tangs?

wut would be the most suitable tangs for breeding in a 90 gallon reef/community tank?
must be non agressive!

 

They good old yellow tang. Others that could work are the powder brown and powder blue, but they are highly finicky and sensitive, and I wouldn't highly recommend it. Most in the genus Ctenochaetus like kole tangs and the chevron tank could work. However, them being mainly detritavors, they sometimes just do not thrive in captivity. I recently lost a yellow eyed kole tang that just wasted away for no apparent reason, but many people have success with them. You may want to look into foxfaces. They are mildly venomous, but are much more forgiving than most tangs (but the yellow tang really) and stay slightly smaller. How old is the tank? You should wait a couple months before adding any tangs or foxfaces.

Also, dwarf angels are nice fish that get larger that you may want to look into.

 

First of all, I don't know any tang that I consider non aggressive, just some that are less so than others.
Second, I am curious as to what makes you think tangs can be bred in a hobbyist's tank? Is there something new out there that I haven't heard about yet?

 

As far as I know, no species of tang has ever been successfully bred in captivity. And even if you did want to try, you would need a MUCH MUCH larger tank than a 90.

 

how large a tank would you need for yellow tangs to breed if at all it was possible?
how old should a tank be before adding yellow tangs?
my tank is 4 months old but i had a 30 gal running for 5 months previous and all the media is now in the 90 gal!
do yelloe tangs eat snails or hermit crabs or shrimp?

 

Because it's not possible, no one can know. If you go by seeing the process in the ocean, 15 to 30 foot tall tank would be used.

It's not how old the tank is, but how mature. Tanks mature at different rates. Also, it's best for the tang to be the last fish placed in the tank to lessen aggressive behaviours.

Never seen it happen to this point in my hobby.

 

The only time I have seen tangs in any sort of breeding bahavior was at the 20,000 gallon tank at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, NY. I saw two powder blue tangs doing very fast circles around one another, I assume it was breeding behavior but I cant be sure. If you are on ReefCentral.com, justjoe is the curator of that aquarium and you might want to message him to get more info (not sure if he is part of 3reef).

 

There is no way to breed these guys in the home aquaria. As to aggression, I added a YT to a 2 month old aquarium as one of the first fish, and he is to date the most docile fish I have. All tangs are herbivores, so the only thing I'd worry about is if you have any prized macros. Other than that they will only eat nuisance algae, not any snails, hermits, shrimp, or any animal in the tank.

 

Another thing I notices is that you said tangS, as in plural. You only want to add one yellow tang to a 90. Any more and they will almost certainly fight to the death until there is only one.

 

Tangs, if i remeber correctly, send their fry off into planktonic drifts where they feed off other plankton for there first few months so unless you are able to make an artificial plankton drift i doubt you will be able to raise the fry even if you could make them mate.