Juvenile Sailfin Tang won't eat veggies

[gpdno]

Maybe he's taking after my kids, but I have a Juvenile Sailfin Tang that would much rather eat live shrimp and pellets then algae and seaweed pellets.
Not really complaining, just curious because I figured he should be a vegetarian. He will cruise around during the day nibbling algae of the rock. Just come feeding time he is all over the shrimp and pellets.

 

[Curtispants]

Have you tried soaking nori in something to entice him/her to eat it?

 

[masonicman]

Like garlic

 

[Rea17]

It generally takes some time to "train" new tangs to recognize nori on a clip as food. Continue offering it, but in the meantime eating pellets and frozen won't hurt anything, just make sure he's getting a balanced diet.

 

[ca1ore]

It generally takes some time to "train" new tangs to recognize nori on a clip as food. Continue offering it, but in the meantime eating pellets and frozen won't hurt anything, just make sure he's getting a balanced diet.

Yep!

None, and I mean none, of my Tangs seemed to even notice nori when I tried it during the QT process. Yet, all of them, within a day or so, got the idea once in the display and they saw the other fish feeding from the clip. Now a 4x4 sheet of nori lasts about 30 seconds.

As long as your tang is eating, and perhaps getting the algae it needs from the rocks, then I'd not worry.

 

[imkelz]

try a different colour algae sheet. Sometimes tangs are silly and picky

 

[gpdno]

Yep!



None, and I mean none, of my Tangs seemed to even notice nori when I tried it during the QT process. Yet, all of them, within a day or so, got the idea once in the display and they saw the other fish feeding from the clip. Now a 4x4 sheet of nori lasts about 30 seconds.



As long as your tang is eating, and perhaps getting the algae it needs from the rocks, then I'd not worry.

Yes. He is grazing off the rocks during the day. I'm not worried so much as just curious. He eats fine and a lot. He is just not eating what I expected him to eat. And frankly, I tried the whole vegetarian thing once and hated it, so maybe my tang just feels the same way