Mimic Tang

ltljoker

The Great Tang Herder
I was wondering since somone else got one and I think they are beautiful fish. Would it be possible to keep 2 mimics in the same tank, :shock: especially if one is a juvinile and the other is already changing, or would i just be asking for trouble:frustrat:
 
You and your tang obsession :D I love tangs.

Hey, you know how the hobby is....its'a 50/50! How many tangs do you have? I think you're an expert enough to have 2 ;)
 
You and your tang obsession :D I love tangs.

Hey, you know how the hobby is....its'a 50/50! How many tangs do you have? I think you're an expert enough to have 2 ;)
I have down sized alot Grecthen, i am down to 3 tangs now. i got rid of the vlamingi and the redsea sailfin cause they got too big. The powder blue just up and died so i am down to the regal tang, mimic and the sailfin. 2 moorish idols are on the way , delivery is for Jan 13th. I cant wait
 
Well with the chocolate tangs they are usually okay with two in the same tang just so long as they aren't the came color. Basically you'll be fine until they are both adults then you will have to move one.
 
I have down sized alot Grecthen, i am down to 3 tangs now. i got rid of the vlamingi and the redsea sailfin cause they got too big. The powder blue just up and died so i am down to the regal tang, mimic and the sailfin. 2 moorish idols are on the way , delivery is for Jan 13th. I cant wait

I have six Tangs in my tank now. All are doing great. I was trying to keep up with you #1, but I guess I got you beat now. What gives? Are you down on Tangs or something? You know those Moorish Idols are just going to be a PITA. You'll be back to Tangs in no time.:mrgreen:
 
Dave, Moorish idols are part of the Tang Family.. No I havent given up on tangs but some grow alot faster then others like the vlamingi, but I do want to get malissa another one. And we are taking a small break from buying fish. All of ours grew so fast and then we actually caught almost all of them (for trade) and wanted to start over with only fish we really want. Since we now have some experiance. More Tangs to come:bounce:
 
Moorish idols are not in the tang family. They have their own family (Zanclidae) and are the only fish in that family. They are not related to tangs at all, which are in the family Acanthuridae.
 
+1 Biff,there are a lot of people who make this mistake
Never heard of a success story with Moorish idols either,Good luck joker
 
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+1 Biff,there are a lot of people who make this mistake
Never heard of a success story with Moorish idols either,Good luck joker
I know.I have heard more people tell i am crazy for trying it but you will never succeed at anything if you never try. Thanks for the luck i will need all i can get
 
I know.I have heard more people tell i am crazy for trying it but you will never succeed at anything if you never try. Thanks for the luck i will need all i can get

For most things, yes, but I think that's an unfortunate attitude to take when there are lives of delicate animals at stake.

I warned you about the difficulty of keeping clown tangs, you said the same thing, "I know they are hard, but I'm going to try anyways", and if I remember correctly, you had two (that I know of) of them die in your tank before you gave up trying to keep them. If you couldn't keep clown tangs alive, why would you be able to keep moorish idols alive, which are even more difficult?

How many moorish idols have to die in your tank before you will accept that some animals just shouldn't be kept in this hobby?

We aren't talking about running a marathon here, where "if you don't try you will never succeed". We're talking about killing animals because we just don't know what it takes to keep them alive in captivity. It is extremely well documented that moorish idols don't last in our tanks. You seem to be one of those people that has to find out everything for himself though, and can't learn from anyone else's experience. And in doing that, you manage to kill a lot of poor fishes along the way. Don't you feel bad about all the fish you've tried to keep "in the name of trying" and have ended up killing instead?

Someone that has been in this hobby as long as you should know better, and I think that is the totally wrong attitude to take towards certain fish. It shows a disrespect and lack of understanding of the animals that we are not only trying to keep as pets, but we are trying to preserve and conserve in the wild as well.
 
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Your right Biff I do have to find everything out for myself, what if I am one of the lucky ones that has success with a certain fish that others dont. There are a few success stories of people keeping clown tangs and moorish idols alive. I am not here to have a debat with you or argue. What I do with my tank and what you do with your tank is our own buisness. I dont beleave I even asked you if I should keep an idol or not.
 
You have posted that you have repeatedly tried powder brown tangs and they always die on you too. PBTs aren't even that difficult of a fish. I don't think it has do do with luck. Moorish idols aren't listed as 'expert and lucky only' - they are listed as 'expert only'. If you don't have the skill and knowledge to keep a PBT alive, and you've tried many times, you definitely don't have the skill and knowledge to keep an idol alive. These fish are dying because of your hope that you might get lucky. That is a true shame.
 
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And nobody on this site needs to wait to be asked to comment on obviously bad and irresponsible decisions they see being made. You posted stuff for everyone to read. I do not need your permission to respond.
 
No you dont need permission to post, but you shouldnt always just critize others because you feel you are better then everyone else. which is clearly what you think. You feel like a bigger person because you feel it is neccesary to correct everyone. Thats why alot of people leave here because of you
 
I don't think I'm better. I'm not the one trying to keep moorish idols.

There are a few success stories of people keeping clown tangs and moorish idols alive.

So you did enough research about this fish to discover that a few people have kept it alive, but not enough research to learn that A) it is not a type of tang, as you stated previously in this thread, and B) that is should not be kept in tanks with aggressive fish such as tangs, which is what your tank is full of?

Did you even read anything about this "type of tang" besides the few anecdotal stories of what you wanted to hear? Do you know what it eats? Do you know why it doesn't coexist well with tangs? Irresponsible reefing at its finest!

I really don't care what you think about my personality. No one on this site, regardless of what they think of my personality, can say that I don't care about the livestock involved in this hobby. I'm not on this site to make friends, although I do have a lot of friends on here. I'm here to advise people about their reef tanks, and in your case, repeated poor livestock decisions that have resulted in the deaths of god knows how many fish. That is what I'm arguing about here, not about being a "bigger person" than anyone else. I do a lot more helping, suggesting and answering questions on this forum than I do criticizing. But when I see someone that should know better doing something wrong, I am not afraid to criticize. That is part of my job too. If you want to turn this issue around into it being about me "being a meanie" instead of addressing the real issue that I have been pointing out (your uninformed and irresponsible practices as a reef keeper), then go ahead.

But my point still stands, that you should know better, and it's a shame that all these fish have to die because you cannot accept that some animals are better off left in the ocean. You are about to plop two fish that you did no research on prior to buying (except to find out that only a few have survived in captivity and that you might get "lucky" with them) into a tank full of other fish that it is specifically noted as being incompatible with. These fish already have a close to zero survival rate in captivity. Add to it that they are being put in a tank full of tangs, and you've pretty much erased any shot these animals had at surviving. That, I think, is terrible. So instead of addressing that point, are you going to insult my personality again?
 
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I dont beleave I even asked you if I should keep an idol or not.

I recall you asking. It's right here, in fact. You started a thread about it. It seems that in spite of what everyone posted in that thread, and all the suggestions, advice and warnings, you still decided to go out and buy them without doing any further research. So do you have a constant supply of live sponge for the idols to eat? I told you way back then that's what they needed to feed on, and even then, their survival rate is close to zero.

https://www.livingreefs.com/morish-idol-t26159.html
 
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Unfortunately she's not around anymore to give her first hand insight on them.......
Don't think it lasted but a couple months......
 
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