regal. The powder blue is the shy timid one of the three but they do all get along. I could not call him aggressive towards other tangs or fish in the tank. A great fish. He eats what ever I feed myis, Brine Shrimp Plus, silversides, Cyclopease (sp?), spirilla, nori.

For the tang police they all grew up together since being small in a 110 and are going into a 330 right away.

Dave

 

[wade1]

In my expericen they are a) very difficult to get a good specimen of (most don't make it) and b) very aggressive towards many varied fish. I had one that hated my lawnmower blenny and would constantly attempt to bite it. It was also by far the pushiest fish in the tank.

 

[kdejour]

I agree that they are very aggressive. Also make sure you look at them closely before buying. They seem to catch ich very easily. I brouht one and it had it. Very beautiful fish though. They do have very soft skin which I was told makes it easier for them to get ich. Them and hippo tangs(blue tang). Hope this helps a little.

 

[doublette]

I will agree with other about their aggressive nature. Ours is housed in a 125G with two clowns, a six-line wrasse, a two-spot goby and it's best friend the neon cleaner goby. When we added the six-line the PBT chased it a bit for the first day (showing who's the boss I guess), but all is well now. It's a pig at feeding time! Ours does show ich from time to time but our cleaner goby keeps things in check. It likes to steal the peices of silverside from the plate coral and the brain. Eats flake, mysis, brine and nori. But all in all I love this fish, very active and (if I can say this with-out sounding too weird)--very personable! Rushes over to the glass whenever you are near.

 

[vair]

Forgot to mention he does nip a bit at corals, I had to remove a open brain and he trims my monti cap regularly.

Dave

 

[Fozza]

Never had any luck with Powder Blues. Had three in various tanks when I lived in the UK.

Each one got white spot and died. Shame too, very beautiful fish.

I stick to small tanks now tho, so no tangs whatsoever for me.