• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

King/Queen of the tank

My marine tank has been up and running since 2004. I've got:
3 Pyjama Cardinals
2 Pecurcla Clowns
1 sixline wrasse
1 cherub angel

They're all doing well. Now I'm ready to add the star of the tank - the king
of the tank but I am uncertain what to get. I was planning on getting a Tang.
After months of reading I finally settled on the Kole Tang (I think it's a good
looking fish) but from my reading I understand that Tangs, as a whole, can be
Ich magnets. I had Ich during my first year, it was not fun.

So, I'm looking for suggestions on what I can get: non-venomous, good looking and
won't grow much more than 10".

I'm curious to know what is the King/Queen in your tanks.
 
I have an Achilles Tang. He had Ich for the first month/6 weeks but I got him some neon Gobys and they cleaned him everyday as many times as he went to there station.

He hasn't had Ich for well over 5 months. He's the King of my tank.
 
I have a yellow eyed cole. nice fish but I wouldn't consider him a prize king of the tank. I would love to find a pair of Bellus angles or better yet a pair of masked Japanese swallowtail angles but every place I've asked so far either never had a pair or once a long time ago. watanabe angel is also beautiful. as far as tangs go I always loved the look of powder blue. but not an easy one.
 
What's your experience with the Kole Tang? Any problems? How long have you had it?

I have some soft coral. I read that a lot of the Angels peck at soft coral. I'll have
to look up the fish that you mentioned. I'm not familiar with those. They sound pricey :-\
 
reeferwanabe said:
I have a yellow eyed cole. nice fish but I wouldn't consider him a prize king of the tank. I would love to find a pair of Bellus angles or better yet a pair of masked Japanese swallowtail angles but every place I've asked so far either never had a pair or once a long time ago. watanabe angel is also beautiful. as far as tangs go I always loved the look of powder blue. but not an easy one.

Aquatic Obsessions has two pairs of Bellus right now. I think one pair might be spoken for though.
 

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We picked up a pair of Bellus angels from AO in Oct. They are model citizens in our tank and definitely catch everyone's eye.
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
AO just got in 2 pairs of Bellus last week. They really are beauties.
 

momof6kids

NJRC Member
I have a pair of Japanese Swallowtail Angels which are probably the King/Queen of my tank. Very model citizens and have never picked on my coral. I have more trouble with my Sailfin Tang picking on coral than anything else in my tank.
 
I just checked out these fish that you all mentioned. All very nice.
The wife would blow a gasket if she knew I spent that much on one fish :eek:

I already have a Cherub Angel. Wouldn't they fight with the Bellus Angels?
 
If you really want a tang, why don't you QT him in a hyposalininity environment? I've done that with all of my tangs and I've had absolutely no problems -- ich problems, that is. It's a long, tedious task, but I think it was well worth it.
 

HerbieK

NJRC Honorary Member
NJRC Member
I have a very large Powder Blue Tang, and he is the king of my 180. He is a bully though, and an occasional coral muncher. Just don't believe everything a fish is "supposed to do" (ie. Not eat corals). Everyone I speak to about my PBT munching corals (SPS to boot!) have been fairly surprised.

Herb
 
I have a spotted Kole in my 75, and he is THE meanest fish in my tank. I don't think I'd ever get another if I ever caught this one. He's killed several fish in my tank, including a Midas Blenny and Orangespotted Goby. He did wonders on my hair algae (when my tank was going through the algae cycles), but like I said, in all other aspects he does nothing but cause heartache.

---
Wendy
 
i had a Kole in my 55g and he was no problem at all. friendly with other fish and keep the tank algae free. i am currently going through the algae stage of the cyclin process of my 180g, was thinking of adding a kole tang in a few weeks when the tank is stable, but there are a few other tangs that i much rather have (yellow, purple, powder blue, hippo, achilles) but i dont think any of them can compete with the Kole for algae control. guess i will just wait and see how the algae is looking after i get my clean up crew in a couple weeks.

but, back the original point of the thread, for a 75g one of the tangs mentioned above would surely be king! imho that is.
 
I'll take the advice to QT for at least 5 weeks in hyposalinity.

I was thinking about getting the spotted Kole but you say it may be a fish eater?
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=1228&parent_category=4&category_search=61&root_parent_id=4

So maybe the Yellow eye might be the safest of the two:
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=277&parent_category=4&category_search=61&root_parent_id=4

I've got to do some more reading :-[

... but the main thing that I'm getting here is that if you QT a Kole Tang long enough you're almost assured that it will not develop Ich (assuming good water conditions in main tank). What is the longest you have kept your Tangs?
 
Top