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My lfs had 1 but it looked crap is this what they normally look like in captivity , do the markings become very faint or is the fish stressed.

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

Hmm..seems good/healthy to me...but then iam not an expert.here its another pic on how they look like http://members.aol.com/fishpage/sohaltang.html

Last edited by robby1619 at 15-Apr-2005 04:45

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

they become faint if the fish is stressed.

from http://members.aol.com/fishpage/sohaltang.html....

"docile" is totally wrong.....don't be mislead by it...it's one of the most aggressive tangs you can find

a healthy sohal should have clear bold black lines across the body. how clear the neon blue surrounding it's fins and tail can also tell you whether the fish is healthy or not. And yes, stress will make their patterns fade but it shouldn't be a problem. They are aggressive but they are easy to keep as long as your tank is big enough and you feed enough veggie stuff to it

Sohals are very aggressive as already stated...I also would not add one becaus they are a difficult species to keep.








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All replies agreed to,
Sohal tangs are one of the most aggressive tangs you can buy. Not to mention one of the hardest to keep.

In my experience, I have noticed that if you introduce a small agressive species (smaller than the other fish in your tank), they will do fine. The last thing you would want to do is put a full grown sohal with smaller fish.

Even back in the 1970s, Graham F. Cox (who wrote one of the first books on marine fishkeeping) remarked that this was a fish that could, as it grew older, develop sudden irrational hatreds for other fishes. His own specimen lived quite happily in a large aquarium for several years, then for no apparent reason decided that it didn't like two of the other fishes - a Platax teira batfish and an adult Pomacanthus annularis. Both were slashed to death with the 'scalpels' by the big Surgeonfish in minutes.

Plus, Sohals grow big. And need huge quarters to match. Burgess' Mini-Atlas lists them as reaching 40cm SL. That is a BIG marine fish by usual home SW aquarium standards. At that size, it would probably need the best part of 300 gallons all to itself.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

*agrees*

Sohals do get very big, and can be aggressive in the smallish aquariums we have at our homes.

If you ever get the chance to visit Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, LI, New York, you can see some AMAZING sohals, coexisting with many other types of tangs, anthias, anenomefish, etc. It's quite a site. The cofounder and owner of the reef tank, which happens to be just over 20,000 gallons, making it the largest in the country and possibly in North America, is on the board of my reef club.

It's truly worth the trip just to visit that tank. You can see daily spawnings, and Acropora colonies the size of beach balls.

I guess I'm sort of off topic, but my point is, dont get a sohal tang unless you can give it the proper aquarium. It's not fair to the animal.


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