Purple Tang - Medium

Purple Tang

Purple Tangs are prized for their colouration which is blue to purple in body colour with yellow accents on the tail and pectoral fins.

These beautiful fish love living in areas with plenty of nooks and crevices like coral reefs. This enables them to forage and return for sleep and safety. For this reason, they are extremely fast and very agile. This also explains why they are rarely seen in open water out in the wild.

Purple tangs are a circular shaped fish with eyes set high on their heads surrounded by small black spots. They have a single spine on each side which is used to defend itself as well as dominate other fish. For this reason, care should be taken when handling this fish.

These fish are not overly aggressive and with the right aquarium and diet can make an amazing addition for a moderate to advanced aquarium owner.

Originally only found in the coral reefs of the Red Sea, purple tangs have now been seen as far away as Sri Lanka. These fish usually live in pairs but have been known to gather in schools in the Southern part of the Red Sea.

Tank Recommendations for Purple Tangs
The minimum tank size required to keep purple tangs is 270 litres. As mentioned before these fish need plenty of hiding spaces so be sure to include plenty of rock coverage, not only for shelter but also to provide an additional food source of algae which the tangs will graze on.

Suitable Tank Buddies
Purple Tangs generally only fight with other fish of a similar shape i.e other Tangs. Care should be taken to only introduce either 1 Tang or a group of 4 or more. They get along well with most other species however they are very energetic so may frighten more timid species of fish.

Usually Compatible
Excellent tank buddies include Angelfish, Boxfish, and Blennies. Groupers, Parrotfish and Filefish will also get along nicely.

Sometime Compatible
Care should be taken when combining with Batfish, Cardinalfish and Butterflyfish due to similar size and shape. Keep an eye on them as there is a chance they may fight.

Rarely Compatible
Seahorses should not be housed with purple tangs as the little seahorses are way too timid to compete for food. Sharks should also be avoided due to the high probability of the tangs being attacked.

Feeding Your Purple Tang
These fish have an omnivorous diet which ranges from frozen meaty foods to seaweed. They need a variety of meat and vegetable matter to keep the immune system strong and also help reduce aggression to other fish. Their everyday diet can include brine shrimp, marine flake and krill along with greens such as marine seaweed.