Yellow Tang and Butterfly Fish

[kaimarkhirst]

Hi,

While taking a local trip to bew some new Marine fish specimens my shop had got in, I got talking to the guy who I normally buy my Marines from and having a general conversation about hard and soft corals, 'mones, morays and such, he suggested a yellow tang as an addition to my tank or some of the less aggressive species of butterfly fish.....

so after coming home and reading abit about butterflys and tangs and, in addition to what I know, tangs really only belong in a setup of 75G or larger, adn butterflys are mainly all aggressive in nature. So why is he suggesting a species of fish to go in my 28g that is hard to keep, and going to get too big??

Bit unsure on this one..... What do you guys think??

[Kyle]

I dont think you should go to that guy for advice because he obviously doesnt know what hes talking about. I love my local saltwater store they are very knowledgable and do tell me what I cant keep. Glad you went home and read the truth first

[unleashed]

I suggest that you don't buy from that LFS again. It is disgusting such species of fish for your aquarium and it looks like he is just trying to make a sale.

Even the 'easy' species of butterfly fish are extremely difficult to keep and most require a bear minimum of 50g with preferably 75-100g with plenty of established live rock and swimming space.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Sounds to me like the guy was either trying to make a sale thinking you may fall for it, or he may have gotten you mixed up with someone else. My LFS does that on occasion, they know my setup quite well but occasionally forget.

[kaimarkhirst]

hmmm.. Its bothering me this one as hes usualyl really good.

Think ill make my own decision from now on and give a little lighter attention to advice from salespeople......

[jman]

haha yeah he was trying to sell he should know that a tang should not be in that size tank i get this all the time from simple questions... a guy try's to sell to me a fish or coral that does not go with what i have not knowing that i understand that they shouldn't sometimes i over here the salesman doing this at the store to others and they don't know so sometimes i pitch in but i would say dont stop shopping there because at my lfs's theirs a more know-it-all guy that keeps everything running well you should just refer to he/she instead, good luck:22:

[MonkeyPox]

I've moved around a lot over the years and have traveled a bunch for friends/customers looking for wc fish. Whether moving or introducing someone to a lfs, I vet the place first.
One of the first thing's I do in a new area is to check out the lfs. I'll usually spend a lot of time "browsing" while listening to the advice some of the staff give to other customers. I'll ask my own "beginner questions" as well and see how they respond.
On the whole I find very little problems in the US, maybe 10% say something I consider sketchy and generally its from the staff and not the store owners. Outside the US, its a whole different story. I actually got into a shouting match my last time in New Zealand with an owner who wanted to sell a jewfish to a newbie with a 55g tank.

On the whole, I put more vetting effort into my lfs then I do an auto mechanic.