Here's what I did (I don't even think this was my idea - might have seen it in a RC post several years ago?):
I had a closed loop return pipe running above the euro-brace of my acrylic tank - I used this to brace the rigid airline. I took a long piece (maybe 12 inches long or so) and gave it a right angle bend in the middle (I think I stuck the tube in near-boiling water until it was soft enough to bend easily - it has been awhile
). on the end that sits outside of the tank, I made ridges with rubber bands (rubber band 'donuts') around the tube so that when the tube was fit underneath my closed loop plumbing, the rubber bands were right outside where the pipe was and held the airline in place. The other end went over the lip of my euro-brace and dipped into the tank water.
to load the 'clip', I would first rotate the airline up so that it pointed at the top of my canopy instead of the bottom of my tank. I would pull off any gross slimy remains of yesterday's nori.
I usually used half of a big sheet of nori from the Asian grocery - probably around 5x8 inches? for my 6" sailfin tang (the rainfordi ate some, but an insignificant amount compared to the tang - I had green chromis and they loved to pick at it as well). I folded the half sheet in 'half' lengthwise, so that I ended up with one long strip about 3x8. I then dipped this sheet of nori in the tank so that it would start to soften. Then I wound it around the bottom of the airline tubing tightly, and wrapped the rubber band around like shown in the picture above. I had best results when the rubber band covered a wide area of the nori (like in the picture) or the tangs will be able to grab giant pieces, which they inevitably drop as uninteresting so they can get stuck on your overflow teeth.
I usually then left the nori pointing up while I did other tank feeding - I liked to let the nori soften from the wetting before giving it to the fish. then I rotated the airline down into the tank.
At first you'll notice that your fish are having a lot more trouble getting the nori off the clip - with fewer 'edges' to grab and yank, they can't really get the nori off most of the clip until it softens up (a few minutes). I regarded this as a plus. As it softens they'll be able to grab small bites. As a result, the nori lasts longer on the clip and gives your fish more to do during the day as they fight with the stubborn nori.
I don't know if my rainfordi was 'normal' in his nori appetite or not. He did not attempt to compete with the tang for food - he waited until the tang's interest in the clip died down (10-15 minutes) before he'd venture out to grab his mouthfuls. The tang would then of course swim over to pretend interest in the algea again (taking a bite that he would likely spit out on the other side of the tank - pig), but the rainfordi would duck away for 10 seconds and then come right back to the clip. I'd be interested to know if anyone else sees their rainfordi eat nori or if mine was an adventurous eater.
jayo
