Nori only

[alex gonzales]

I bought a 5" naso tang about a month ago at the lfs. I was told someone brought him in from their tank, he looked healthy, but so far he will only eat nori. i have tried giving him just about every other kind of food I can think of, but so far no luck. can he survive on nori alone? I feed him a sheet every day, and he still looks healthy. let me know, thanks.

 

[Shellyfish]

I'd like to know this too, as my blonde naso will also only eat nori

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

It will do ok on nori for a long time and probably will start eating other foods over time. How long have you had it? It is probably still stressed from transport. You could soak the nori in garlic extract for a while, and then start introducing other foods soaked in garlic.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Only eating nori is fine for now, but long term he needs to eat other foods too. First of all, even fish we consider "herbivores" naturally eat zooplankton when its available in the wild. Secondly, even when these "herbivores" are grazing algae in the wild, they end up consuming a substantial amount of little critters (pods, worms, etc) that are living in the algae and on the rocks from which they are grazing.

Sometimes it's not that the fish only wants to eat nori, its that he doesnt want to eat from the water column. Try feeding meat based foods but in a way he can pick at them like he does nori. You can hang a raw cocktail shrimp from the nori clip, or rubberband it to a rock. Also try clams on the half shell or frozen mysis chunks rubberbanded to rocks.

 

[aleonn]

My naso tang only ate Nori at first when he was placed in my QT. Even if Nori is the only thing he'll eat for the next month or two, he'll be fine IMO.

After a week in QT, I then soaked my NLS and mysis in garlic, and he got the idea. If there's other fish in your tank that are eating, the naso tang might pick it up that way as well.

Another way to train your naso to eat pellets or other prepared foods is to starve him from the Nori for a day or two, then add the NLS soaked in garlic.