Tang eating sand????

[smokieroom]

I have had a kole tang for about 3 weeks and it is eating great but I have noticed that it eats sand every now and then. It is not eating any algae I can see on the sand just the sand from what I can tell. So is it normal for a tang to eat sand?

 

[Fibinotchi]

I am sure it is foraging for stuff.

 

[RT65]

Hes eating detritus off the bottom

 

[con999]

looking for food on bottom

 

[Recty]

My dussumieri tang used to do this... it's interesting.

I remember reading on wetwebmedia about powder blue tangs, one of the FAQs stated that sometimes they eat so much sand during regular foraging that you can see it through their sides.

 

[1crazymofo]

just looking for detritus or food

 

[elegance coral]

This is a common practice with herbivours, dating all the way back to dinosours. Plant material is very hard to digest. Animals consume rocks, pebbles, and sand to help grind up this material. It's important to provide tangs with sand to help insure they get the nutrition they need from the food they eat.
Back in the day, I had a yellow tang in a tank with a crushed coral substrate. You can see the lumps in its belly from the large chuncks of crushed coral it had eaten.

 

[smokieroom]

Cool thanks for the responses I'm glad to see it is normal i'll quit worrying about it.

 

[namxas]

Elegance Coral nailed it...they do this for the digestion of tough vegetable matter.