Powder Blue Tangs

[Charles Oesterly]

Todd,
I purchased the Powder Blue Tang at Carribean Forrest. I had told Tom that I had a large Sailfin and a Yellow Tang already that were well established in the tank. He said the Powder Blue was the Pit Bull of the Tangs and would handle any and all adversity.

The first 2 weeks were terrible for the poor guy. He got clobbbered all of the time. He got ich and has lost weight. He is only eating algae growing on the rocks and is not interested in frozen, pellet, flake, brine etc. He looks a little better this his fifth week in the tank.

Since I have purchased him, I have heard they are a magnet for disease and difficult to keep alive.

He is a beautiful fish and I hope that I can keep him alive.

I would be great to see your setup and I would love to have you come over and see mine. I am considerating a calcium reactor and would appreciate any advise you can give on corals, halites etc.

I can make just about any time that is good for you.:)

[dmorel]

Charles,
powder blues are a pretty tough to keep fish, but it certainly can be done. They are also very beautiful fish imo, I have one in my 120 FO that is the reason I set up the second tank.

Are you feeding nori at all?
If not, I would suggest picking some up, it's an excellent food for tangs. I set up a refugium several months ago that is giving me plenty of macro algae. The naso will eat some it, but the powder blue mostly ignores it, but she hits the nori with a vengeance when I put it in the tank.

How big is your tank? With two established tangs in there already it might be tough for the powder blue to find a spot it can establish of its own.

One trick (if possible) is to move around your rock work, this will take the pressure off the pb, as no one will have turf to defend.


This is one of my favorite fish, I hope it does well for you.

-dm

[Charles Oesterly]

DMorel
I do not know what Nori is. I use seaweed in strip forms and the Sailfin hogs all of it. My tank is a 180 with 20 gallons sump with sand and Cappalera growing in it.

[dmorel]

nori=seaweed strips :)

Maybe you could put two in at once or something so the pb could get some?


doesn't seem like tank size should be the issue either. Hmmm...

[Zmann]

One trick (if possible) is to move around your rock work, this will take the pressure off the pb, as no one will have turf to defend.

I agree with the above statement. Another way to get other fish from picking on him is to add another fish. Might sound dumb but your fish isn't taking to your tank because he's the newbie. I don't believe from my experience that Powder Blues are hard to keep and I do believe once he is established that he will be the ruler of your tank. One of the biggest reasons why he is getting picked on because he's the new guy in town. Give him a newbie to pick on and he will start being more aggressive.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Charles{and others}: Most Wegman's stores carry nori- get Musubi nori brand in bag $2.69- PLAIN & uncooked-in the oriental food aisle.Probably the most critical food for tangs and your reef{iodine} other than {frozen} broccoli.the importance of this info cannot be underestimated!

[KBCobra]

A while back in the main forum they had a poll for survival rate. It was pretty dismal. Unfortunatly I think these fish are best kept in the wild.

-Pat

[Zmann]

Kept in the wild is an interesting thought but if you really think about it there isn't a fish in your Aquarium that wouldn't have a better survival rate if kept in the wild. There's people who cant even keep tank raised clown fish alive. Don't put a label on the fish put the label on the caretaker. Just my 3 cents.

[dmorel]

I agree absolutely with two of your comments.

Adding another fish is an excellent way to take shift the dynamics of a tank.

In fact I just added a blue jaw trigger and a hogfish to my 120 fo
(soon to be a fmwlr --- figure that one out, and craig and playfair, no telling!)
to take the heat off of a new dog face puffer.

It worked perfectly!

And there is no question about the survival rate of nature vs. our tanks.

Even the best keepers can't come close.
A powder blue is apt to swim miles in a given day at sea and we think hey, this 120 is great, it's not like it's a 55 or something!

That's the kind of thing I try not to think about too much.
And don't let my success with my PB fool ya, that was my third try, lost two in the reef before I set up the fo, and then added the PB first...