Fish compatability ?

[Base]

My buddy has a 4" yellow tang in a 55 gal. He would like a tiny hippo. We understand there is a risk that the hippo would be beat to death. Wondering if you guys have success with these little buggers, especially with a larger tang already present.

Thanks guys
patrick

 

[afboundguy]

Well your buddy shouldn't have any tangs in a 55 gal tank. The yellow tang grows to around 9" and needs a tank somewhere in the vacinity of 125 gal. The same goes with the blue hippo except it gets to about a foot long. So your buddy should get rid of his yellow tang and not get a blue hippo tang.

 

[Base]

thanks I should have mentioned that he is in the process of getting a larger tank and that it would be a temperary arrangement.

 

[Ray]

I had them together in a tank before but they were added around the same time, you might have to take the YT out for a few days while the hippo establishes himself in the tank then put the YT back in. It can be done and there is the chance they dont fight at all, but dont count on that one.

 

[Amazon]

I agree that removing the YT (or re-arranging the rock work) can level the playing field for the new guy. But if your friend is all ready planning the upgrade, why not wait until then? At that point they can both be added to the new tank at the same time and avoid the potential problem? (this coming from someone that bought a 1.5" hippo and put it in the 46 because we bought a 180 )

Also, I have to point out that stressing either tang could cause an ich outbreak if there's no QT/hypo involved. This is also something we've recently been through and it's no fun.

 

[Base]

He probably will wait but its not very often you get to hand pic a yellow bellied hippo out of a group for 30$.

 

[MarkO]

When I added a powder blue to my 150 that already had a slightly larger purple tang, the two duked it out hard! The next morning I had to pull the powder blue and I put him back into my QT tank. He was pretty beat up.
The solution I came up with was to separate them in the tank with a clear wall of plexiglass in the middle. The plexi allowed them to get used to the other in the same tank without all the attacking. After a few days I was able to pull it and they chased around a bit but eventually learned to get along. They're fine now.