Not Finding Dory: 6 Reasons Not To Buy A Blue Tang Fish

Dory, the fantastic best friend fish from Finding Nemo, is great on-screen, but will not be happy, safe, and healthy being your best friend at home. When Finding Nemo came out in 2003, Clownfish sales at fish and pet stores all over the world rose tremendously. Clownfish are adaptable little swimmers who can survive the stinging of an anemone and overcrowding. However, despite all this and their ability to breed outside of the ocean, clownfish populations have declined.

With the release of Finding DoryBlue Tangs, like our forgetful friend Dory, who cannot handle life outside of the ocean are at risk and in order to keep them alive and well, we must leave them in the ocean.

Here are 6 reasons you need to leave Dory alone:

1. Blue Tangs should only be handled by professionals.

In the movie Finding Dory, we see Dory get taken out of the ocean to be cleaned and taken care of at the fictional Marine Life Institute of Morro Bay so she can be released back into the ocean. This fictional fish hospital isn’t really all that fictional, it was based on a facility in Monterey Bay, California. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a treatment center for marine life that really does take care of and release wildlife back out to sea.

2. Blue Tangs cannot breed outside the ocean.

When it comes to Blue Tangs, mating can only be done in the declining reefs of where they come from. Blue Tangs are known for spreading their eggs over a vast surface area which is not safe for a tank alone, especially if it is a community tank.

3. Trust me, you don’t have the space.

Blue Tangs can reach a little over a foot in size which would require a large tank for just one fish, and that’s even without any eggs. The size of a saltwater tank required for a Blue Tang is simply too large for a home, because it would have to take in account that a Blue Tang is aggressive towards other fish and must eat meaty meals.

4. They’re prone to severe illness.

A common issue people have when they do manage to find and take home Blue Tangs is that diseases from “ocean-only” fish may not be present prior to taking them home, but will infiltrate even the cleanest, healthiest tanks. When these fish are taken into a new home, their sensitive immune systems are attacked by the “clean” bacteria that keep a fish tank shining. These “clean” bacteria can be deadly to a Blue Tang and, in turn, may cause the Blue Tang to release any dormant diseases. This vicious cycle will not only make your Blue Tangs unhappy and unhealthy, but the toxins and diseases that they may release can be deadly to any other fish in your tank

5. Stress alone can be a major fish killer.

Remember the character Darla from Finding Nemo? Her usual act of shaking the fish bags would cause too much stress and wind up killing any normal fish. Stress on a fish can be anything from tapping glass to an aggressive tank mate or even the wrong water temperature.

6. Saltwater fish cannot survive simply off of tap water.

While of course, you can keep saltwater fish at home in some cases, fish like Blue Tangs are a bit more complicated. They need the proper pH balance, chlorine level, ammonia level, salt level, bacteria balance and so much more. Generally speaking, saltwater tanks require constant maintenance and testing to keep saltwater fish happy and healthy.

If you are still driven to go out and buy a Blue Tang from the store, or capture one from a reef, keep in mind that the Blue Tang is just one species of a large group called Surgeonfish. Fish from this group like the Hippo Tang and the Flagtail Surgeonfish, may be more suitable for the tank life that you are looking for.

Blue Tang fish are not flexible when it comes to finding homes that are safe enough to raise a family, so in order to keep the species alive, they must be left alone to populate in the ocean. That being said, these gentle creatures are living in reefs that are being destroyed by humans with tons and tons of daily pollution. If you truly love the Blue Tang, don’t try to make them a home with you, help protect the one they already have, and support organizations that capture them for treatment and release. Remember: rescue, rehabilitation, and release.

Featured Image via Finding Nemo Screengrab

4 COMMENTS

  1. You say you might want to get a hippo tang instead of a blue tang…a hippo tang is a blue tang…You also say they can’t be bred anywhere except the ocean…there is a group that has been breeding them in captivity for sale in stores since 2016…While I agree with you that a blue tang does not belong in a tank under 240 Gallons you need to get your facts straight.

  2. “They need the proper pH balance, chlorine level, ammonia level, salt level, bacteria balance and so much more.“

    So does literally every saltwater fish

    “A hippo tang would be more suitable”

    Hippo tang and blue tang are synonymous.

    “Stress alone…”

    They are literally shipped across the country in bags, bringing one home from the pet store won’t kill it.

    You made a single decent point in this whole mess, the size of tank.

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