Blue tang? what do they like

[raymond4133]

I just picked up a small blue tang about 2-4 inches....

and well i am trying to get him out of the rocks more...Although, he is eating and all like the rest of the fish and he even ate at the store....My blue tang still just spends his whole day in behind the rocks....

Is it just acclimating to the tank or is it stress. In no way it doesnt seem stressed......

What do people ususally feed these guys....I heard brime shrimp, and more meaty foods rather than the seaweed, nori,and whatever green food that yellow tangs eat...

I also read somewhere that garlic sometimes help fish in their immune systems....does this mean i can mince or mush some garlic from my local supermarket and feed it alongside the regular fish food....?

 

[dots]

Most tangs are a little shy when first introduced, eventually they will come out and start grazing if there isn't any other fish that frightens them.

Tangs are herbevors by nature, they are great for algae control and that is the reason most get them.

I have two tangs myself now, a mimic yellow and a chevron. They eat whatever meaty foods I put in there. Most people supplement there tangs with nori found in the asian section of a supermarket. I believe Minh said something about making sure it wasn't spiced lately.

Garlic is one of those spiced/foods that have been in vogue the last few years, some believe that the oils in the garlic are beniffecial to human immune systems, some take it even farther a say its good for the fish. I read somewhere, that any effects would be negligible and that the main contribution to the human health aspect may be psycological. If you want to, there may be no harm in adding it to your tank, because there are a lot of products that have it now. ..............Cough"snake-oil"Cough.....
I believe adding less is more IMO.

Side note: Disease in a tank is commonly linked to poor water quality. ie: when your water sucks, your fish will get sick. A common theory to back this is ich. Ich is said to be in all tanks, when water goes haywire, the fish get stressed and get sick. Just like you or me when we get stressed. Hence pathogens attack the fish and they get sick. Example: thats why new fish get ich when they are first bought, they are stressed out!.

 

[raymond4133]

so as far as the garlic thing would it be advisible to even give small chopped up pieces of garlic to my fish....

I obiously would not do it unless other hobbiysts have tried it before and it wouldn't kill my fish in some inert way....or even my corals....?

 

[Reefugee]

When I had both a hippo blue tang and a yellow tang, I would put in nori, and both tangs would go after it. However, when the yellow tang died, the hippo blue stopped eating any nori or veggies that I would put into the tank. My hippo blue does not peck at the rocks for algae either. I recently got a small hippo blue tang. The tang has not pecked at the rock for algae either. I haven't tried offering it any nori - so I can't comment on that. In my opinion, hippo blue tangs are pretty useless as far as controlling algae, but they are very peaceful and great fish to watch.

Regarding feeding garlic. I can't say it works or not. But I do occasionally soak food in some garlic and feed it to the fish. It may not do anything - but it doesn't seem to hurt them either. I usually get the garlic by pressing it through a garlic press. Then I will use a knife to chop it small. I let the food soak in some RODI water with the garlic. Then I dump it it for my fish. The fish will sometimes eat the garlic. On the bigger pieces - they will spit it right out. I don't think they like garlic (like me. )

Oh - I have been feeding my fish a combination of San Francisco Bay Emerald Entree (it's a combo of fleshy food with some veggies) and Marine Cuisine. The bigger blue hippo is a fatty.

Regarding the hippo blue hiding - that's pretty normal when you first get them. The smaller hippo blue took a week to finally come out - and this was a fish that was previously in someone else's tank.

Minh

 

[raymond4133]

thanks guys for the info....I greatly appreciate it....I will let nature take its course for a while....I will countinue to feed the nori of course for my yellow and the more meaty foods for my hippo tang...

You guys are probalby right....if i just got him yesterday...than it would be reasonable to see that perhaps my hippo needs time to adjust first...

 

[Pico1]

formula 2 frozen, nori, brine shrimp, zooplancton are all relished by my fat 6 inch hippo

 

[wombat2]

Hippo tangs are zooplanktivores. The bulk of their diet should be carnivorous. Chopped table shrimp and frozen mysis shrimp are good for this, as well as just about any flake or pellet food for carnivores. Brine shrimp have a terrible nutritional profile unless they are packed with nutrients prior to feeding. This is time consuming and unnecessary, since frozen mysis is widely available and of much higher nutrition. I like to compare feeding live brine shrimp to feeding popcorn to your kids--they eat it like crazy but it's virtually worthless from a nutritional standpoint.

They don't eat much algae at all, although it doesn't hurt to put a little nori or broccoli in the tank for them to graze on.

 

[Fragmented]

Here is a garlic thread if you want to read up on it.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=525107

When my Purple Tang lost color in the throat area I soaked food in garlic. The color came back, either on its own or with the help of the garlic. Who knows, it didn't hurt. Garlic contains natural antibiontics.

Enjoy your new addition!

 

[MelodyCorals]

My Hippo Tang will eat just about anything I put in the tank. It eats all kinds of algae I put on the clip for it, as well as pellet and flake food I give and regularly eats Mysis shrimp I offer as well. He seems to really prefer the meaty foods.

On the "shy" thing, I have also thought of these fish as always being a bit shy. The slightest thing can make them do their "play dead" trick where they lay motionless under some rock. I think it took mine a while to adapt to the environment and now whenever I change even the slightest thing - he will spaz out.

-- Josh