Yellow and Purple tangs??

[fishcrazy]

Is it o.k. to keep a Yellow tang in the same tank with a Purple tang? I have a 135gal. so I have plenty of room, but I have read that Purple tangs shouldn't be kept with similar looking fish like Yellow tangs.

[hobogato]

if you add them at the same time and they are the same size they may be ok. i have two yellows and a purple in my 240 (along with other tangs of different shapes), and the yellows fight with each other and with the purple, but not very often, and usually just for show - they dont injur each other at all.

[don-n-sa]

Its basically a coin flip , it can work if done correctly. With the tank of your size you have a good chance of making it work.

What I recommend is adding them at once, that way neither one of them are established , which will lessen the chance of a fight.

If you already have one in your tank then I recommend you catching him/her , re-arrange the rock a bit, and then add them both together ( at night )

In my tank I have:

1 Sohal
1 yellow
1 purple
1 regal
1 atlantic blue

They get along good

HTH

[z28pwr]

As ACE and Don have stated it may workout, but you need to introduce them at the same time and they should be about the same size. The purple tang is normally more agressive then a yellow tang therefore if you cannot find a yellow tang the same size as your purple tang then get a yellow tang that is a little bit larger then the Purple Tang.

In my tank I have the following tangs:

Purple Tang
Desjardini Sailfin Tang
Scopas Tang
Vlamingi Tang
Palani Tang

And they rarely ever chase each other, the only thing is that my emperor picks on my purple tang ocassionally even though he was introduced much after my purple tang.

[hobogato]

jose - did you get that huge vlamingi from san marcus?

[auSS/Tin]

I have a 5" PT and 5" YT together for 3 years now in my 200. I also have in there with a them a 6" Clown Tang, 7" Blue Chin Trigger, 6" Koran, handful of clowns, and few other assorted fishes. I couldn't imagine a tank without a PT and a YT together even if they were the only fish in the tank. Mine swim together all of the time and will put up a unified front to the Clown Tang, but never to each other. I put the YT in about a month after the PT was in there. They were equal in size and it took about 3 days for them to settle down, but it went okay.

Good luck

Bill

[fishcrazy]

Thanks for the feedback

[z28pwr]

jose - did you get that huge vlamingi from san marcus?


I didn't Ace, since I didn't want him to beat up on my existing Vlamingi which is only 9". Bobby (BA) was interested in the Vlamingi for his 375, but I don't know if he got it or not.

[hobogato]

cool, i was just curious.