Tang Lifespan

[Paul B]

I wrote this someplace else as someone said that Hippo Tangs live about 20 years in the sea:

This I am sure is true. All of our fish are lacking something in their diet in a tank, but a tang is missing far more than the correct food. Tangs including Hippo's live in schools. They always live in schools and you never see a lone tang in the sea. (I do often see yellow tangs by themselves in the sea, I am not sure why)
Like Rock singers, Taylor Swift, football players, The Rockettes of Radio City, and Supermodels they all need other "people" or fish around them or they are lost. :agree: A tang never finds it's own feeding grounds, it follows the mind set of the entire school which could be thousands of individuals. No one is sure how they do this because the leader always changes and anyone could lead the school.

Because tangs live so close to each other, they have a much more developed lateral line system that allows them to swim millimeters from each other without even a fin hitting their neighbor and allowing them to all turn at once, even at night.
They can also all dive into a coral head, even backwards,
without even a tail fin sticking out, they know they will fit and they never get scratched.

Their well developed lateral line, while being an advantage in the wide open sea is a disadvantage and even a curse to them in a tank.
Their lateral line, which is a line of fluid filled nerves along their side, allows the fish to "feel" it's surroundings even though it can't see them. Unfortunately they can also feel the glass of a tank and can't get away from it. They can "feel" the substrate and surface in a tank and know they are in 18" of water and adult tangs hang out in much deeper water where they are not prey to birds and us hobbyists.

(Although I am firmly against quarantine, I am more so with tangs for this reason)
Our pumps, I am sure also drives them crazy as that is not a normal ocean noise which they are not hearing like they were used to.
These un natural things are "IMO" why we lose tangs and they are so susceptible to HLLE, ich, velvet and everything else.
HLLE "always" starts on the head right where the lateral line connects to the brain. I feel it is overwhelmed as the noise and signals never stop so it starts to deteriorate.
(I don't go with the carbon fines theory of HLLE although it could hasten the progress)

I have kept maybe 3 hippo tangs past ten years and I think I euthanized them, not because of disease but because of HLLE.
HLLE is not a disease but a condition of the environment. That first Hippo was in a 40 gallon tank and the other two were in a hundred gallon tank. Those tanks are much to small for a far swimming "technically advanced" fish such as a tang which navigates with such sensitive "sonar".

My newer Hippo tang is in a 125 gallon tank which I feel is still to small and I only have one tang so I am fairly sure it will, after 8 or 9 years develop HLLE.
Fish in the sea do not get that and it doesn't kill the fish. But if you keep the fish long enough it can get to a point of having hardly no colored skin and the creature looks horrible although I am not sure if it affects their "feeling".
Also not all tangs in captivity get HLLE. I am not sure why but most people also don't keep them for 15 or 20 years. Even 10 years. Most people can't keep anything past 10 years which I am also not sure about.

 

[Gemach7]

Paul i wonder with your selection of food if this will also impact your tangs lifespan. Have read a few articles on how dietary supplementation of some essential nutrients has reversed hlle or when used in controlled testing did not appear.

Dietary Control Of HLLE In Blue Tangs

This one refers to vitamin a

but have also read a study that found lysine supplementation to also have a positive effect.

 

[Paul B]

That is interesting. In my Log book from about 1975 or so I wrote that my French Angel got much better after I fed it large doses of Vitamin A for a few weeks.
I can't post that page from my log now because Photobucket, where it is is not working.

That fish was in a 40 gallon tank so it is a wonder it lived at all.

I don't know why they are using carrots and broccoli for vitamin A. Fish livers are loaded with it which is why I sometimes feed cod liver oil

 

[Gemach7]

I think they were looking at replacements for lettuce, hence the veggies. Does bring up an interesting part with tangs. How many people are using a heavy algae diet, where nori is much lower than many sources in vitamins per tbs.

I know when they design fish diets commercially they not only try to achieve proper nutrition but overall Kcals of the whole diet. Where if you feed more kcals than an animal can properly convert to achieve all required vitamins can lead to health issues. I am of course guessing lol.

 

[eli smoke]

I feed nori everyday (Asian section of the acme, red and green) and mysis or zooplankton frozen cubes every other day. I buy a variety of cubes and mix it up.

 

[Paul B]

I have a Hippo tang now only a few months but I give it no greens at all. I have followed therm in the sea and I realize that is most of their diet but for now, mine has only had clams, worms and mysis and so far looks fantastic, not a scale out of place. That diet is loaded with vitamin A and minerals.

I don
t use Nori but I did. As a dried food I am not sure how much nutrition it actually has in that state.

I do have algae growing in my tank but I have not seen him graze on it yet. Maybe he does when I am not starring art him