tang and algae

[saabtech]

i keep a ball of cheato in the DT.
do i still need to offer algae sheets to the gold rim tang.
(he doesnt seem to eat off the aglae sheets, the snails get to it and eat it all) he eats brine, brine/spiru mix and mysis like CRAZY!
any other food suggestions would be welcome, i just want to offer him everything he needs.

[FireWater]

I have never been able to get any of my algae eaters to touch chaeto. I put pieces of dried algae in the tank for short amounts of time on a clip. Also, you can buy other live materials that they will eat and you can keep it in your fuge and then just add a little at a time to your tank. Gracilaria (sp?) is one of the live macros - I believe

[justahobby]

IME I don't think it's uncommon for a tang to not accept nori on a clip initially. If it's used to catching frozen food: Have you tried letting a small piece dissolve seeing if it will chase the small pieces. My first tang wouldn't eat nori for the first couple months and then one...... The one I have now didn't consider it food until I held it for her and waited patiently. Now I could hide it and she would hunt down like a blood hound.

I've watched a tang eat chaeto before and it was a long, tedious process to nibble off a piece. It's a very coarse aglae.

[kkiel02]

My powder brown loves algae clips, I havent seen him really eat my chaeto. My purple and sailfin love chaeto though.

[lt1z28]

You can try attaching a piece of the algae sheet to a rock with a rubberband. Once he begins to eat off the rock, place your clip with a piece of algae next to the rock. I trained all of my tangs to eat off the clip using this method.

[corruption]

You can try attaching a piece of the algae sheet to a rock with a rubberband. Once he begins to eat off the rock, place your clip with a piece of algae next to the rock. I trained all of my tangs to eat off the clip using this method.

Great suggestion... If you've actually got fish that will eat chaeto, as well, I'd call it luck... its widely considered one of the least palatable of the macroalgaes, and very little consumes it outright... My blenny bites it, then spits it back out like it was an insult to his algae-grazing tendencies :D

-Justin

[jroescher]

My yellow tang eats lettuce. And he loves brocolli.



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[carong]

I try to put small branch of brocolli in one day and all of my tangs eat it all in one day, try to put some soft vegy and see what he like and feed him less and less shrimp, he will eat the veg.

[d3rryc]

You might also try kombu from the asian market as well. It's a seaweed that's prominent in Japanese recipes.

[Submariner]

How about spirulina flakes as a supplement? My Tangs love it. Supposed to be good for them.

[allan]

My hippo wouldn't eat from the clip either for a while... even while watching the other fish eat from it (yellow rim, naso, starry, cleaner wrass, and the cow fish). I lessened the feeding of other foods until I saw him nibbling from it hesitantly.

Now they all eat from it. I don't put it in as often as I should though. The cowfish goes in there and makes such a mess I'm worried the other fish aren't getting it all before it becomes lost in the rock.

[saabtech]

he did it! he did it!.
the powder brown started eating algae from a clip!

boy he is looking good. i am glad i didnt give up on him when i got so overwelmed with the QT and hyposalinity.

[cowboy572]

To get my Powder Blue to eat from a algae clip at first was to put drops or garlic and let it soak and dry on to the nori. Now he just eats up that nori, no garlic at all.

[msmith619]

None of my tangs (Naso, Blue hippo, yellow) will touch chaeto. I have had no success with clips either, they are scared of the clip and waving nori. They all LOVE Spirulina flakes. I also feed enriched frozen brine with spirulina. I have had these tangs for about a year with good growth and color. I have always felt lateral line disease in tangs is related to poor nutrition and these guys are fat, happy, growing, in full color and no signs of lateral line disease. Also, I put caulerpa prolifera from the fuge in the tank about once a month when decreasing the macro there and they eat that.