- Location
- Queens, NY
Hi all,
I have recently discovered that these tangs love hair algae and anything growing on rocky surfaces, and aren't able to eat macro algae, since they can't chew or tear leaves apart.
So I added a kole tang to my refugium/ frag rack, 3 months ago, where he cleaned off most of the algae growing on my caleupra and frag plugs. (The other tangs I keep (yellow, sailfin, hippo, power brown, atlantic blue) will of course eat all the caleupra, which I don't want)
Based on my observations and recommendation, my friend also added one to his refugium, where it ate all the hair algae and starved to death while in a forest of caleupra. (confirming their dietary restrictions)
I want to add another to the refugium, but I've seen these tangs fight before. Instead of the usual tail swiping action I see in zebrasomas, which only cause some shreading of the fins, and the rare single scratch on their body, ctenochaetus also bite with their raspy teeth, which leaves these giant sores on their bodies, where the skin/scales were scraped off. ( A real possiblility of secondary infection if they get past the scales.)
Usually with keeping multiple tangs, I never get 2 of the same, but with all the ctenochaetus species so similar looking in adult coloration (except the tommy tang which I hear is the most fragile), I'm not sure how to approch this.
I'm not going to try to keep 2 kole tangs, but the next common one is the binotatus (2-spot brislemouth), which as an adult looks like a grey/black version of the kole, but without the yellow eye. Same goes for the striatus (orange stripe). The flavicauda (white tail) seems to be the only likely candidate, but I've never seen one locally. The chevron tang? forgetaboutit.
I have recently discovered that these tangs love hair algae and anything growing on rocky surfaces, and aren't able to eat macro algae, since they can't chew or tear leaves apart.
So I added a kole tang to my refugium/ frag rack, 3 months ago, where he cleaned off most of the algae growing on my caleupra and frag plugs. (The other tangs I keep (yellow, sailfin, hippo, power brown, atlantic blue) will of course eat all the caleupra, which I don't want)
Based on my observations and recommendation, my friend also added one to his refugium, where it ate all the hair algae and starved to death while in a forest of caleupra. (confirming their dietary restrictions)
I want to add another to the refugium, but I've seen these tangs fight before. Instead of the usual tail swiping action I see in zebrasomas, which only cause some shreading of the fins, and the rare single scratch on their body, ctenochaetus also bite with their raspy teeth, which leaves these giant sores on their bodies, where the skin/scales were scraped off. ( A real possiblility of secondary infection if they get past the scales.)
Usually with keeping multiple tangs, I never get 2 of the same, but with all the ctenochaetus species so similar looking in adult coloration (except the tommy tang which I hear is the most fragile), I'm not sure how to approch this.
I'm not going to try to keep 2 kole tangs, but the next common one is the binotatus (2-spot brislemouth), which as an adult looks like a grey/black version of the kole, but without the yellow eye. Same goes for the striatus (orange stripe). The flavicauda (white tail) seems to be the only likely candidate, but I've never seen one locally. The chevron tang? forgetaboutit.
