Why I Find Tangs Boring

[Paul B]

Why I find Tangs Boring.

Many fish such as copperband butterflies, puffers some wrasses etc. have a definite personality and if you look close you can see it in their actions and eyes. Yes their eyes have expressions, not like Angelina Jolie but it's there.

Tangs, being schooling fish have no such personality and I find them very dull. I know it's just me but I will explain.
If you do much SCUBA diving you will notice this and if you could read a fishes mind, you would get this from a typical tang on a reef in a school.

Lets say Charlie Tang is swimming off Costa Rica on a Tuesday in October. He is swimming 2" from another tang in a school of a thousand tangs all of the same species.

These are Charlie's thoughts:

Oh No, Bob is leading us again. Why is it always Bob? I mean, l could lead, I am as strong as Bob and if I had a mirror, and thumbs I may find I am better looking,

I know what he is going to do. Yep here we go, heading down for seaweed.

Of course he picked this rock! I hate the seaweed here, it's very gamey and I don't like the way that moray eel always smiles at me.

OK, I will try it......Wait a minute, leaving already...I didn't even get one bite and we are leaving!
Sure. Bob makes the rules.

I am getting closer to the front, soon I will be the leader, I know I can do it.
Wow, look at Shela in front of me. Let me swim alongside her.

Hi Shela, Want to grab a bite? If Bob ever finds something us to eat I mean.

Oh, your not Shela! Sorry. Oh your not even a girl!
Sorry.
No I don't mean to be rude but I don't swim like that.

I wish I had a neck, so I could see who this is next to me. Getting a little to close if you know what I mean.

OK we are turning to the left, oh wait, Now we are going right, now left. I am getting dizzy.

Oh, I see it is time to poop. YUCK.. It would be nice if we would all poop on a turn so I didn't always get it in the face. I mean, Like Really!

Wait! I can see the front, Bob is getting tired. I think I can.....Dam Harry got the lead. I hate harry.

I wish someone would collect Harry, then quarantine him in Prizapro.

He's also an Independent and I hear he is a Snowflake. OK, left again, now right, up, now down.

Thank God we are going down. That looks like a nice algae covered rock. Oh Wow!

Down, Down, Harry is doing good.
I like Harry.

Where is Harry? Why are we leaving so fast....And why does that Moray eel have a bigger smile now!

Thats a typical morning for a tang, on a Tuesday.

 

[Sponge]

Love your story. You need to right another book. But I love my tangs. My yellow eyed kole tang has tons of personality. He likes to look thru the magnifying glass on the front of the tank and watch me eat dinner. And for some reason my yellow tang (thanks Freddie) is best friends with a fox face rabbit fish and do everything together. If one of the fish try to pick on the rabbit. The yellow tang dives between them tail first. Swishing. It’s really funny. They even sleep together in the same cave.

 

[Paul B]

I also love my Hippo tang. But this is about a tang in a school of a thousand, in Costa Rico on a Tuesday in October.

 

[Sponge]

Hahaha. Indeed it is. Lol

 

[motortrendz]

You need to write a non snowflake, Childrens book on fish.. my daughter would love it haha.

 

[Mark Shelly]

Funny, but the reason I started a saltwater fish tank was because of yellow tangs I saw in Hawaii. I thought they were great and it was my only must-have fish. They weren't really schooling then (it was summer when I went) so it might have been different if I had been in Costa Rica.

 

[Paul B]

I actually do see yellow tangs by themselves. So make believe this is not about yellow tangs.

 

[Humblefish]

See, I love tangs. They are constantly swimming, doing laps around the tank.

Paul, you were made in the Left Twix factory and I was in the Right Twix factory.

 

[Paul B]

Humble, what are you doing here? I didn't know you visited. Nice to see you.

 

[MadReefer]

I prefer butterfly and Angel fish. They are not colorful in my opinon. Wife and kids like the tangs why I have them. No butterfly fish for obvious reasons. My favorite fanfare clown, lipstick and unicorn. Again I have none of those too big.

 

[Humblefish]

Humble, what are you doing here? I didn't know you visited. Nice to see you.

I'm everywhere you are, old friend. I like to follow you around.

 

[Paul B]

I thought I heard someone mixing up some Prizapro in my workshop this morning.

 

[Paul B]

I took this off of Mustique

 

[amado]

having fresh water fish and saltwater fish I have to say most salt water fish have no personality. If you ever kept an Oscar fish they are like dogs in the water. They respond to the people coming into the room.
He will follow you and they will eat from your hand. Salt water fish that I have kept don’t have that type of personality. The only fish that comes close is the copperband.

 

[amado]

I took this off of Mustique

That looks like an Atlantic tang

 

[Sponge]

having fresh water fish and saltwater fish I have to say most salt water fish have no personality. If you ever kept an Oscar fish they are like dogs in the water. They respond to the people coming into the room.
He will follow you and they will eat from your hand. Salt water fish that I have kept don’t have that type of personality. The only fish that comes close is the copperband.

I would say. I have had my share of Oscars in my day. And you are correct. Great personality. But have to give credit to several marine fish that challenge that idea
The puffer. Now that is a personality filled almost dog like fish
The file fish. Crazy amounts of personality amazing to watch hunt
Wrasses. Several are curious beyond curious and the constant hunting is mesmerizing
Flame hawk fish. Darn thing has so much personality. It’s almost always the first fish people who have never seen our tank... always gravitate to it.
I’m sure there are many many others. Those are just some of the ones that come to mind that I have personal experience with.

 

[amado]

I would say. I have had my share of Oscars in my day. And you are correct. Great personality. But have to give credit to several marine fish that challenge that idea
The puffer. Now that is a personality filled amost dog like fish
The file fish. Crazy amounts of personality amazing to watch hunt
Wrasses. Several are curious beyond curious and the constant hunting is mesmerizing
Flame hawk fish. Darn thing has so much personality. It’s almost always the first fish people who have never seen our tank... always gravitate to it.
I’m sure there are many many others. Those are just some of the ones that come to mind that I have personal experience with.

I have never had a puffer or a hawk fish but I could see what your saying.

Wrasses and file fish are more interested in what’s going on on the rocks.

 

[Paul B]

That looks like an Atlantic tang

Mustique is in the Atlantic. Right off of St Lucia.

 

[Paul B]

Another creature with personality is hermit crabs.

Many years ago my best friend and dive partner were diving here in New York with in the City limits where the visibility was probably 36". We were diving for lobsters and for them there is no need to see far because there is no swimming involved. It's just pulling yourself along the huge rocks on the bottom.

You don't need to worry about breaking any coral because there is none. It is just left over boulders from the glacier that receded long before Bernie Sanders was born.

Under those rocks, in holes are lobsters. Anyway, as we were looking for lobsters we found a tire.

(Probably from an Oldsmobile) There are a lot of tires here because they are used on tug boats around the edge to push other boats. In these tires live quite a few lobsters.

In this partially submerged tire was a group of hermit crabs. My avatar (on other forums) was one of them. He is a local New York crab and you can tell by his accent.

The crabs were lining the inside edge of the tire and while we watched, two crabs would take turns going to the center and entering what looked like a wrestling match, although they could have been boxing or doing Kung Fu, Karate, Tai Quan Do or ballet dancing from the theme of the Blue Danube.

I really don't know, but they "fought" for a while until they got tired or one called "Uncle" .

Then they would retreat and another pair would come out to "fight".

This went on until we ran out of air as we couldn't move away and we also had money on the matches.

This is my dive partner and I picking out some new, modern dive equipment. I am on the right.


These are what we normally dove for. These are "real" Manly lobsters, not those Sissy, Girly lobsters in the tropics. These guys will teach you how to scream while underwater as their bite will crush clam shells and Snowflake wrists.



Reply
Report Edit Delete

P

 

[Paul B]

I feel by far the fish with the most personality are puffers, porcupine fish or this burrfish.

I collected this tiny guy here in New York in the Atlantic. He must have got caught up in the Gulf Stream and ended up here on a Long Island beach in a few feet of water.

He was fingernail size. I brought him home and kept him in a small tank until he grew to a larger tank.

I hand fed him but he would have eaten through the glass if he knew how to. Cute little guy.

After a year he grew to 5" and I gave him to the New York Aquarium where he may still be. That was probably 15 years ago.
I would give him tiny live fiddler crabs and earthworms. His bright green eyes would light up as he "danced" around the crab looking for the right place to bite.
Fantastically interesting and inquisitive fish.