Having trouble getting yellow tang to eat

[greg1786]

I bought a medium sized yellow tang about a week or so ago. Its very healthy and colorful. Before buying it, while i was browsing in the store, thwner was feeding marine cuisine to the tanks and i watched him devour the frozen mysis. The first day or two he ate nothing but i wasnt surprised because there was a small amount of agression between it and my lavender tang. After day two it began grazing and was also eating seaweed from the clip. It still wasnt taking the nls pellets i feed daily. I recently got some red macro algae which it also eats a good bit of. I feed my tank live brine once a week as well and it devoured those. I tried two different types of flake foods and the nls and it seems interested in them but refuses to eat. Its good that hes eating algae and seaweed but i feel its not going to get the proper nutrition without having some sort of "real " food and i dont like to feed beine or mysis except as a treat when i feed my nems. Any suggestions on how to get it to take the nls or even just some experienced comments on whether this is a big issue for me or not?? Thanks -greg

 

[greg1786]

Any thoughts or ideas on what to feed it or how to get it to take the nls

 

[MrTuskfish]

Any thoughts or ideas on what to feed it or how to get it to take the nls

Time.
After just a week, be glad he's eating. Almost all fish that eat some foods, learn to eat what's there. BTW, IMO, mysis is an excellent food for tangs. Many tangs (IME) prefer good frozen foods to pellets, NLS pellets are a great food staple, but not magical, as some folks imply. BTW, tangs, like most fish, are easier to acclimate to new foods in a QT; Just one of many reasons to always use one.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Soak the pellets in the juice from thawing mysis and give it time. It could be many months before the fish eats pellets, or it may never do so. You also might try an algae-based flake.