Question for trofius

[anchar]

Gidday Mick....I am in the process of setting up a Tang. community tank. I see that you have your N. buescheri in with the mix..does it work? I have a breeding pair that I want to throw in, but am a little unsure. Same question goes for a V. moorii trio. Basically I want to reduce the amount of fish I keep and contain the tangs that I end up with in one 6 x 2 x 18 (with a 5 x 2 x 18 coming later that will butt up against the 6 x 2 x 18). Essentially it will be 11 foot of display, with a continuous theme running from one to the other.

Andrea

[Colfish]

hi Andrea

i have N.buescheri in tanks with other tangs. i find them to be a very shy/quiet fish

as long as they have their little niche, they don't seem to bother the others.

on the other hand, V.moorii?. afraid of nobody and will not allow any fish even close to their cave, large ventralis, jumbo cyps, comps whatever, they seem to have a defined territory. i've only ever lost 1 fish in that tank, but i cannot attribute it to the moorii

cheers; Colin

[trofius]

Merjo

you are lucky to have a pair, my girl jumped out, it took 4 girls before he found one he liked aswell

But this guy is now as you can see pretty big a good 10cm+, he used to pick on the brichardi, and leleupi a bit in the 6x18x18, and pretent to upset the big sexy, but in the 8 footer he is dominated/intimidated by the 50+ fish, and most are tropehus so they dont really slow down much, he only has a go at them when they are swimming in the rocks were he likes to sit, the sexies, and leleupi tend to occupy the outer rock piles away from the big central one at opposite ends to each other..

I have been playing with a few combos for a while now and it really does depend on the space avaliable, i am actually surprised at how peaceful the 8 footer is. i have had most of thse fish in a 4 and 6 footer before but there were dramas, in the 6 footer teh buescheri would attack the daffodils, and harrase the sexies when i first added them, he just would not settle down, when i added the goby the sexy chased him a bit aswell, surprisingly one day the female sexy got a hold of him....respect was won they tryed the mouth fight thing, the beuscheri thought he had a big mouth, .....she had hold of both his jaws and was taking him for a trip around HER tank... brichardi were still picked on but, also in this tank was 10 dolphins, ( substitute tropheus).

I find that you just have to give everyone space, in the 8 footer there are teh 30 tropheus, 4 xenos on the bottom /midwater, one end is pretty much 2-3foot of sand, justa few rocks at the back, big rockpile in middle for goby, buescheri, tropheus hang inthere aswell. other end is a few single big rocks ~30cm high, standing kinda close forming canyons sorta the leleupi live around here, at the bases, as do a few male tropheus that have been outed from the main group. the sexies hang over the long rock pile on the right, the 3 ventralis just cruise back and forth, as do the few lepto males,

I have found that because of the dominating nature of some fish it can be food that is the issue, i had a colony of kitumbas in with the tropheus and they wasted away, it may have been that horrible disease, my xenos went like that aswell, but in combination, I think that they were actually starving once the food left the surface areas the leptos could not compete at the bottom with the tropheus for food, I actaully uped the food to the point of little worms in the tank and then had to start doing biweekly water changes vacums, hassles.., but they got better. so lepto gones now, the 3 in there are huge malasas 13cm. and they get enough between them. i use nls in teh morning now and flake at night, so the nls sits there for long enough for everyone to have a feed.

In the end i have been trying different things based on what i think the fish would be happy with, somethings work some dont, I also havbe 6 xenos, 20 lepto malasa , and 3 N.caudopunctatus in a 6x18x18 this works quite well. i think shellies would be ok in the 8 footer but the tropheus might have them freaked out to much,

hope i have given you some help, it is late i am damm tired so may hav eto edit this tommorrow...the ramblings of a tanganyikan mad man...lol

[anchar]

Thanks Mick and Col...you have both been a great help. I guess it will depend largely on the individual natures of the particular fish that I have. I will try putting them all in together and assess daily. I'll start with the most timid fish and let them get a foothold first. The most aggressive tank mates will be brichardis, leleupis, buescheri and moorii. Perhaps if they get thrown in together, they'll sort out a heirachy that is workable...fingers crossed. Thanks again fellas

Andrea