Black Tang Census!!

[salt-rookie]

I have heard MANY times that Black Tangs are VERY rare...but it seem that I know too many people who have them for them to be that incredibly rare. I'm just wondering how many people here actually own a Black Tang right now?

I have 1.

Thanks,
Phil

[thor32766]

I have one.

[-jjla-]

I have 1.

[Village Idiot]

I don't have one, but I see them from time to time in the LFS's. Maybe you're thinking of the truly rare Gem Tang?

[zemuron114]

black tangs are rare even if everyone has one. Only collected from christmas island and never in great numbers. People now adays know to many people who know people who can get them good deals on certain things etc etc. They have actually gone down in numbers recently....

[triggerfish1976]

Maybe Zemeron can confirm this but I find Black Tang availability to be seasonal. You can generally find them readily available in certain months of the year and then not see them for several months. As far as their "rarity" I wouldn't put them in the class of Gem Tangs or Conspic Angels because stores can usually obtain them without any real connections.

[zemuron114]

Every fish has a season. Summer months the babies drop and can then be collected. The average LFS usually can't get one unless they order a lot to make it worth the while of the wholesaler. Most wholesalers use these to move mass amounts of other fish (especially to other wholesalers)

I have a LFS that didn't get one for years until i sent him one. lol And hes been in the business for 15 or so years. The high end stores with connections get them readily mainly because they can bring in a 10-20 box order with no problems. Its the small mom and pop stores or the small ones that will have a hard time getting them. They are rare no doubt about it, but like triggerfish said they have a season when a lot come in and then none for a while and it repeats. In the wild they are much more rare then gem tangs!

[Goodwood]

Ive seen them on wholesalers lists fairly often, just always pretty large in size.

[kimboslice]

1 here

[salt-rookie]

THat's 4 so far? My Black Tang is very small....perhaps 2" from the tip of the nose to the caudal pendical.

[jda]

I have one. It sat at the LFS for 3 or 4 months before I took it home out of sympathy.

[chrisaggie]

They aren't that rare. Many of our locals shops have them many times a year. A couple were about 10"

[fishyz]

I have actually never seen a black tang at any of the lfs's around here. Any pics of your black tangs?

[flinster]

Originally posted by Goodwood
Ive seen them on wholesalers lists fairly often, just always pretty large in size.

I agree. A local wholesaler here that rarely gets unique fish has them often, but they are usually pretty large.

[salt-rookie]

So....Large ones are rarer than small ones? Is this generally the case?

[Red Sea Purple Tang]

It took our LFS approx. 3 months to get one around 1.5-2 inches. They could get bigger ones a lot faster.

[jda]

Smaller ones are usually harder to find that large ones.

For a while, you could get a dinner plate sized one pretty easily whereas anything under 4" was at a premium.

They are relatively easy to get for the better LFS if you can wait a few months. They are nearly impossible for the medium/small sized store without any connections or large shipments.

[-jjla-]

A LFS near my place has had one for about 3 weeks now. They have had 4 in the last 3 months. All were less then 3.5".

-jjla-

[edwing206]

Need pics!

[thelostrican]

i have one

[blacktip0000]

my local wholesaler gets them in about once every week or so they are like ten inches though but they always have 6-10 of them every week and they sell out every time they come in. i am about to order one of the black tangs for my reef tank in about another week.

[jda]

I would really love the tanks in atl if there is a market for 6-10 ten inch black tangs a week. I will bet that they are awesome. I have a 5-6" one in a 7' 210G and it is going to be too big before long.

[copps]

I own two... one larger one (bought at about three inches, now around six inches) I've owned for a few years and a smaller guy (now about two inches)I bought last year in a separate system. This is the larger one...




And the smaller one...


They are not "very rare", but they are rare relative to most other tangs in the industry. If you asked your LFS to order you 500 yellow tangs they could have them in in a few days, but you need to know where to look to find even one or two black tangs. The LA wholesalers have been getting them recently (one has them in stock right now... surprise surprise dinner plates!), but they offer them at 50% to 100% more than Hawaiian wholesalers, basically because they're buying them from Hawaiian wholesalers at the same or a slightly reduced price similar to what your LFS would buy them for direct from Hawaii. All Christmas Island stuff goes through Hawaii (although a few shipments have gone direct to LA recently I've heard). About 500 or some other ridiculous number of flame angels will come for each black tang, so the wholesalers are usually picky about selling large numbers of them unless your getting alot of the other more common things, because that's exactly what they have to do ordering from Christmas Island. I've heard from a person who's dove the Line Islands that Christmas Island itself has a low number of black tangs (either naturally or because its been fished out), which may explain why the easiest black tangs to find are full grown, with the next most common size being the first year drops at about an inch or two... The other Line Islands are more populated with them according to him. I'm very surprised to see a wholesaler in Atlanta moving 6-10 black tangs a week when the largest of Hawaiian wholesalers doesn't move that many...

[blacktip0000]

i have noticed that the bigger black tangs have a blueish line running down the back and "copps" little black tang doesnt have the blue line why is the blue line there

[copps]

Yeah only the larger black tangs show the line, but it depends on mood it seems... usually mine does not show it, but in that photo it did... Here he is all black...


And here he is again in the bottom of this photo... he's so black that he doesn't really show up in shots without the flash... you just really see what's behind him and his outline... and his surgeon... but that's what makes them cool to me... one of only a few jet black reef fish...