breeding tangs

[chrisinmd]

has any body ever tried to breed naso tangs???

[coral reefer]

I have never heard of it being done unfortunately, in captivity! That doesn't mean it won't happen as more and more fish and inverts are being successful breeding within a closed system environment.

[chrisinmd]

i have herd they are aggresive if you put more then one in a tank but is this true if i had a male and female

[rayjay]

First of all, they aren't being bred in captivity.
Some tangs like the regal are being captive raised after having collected the pelagic state in the ocean.
One naso needs a large tank, but two would need a VERY large one. A 125 is definitely not large enough for two.
I don't know who you would get to identify a male and a female. I doubt that there are too many people out there that could, if any.

[crappyballer]

Surgeonfish (Tangs):
Some information has been collected concerning the reproductive habits of marine surgeonfish...
Surgeonfish, along with rabbitfish they are gonochoristic (each fish is either male or female) rather than being hermaphrodites. There are few sexual differences, though in some Naso species the males are larger than females. For the others sexual dichromatism exists only during spawning.
Spawnings are tied to the lunar cycle, some surgeonfish will spawn on a new moon and others around the full moon. Many surgeonfish are group spawners, with fish coming together from around the reef late in the afternoon, forming a large aggregate. Others such as the Zebrasoma species, spawn in pairs.
The courtship consists of males searching out gravid females, and then changing colors and performing a shimmering movement to entice the female to spawn. The pair rises together toward the surface in an arc shaped path, simultaneously releasing their gametes into the open water at the apex of the arc. Males may spawn with several females in a single session, while sexually mature females spawn only about once a month.

After hatching, the pelagic larvae subsist on their egg yolk for a couple days and on day four start to feed on plankton. They then begin to develop into a specialized larva, becoming compressed and growing thorns on the dorsal and ventral fins. Their bodies are scaleless and transparent with a silver cast to the abdomen. This post larvae stage is called 'acronurus larva', and is distinct to the Acanthuridae. As they grow the body becomes oval, the spines on the caudal peduncle develop, and the thorns on the fins gradually disappear (except on some of the Naso species and on the Blue Tang Paracanthurus hepatus).
The planktonic stage will last about 10 weeks after which the young will then settle into a shallow reef. Though the behavior of the young will vary between species and with the availability of food, many are initially quite territorial. As they mature most species become less aggressive and begin to roam wide areas of the reef in large schools.

Some species of surgeonfish have spawned in public aquariums and there have been a few scattered reports of spawnings in aquariums, but regular spawnings and rearing of the young has not yet been reported.

found this here:
Breeding Marine (Saltwater) Fish

[Fishyz]

Originally Posted by rayjay

I don't know who you would get to identify a male and a female. I doubt that there are too many people out there that could, if any.

I have been told that males will get streamers from their tail. I don't know if it is true, but ya never know.

[crappyballer]

well the article was about "tangs" in general not just the naso tangs. in the article it did mention the naso males are generally larger than females.

[chrisinmd]

the males have the streamers and the females do not i have looked into this alot but i cant find out if there is a male and female if they will still fight

[NATIVEVAMAN]

In an article by the curator of the Atlanta aquarium he reported that a few yellow tangs had reproduced but that none of the young had been collected.I guess a tank of that size fooled them into thinking they were home.

[APC]

Yeah, the other thing with the Atlanta Aquarium is that that tank is about as close as you can get to the real thing....really cool, but probably not cost effective from the average breeders point of view :-). If you go above it, they actually have a mangrove hammock attached to it that is accessable to the fish...the fish can swim in and out of the reef system. It really is amazing. If you have not been on the behind the scenes tour there, I highly reccommend it. If nothing else, you will see a protein skimmer that is huge...as big as a UPS truck!