The Yellow Tang Salad Bar

[bluelair]

So my 2 1/2" yellow tang was looking gaunt. (My tank has been doing a lot better since I started running carbon again.) However, the tang seemed to be foraging an awful lot but getting thinner and thinner. I tried feeding him Nori, but I couldn't get him to take it. The suction cup clip just didn't work, he didn't go near it and it would dissolve and end up in the skimmer.

I came across this tip online, and it worked really well (see video). Wrap a piece of rubble with several layers of the seaweed, then use A LOT of rubberbands around the nori to keep it in place. I made mine about the size of a golfball. The rubberbands keep the nori from floating away and the tang loves to pick at the little bits that come off. This piece has been in the tank for about 3 days now and it hosts said tang, 2 cleaner shrimp, and some snails when they find it. One large turbo vacuumed up 1/2 the Nori so I'll probably have to re-wrap it soon. The tang has a nice fat little tang belly (i swear it looks a shade of lime green!) and seems to be doing much better.

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:beer:

The rest of the tank:
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[OwenInAZ]

Good to hear. Thanks for sharing

 

[ynnhoj86]

thanks for the idea. i tried it out and came home and the rock was half way cleaned off

 

[Reeefer]

I don't have a problem with the fish going for the Nori at all. It gets picked sooo much that eventually it does come off the clip and head for the overflow. I'm gonna have to try this though to see if it lasts even longer.

 

[bluelair]

The secret is using lots of rubber bands, try to cover most of the surface, leaving gaps in between, that keeps even the disintegrated pieces pinched in place a lot longer. The fish and inverts will have to work a little to get at it, but that keeps them occupied.

It's kind of like one of those wire mesh bird feeders, in fact a coarse plastic mesh (like screening) would probably make a good wrapping as well.

 

[Frank AZ]

Mines not too picky about how he gets it - but - I use the rubble method - much easier than the clip (and with the clip it ends up loose and hanging on the overflow)

 

[KarlBob]

We tried this to entice a lawnmower blenny to eat nori. It worked, and now he'll try a nip of just about anything we put in the tank (especially our fingers, the territorial little @#$%).