Feeding a mature tang

[artieg]

Have several tangs that I picked up as juveniles (clown, purple, naso), all eat everything I put in the tank. Saw a beautiful full-ish grown orange shoulder tang (8 inches) at LFS and bought it. It went on a hunger strike for a few days, then started eating. But it is just not eating enough. It is the largest fish in the tank by far, but it is growing visibly skinny. Eats nori, but it is way too submissive to get the lion's share. Won't touch dry food, won't touch mysis shrimp, will eat scallop portion of frozen reef preparation. Won't touch hair algae in tank. Totally weird.

Is the lesson just "buy small"? Anything else to consider?

 

[Pet Detective]

Did you ask what the LFS fed it? Tangs are omnivores and like most fish opportunistic eaters, I would try doubling up on the Nori, since that's what it likes the most.

I've found in my general experience it is almost always better to purchase a juvenile, much better odds of it living a long life in my tanks.

Good Luck, i hope it makes it.

 

[skimjim]

See if your local grocer has DE-SHELLED mussels. Freeze them.

Place frozen mussels in a ziplock bag and pound the mussels into smaller pieces with a meat pounder or a hammer from your garage. Place kitchen towel over ziplick bag before pounding.

Feed the mussels that are busted up into small chunks.

Ive yet to see i fish not take to the sweet taste of mussels. I feed all my fish musseel chunks 1x a day. My tangs all have BEER GUTS theyre so chubby from pure mussel meat. Lol

 

[AlSimmons]

Exactly how are you feeding the Nori? If it's from a clip you might want to cut it up into small pieces and feed like you would flake food instead. Make sure to soak it in a cup of water beforehand though to soften it up and make sure it doesn't float. If it's not getting it's fair share then throw food in on both sides of the tank. Thin out the herd so to say. Hopefully it will come around and starting eating other foods as well. GL.

 

[Joe0813]

going to have to give the mussels a go just for kicks

 

[Reefer40b]

Buy multiple algae clips to spread out feeding

The way i make nori,
I use masstick mixed with selcon then i spread that mixture on the nori usually use both red and green type algae sheets
Then fold it up tight and put small cuts in it with scissors so they can't just rip huge pieces off.

It gives them a full diet and can bring him back for sure. Maybe look at his poop too, may have internal parasites...

I also feed mixture of a bunch of different frozen foods. Rods, lrs etc



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[crawlerman]

See if you can find a live macro algae he would eat. One of my LFS sells lettuce algae and my tangs love it. Live brine can also get them started eating.

 

[Dmorty217]

Stress related I would guess. I would argue that a Naso, clown and orange shoulder can't coexist in a 200g together. The Naso and orange shoulder both should have tanks larger than that.

 

[Joe0813]

Stress related I would guess. I would argue that a Naso, clown and orange shoulder can't coexist in a 200g together. The Naso and orange shoulder both should have tanks larger than that.

I thought nasos were fine in a 180? or atleast that's why LA has them for min.

 

[Dmorty217]

I thought nasos were fine in a 180? or atleast that's why LA has them for min.

That is LA min but I would want to provide more than the minimum. I have see show size Nasos and they should be in something larger (longer and wider)

 

[Joe0813]

I'd love to get a naso but I also have seen some huge nasos and wouldn't put them in my 180

 

[sdweller]

It has been many years since I had my tank up and running but am working in
that direction , have acquired a lot of new filtration items as a result of this web-site .
I loved tangs in my 125g clarity plus tank . I am not sure if they still sell the product
but it was Tenera Blue , natural sea algae . You would clip it to the side of the tank in
multiple locations . If I remember it seemed to do the trick . I think the company was
located in Boca Raton . Good Luck !
Sea Dwellers