Yellow Tangs & the Sony Store

[littlefishie]

A sad, little story and then a couple questions.

When I went up to Toronto this weekend with a friend, we decided to go shopping in the Eaton Centre. My boyfriend loves the Sony Store, so we ended up in there for a while. To my delight I saw that they had a saltwater display tank! I rushed over, and then was massively disappointed. It was roughly 3 feet tall and 1.5 feet in diameter, hexagon shaped. I figured since there's not a lot of surface area, and since saltwater fish need more room than a freshwater, that the tank would be lightly stocked, perhaps with some more corals and such because it was brightly lit.

WRONG.

They had three clownfish [1 maroon, 2 percula/ocellaris], about ten blue damsels [also yellow-tailed damsels, etc.], a yellow tang, and a couple other relatively large fish I couldn't identify. Oh, and only about 3 snails. Isn't the rule 1 per gallon on cleanup crew? And with the massive amounts of LR in the tank, there really wasn't a lot of swimming room.

So not only was the overstocking a major concern of mine, but the yellow tang really scared me. It looked anorexic, or at the very least underfed. I could see it's entire skeleton through the scales, and most of the internal organs. It was breathing incredibly heavily, and it's gills were inflamed and red. Very sad.
My question about the tang is about this thing on it's tail. Right where the body turns into fin there were sharp white bits that looked like bone protruding from the joint towards the head. That's not normal, is it? It looked really scary.

I couldn't say anything to a salesperson because they were all busy and we didn't have the time, but I was wondering if you guys could tell me all the things wrong, and how they should be corrected. I'm no expert on saltwater, but I want to write them a letter to notify them of what they're doing to those beautiful fish. I figured the easiest way would be to ask everyone here what needs to be changed in that tank.

Thanks!

 

[Fishy411]

Well FIrst They Need to get a Huge Tank and Feed their animals right. They probly only feed it flake.

 

[littlefishie]

That's what it looked like -- there was a giant feeding ring at the top.
I was going to suggest a larger tank but this thing is built into a support beam from floor to ceiling so I doubt they'll go for that.. I'm thinking downsizing the stock and such.

 

[superman]

The boney spike things near the tail are a natural part of the tang, it uses those spikes as self defense.
As for the lack of snails, they may be able to justify this because of the tang, since yellow tangs are great grazers. A possibility is that they may have started out with a large clean up crew and the tang may have out competed the snails for algae, thus descimating the snail population. You may want to send them a letter letting them know that they should feed the tang some sort of seaweed or other herbivore food, that would be a great idea. The tang is in a small tank, I personally wouldn't keep on in a tank under 90 gallons-a horizontal tank only, so you could mention that the tang is unhappy in a vertical tank that they have it in.
As for the large amount of fish in such a tank, this is a tough one. They could have a large sump connected to the tank that can accomodate such a large bioload. Keep in mind that fish only tanks can handle high nitrates and have little effect on the fish (too a point) So a properly maintained tank could handle such a bioload, though in this case you would think that if it was properly maintained the tang wouldn't look so anorexic.
I hope that if you send them a letter that they will take it as being supportive and take any good advice you might have.

 

[Navarre]

SUperman is right IMO. The stocking levels are a grey area and if they use a sump etc then this would be perfectly acceptable in a fish only tank, however, the tang is in the wrong environment completely. 100 gallons is my advise and tno vertically. these fish like to swim and providing vertical space simply will not suffice.
Cleanup crew of 1 per gallon is about the right calculation, and yes the tang might outcompete the snails but the fact that this tang seems in such poor conditions indicates that this might not be true.

The white spines aare normal and all tangs have this at the base of the tail, they may be a different color and better camoflaged of cours.
They use these scalpals for atack and defence and they can be deadly weapons also. My Achilles took a deep scar to its cheek from my Emperor tang when it decided it was not welcome in its territory.

 

[leon]

They use these scalpals for atack and defence and they can be deadly weapons also. My Achilles took a deep scar to its cheek from my Emperor tang when it decided it was not welcome in its territory.

Is this where the other name of surgeon fish come from?
also would there territory of the fishes come into it, as clowns and damsels are well known for being very territorial!

 

[littlefishie]

Unless they could find a hexagonal sump and have the brains to put it together, I don't know where they'd put it.

And superman, it's a FOWLR, with a couple corals that I noticed. I'm trying to find some pictures online [some stores I know post pictures of their stores] but nothing.

I'll attach a crappy MS Paint drawing of what it looks like. There were no doors to get into the lower part for a sump or maintenance, and I'm a bit short to check out the top.

Oh, and with the tang I was told no less than 55g.. long, of course.

Edit :: The brown is live rock, the tan stuff at the bottom was the sand, and then the random dots were either corals or spots on the LR.

 

[superman]

55 gallon is still a very small tank to keep a tang. A 55 gallon is so narrow, it give little room for the tang to make a speedy turn, where as a 90 gallon would be wide enough for a tang to turn quickly without putting on the brakes. Tangs are much more of a long distance swimmer, it is already a huge environmental change for them to be in a tank, let alone a small tank.