Tips/tricks for getting a 2.5-3" blonde Naso eating

Dmorty217

Dmorty217

Saltwater Addict
My buddy and I both purchased Blonde Nasos from a LFS that get their livestock from A&M. The one i got came in looking healthy and is eating frozen and formula 2 flakes. The one my friend got is skinny and not accepting prepared foods, although it is picking at the macro in the 55g it's in. Question is does anyone have any tips for getting this guy to eat? I figure it has till the end of this week before it dies from malnutrition... I have all the stuff I need besides a angiocath to force feed the tang if need be but since I am yet to attempt this on a fish as of yet Im a little hesitant to resort to that but will if all else fails. I know all the tricks so Im looking for something outside of "garlic"...:uhoh3:
 
Feed any type of food you can find both dry and frozen, even meety foods (my exiting Naso preferes meaty foods like bloodworms mysis etc...)

Feed any type of macro algae you can find.
Try different colors of nori.
Try shredding the nori and letting small pieces float in the tank.
Try cutting the nori into thin strips and rubberbanding them to rock, also try rubberbanding them to the top of the water column.

From my few experiences and from what I have read small Naso's that don't eat are usually very difficult to get feeding.
 
I have julian sprung purple,green and red. I was told tonight the was picking at the green nori when shredded up in the water column so that's a plus. I will get some of the new era grazer rings and give them a try. The naso isn't interested in brine,mysis, flakes of any kind, pellets or some home made food I made with 13 different ingredients in it plus selcon, vitachem, amino acids ect. I have had nothing but bad luck with naso tangs in general but this is he first blonde
 
Derrick, I was in the same predicament recently. I have a pacific Naso in ttm (tomorrow is the last day!) and after prazi hit the water he refused to eat for 6!!!! Days. Yesterday he began going after food. I say don't give up. I used good old mysis.

When my sohal was just brought home, he wouldn't eat anything. Period. Then slowly accepted nori and that's all he ate for a month. All of a sudden now he eats anything: mysis, plankton, flakes, pellet. :) don't know what to make of it.

I say keep at the nori, get him eating a lot of it because that's all my sohal would eat for a month.

John
 
snorvich said:
My two "go to" foods for difficult eaters are capelin fish roe and nutramar ova.
Click to expand...

Is Nutramar producing this again? Over the summer they had some disclaimer out that it would be a few months or more before they would have this available again... Never even crossed my mind again since reading that.
 
jbvdhp said:
Derrick, I was in the same predicament recently. I have a pacific Naso in ttm (tomorrow is the last day!) and after prazi hit the water he refused to eat for 6!!!! Days. Yesterday he began going after food. I say don't give up. I used good old mysis.

When my sohal was just brought home, he wouldn't eat anything. Period. Then slowly accepted nori and that's all he ate for a month. All of a sudden now he eats anything: mysis, plankton, flakes, pellet. :) don't know what to make of it.

I say keep at the nori, get him eating a lot of it because that's all my sohal would eat for a month.

John
Click to expand...

The fish isn't in my care, neither is the one that's currently eating. I'm just trying to help my buddy out because he seems to always get the fish that won't eat or end up dying. He convinced the fish isn't going to make it and is ****ed that the LFS won't say anything to A&M about the poor specimen that was sent because of the price we payed for the fish...:hammer:
 
I have had bad luck with blonde Nasos also. My theory is that the majority of them are cyanide caught, and even if you get them eating, they die suddenly after a few weeks or even a few months because of it. I have a heallthy one in my tank at the moment but it took me a few before I got that one. The first 3 came from one LFS, and the healthy one came from a different LFS. His cost a bit more because he gets them in at a larger size and they are usually male. But his seem to be healthy whereas the other LFS seem to be fine at first but then die within a few weeks to a few months for no apparent reason.

The black Nasos primarily come from Hawaii and seem to be far easier to deal with than the blondes. At least that is my experience.

That being said, live blackworms will often get a fish to eat that wont take anything else.
 
pinnatus said:
I have had bad luck with blonde Nasos also. My theory is that the majority of them are cyanide caught, and even if you get them eating, they die suddenly after a few weeks or even a few months because of it. I have a heallthy one in my tank at the moment but it took me a few before I got that one. The first 3 came from one LFS, and the healthy one came from a different LFS. His cost a bit more because he gets them in at a larger size and they are usually male. But his seem to be healthy whereas the other LFS seem to be fine at first but then die within a few weeks to a few months for no apparent reason.

The black Nasos primarily come from Hawaii and seem to be far easier to deal with than the blondes. At least that is my experience.

That being said, live blackworms will often get a fish to eat that wont take anything else.
Click to expand...

The cyanide thing scares me too, since I have heard this several times before... Always awesome when you figure out something when it's too late
 
pinnatus said:
I have had bad luck with blonde Nasos also. My theory is that the majority of them are cyanide caught, and even if you get them eating, they die suddenly after a few weeks or even a few months because of it.
Click to expand...

I have "heard" that from multiple sources but do not "know" that. Anyone have definitive information?
 
pinnatus said:
I have had bad luck with blonde Nasos also. My theory is that the majority of them are cyanide caught, and even if you get them eating, they die suddenly after a few weeks or even a few months because of it. I have a heallthy one in my tank at the moment but it took me a few before I got that one. The first 3 came from one LFS, and the healthy one came from a different LFS. His cost a bit more because he gets them in at a larger size and they are usually male. But his seem to be healthy whereas the other LFS seem to be fine at first but then die within a few weeks to a few months for no apparent reason.

The black Nasos primarily come from Hawaii and seem to be far easier to deal with than the blondes. At least that is my experience.

That being said, live blackworms will often get a fish to eat that wont take anything else.
Click to expand...


Hmm, that may explain why my first one died 3-4 weeks in.
 
I only tried one and it died in qt eating and otherwise healthy. Right about one month in. Other tangs it was with in qt are still doing well, that was about 2yrs ago.
 
I currently have a blond Naso in QT. The only thing she would touch for the first 3 weeks was Ulva attached to rock with a rubber band (wouldn't touch it if it was floating). I tried other types of macro that I grow in my sumps/fuges including Caulerpa prolifera, Gracilaria, and Chaeto, but she ignored them (along with frozen, flake, pellets, etc...). She is just now starting to come around to other types of food. May be worth a shot.
 
Thanks guys, anyone have any literature or online sources that site cyanide as the reason for unexplained deaths?
 
^I'd like to know too, the first pacific I had did well in CP, PP, and TTM, then suddenly 3-4 weeks in, on the LAST day of TTM, into the FIRST day of QT... I found it stuck to the intake end of a powerhead. Don't know if being stuck to a PW/MJ for a few hours did it in, but if it was healthy enough, it should have been able to swim away...
 
Back when I started in this hobby, cyanide was rampant. You'd buy seemingly healthy fish and they would eat and look great, then suddenly die. In the past 10 years, I have had very little trouble with any fish that seemed to have been caught with cyanide. I thought the practice was completely eliminated. Until I tried a blonde Naso, then another, then another. I have kept many (black) Nasos over the years, and I have always found them to be hardy and easy to keep. When I tried a Blonde, then I began having trouble. After trying and losing 3 or 4, I remembered back to my early days and thought that the deaths seem to be very similar to the deaths back in the day from cyanide. So my evidence is purely anecdotal, but when I switched to an LFS that KNOWS his fish are not cyanide caught, I again have no trouble.
 
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