Powder blue tang?

[jimi]

Hi everyone, Has anyone out there successfully kept a powder blue? Was it worth it? My lfs has several beauties he has had for over a month and was thinking of buying one.

[Vince]

I have had a Powder Blue Tang in a 220 for 2 years now. It is a beautiful fish. If you get one be sure you dont have other agressive tangs in your tank. Powder blues when stressed become very susceptible to Ich. If possible quarantine and make sure it is eating well before placing in the display tank. Tangs need a lot of swimming room so I hope you have a big enough Tank.

HTh

[jimi]

I would be putting him into a 110 with the only other tang being a purple that has been in it for over a year. Did you have any problems with ick?

[billsreef]

Jimi
[welcome]

The best way around the ich problem is to do a 4-6 week quarantine before placing him in the main tank. Be sure to give him a good varied diet heavy in algaes.

[jimi]

Thanks Bill, my lfs has already had him for over a month I was just worried about an outbreak if my purple attacks at first.

[billsreef]

Speaking as someone who works in an LFS I wouldn't consider a month spent in a store as a quarantine period. While it is a good sign that the fish is in good shape and eating well, the constant flux of fish into a stores system still leaves the possibility that the tang is a carrier of some disease while not being outwardly infected. I learned this the hard way myself several years ago :( Went through a period where I thought I could get away with holding a fish in the store for a month or so and consider that my quarantine, after all I'm the guy that takes of the fish. Unfortunately I learned I was wrong and introduced a parasite that overwhelmed several longtime residents of my reef tank. So please consider quarantining this tang no matter how good he looks.

[Rudie]

Mine is in my 150 with his mate the yellow tang.
Powder blues are grazers, so be sure to feed him lots of greens. Mine likes to graze all over the live rock. You can't go wrong with this animal, and O yes they do need a lot off swimming place.

[jimi]

Thanks for all your replies. Last night I did go and buy the powder blue and a sohol to distract my purple tang. Put them in last night. This morning knock on wood everything looks great. Adding two tangs has definately distracted the purple, but to my suprise the fighting is not all that bad more chasing then anything. Things are calming down now but I turned on my ozonizer just in case any ick pops up. I also added a 8lb piece of live rock to confuse the original fish and it is working.The powder blue was at my lfs (Ron's Saltwater Heaven) for at least a month that I know of without a spot and Ron said he thinks he has been there for atleast 3months.