Yellow Tang

[Iplantz]

I've had my Yellow tang for like 6 months now, and I haven't been to happy with his color. He was pretty yellow when I got him. I don't know what I'm doing wrong if anything, but I think it could be feeding. I have an algae clip with seaweed everyday. Should I feed different kinds daily?

[RayAllen]

You need to feed him more than just algae. Feed him a mixture of food. Frozen, flake and seaweed.

[Iplantz]

I feed him pellet and flake too. I havent fed frozen in a while. Also he DOES eat at every feeding (voraciously might I add)

[Iplantz]

Man I need to get around to getting a charter membership, waiting for 50 posts is taking forever.

[crossxfire2]

You asked if you should feed him different kinds of food. Then you said that you feed him other kinds of food. To answer your question, Ray said it perfect. Hey, it's all good haha.

[Iplantz]

Well when I said different kinds I was pertaining to the types of algae. I feed all my fish flake, pellet and sometimes frozen. Is just Nori ok?

[marshall.read]

what about his color is bothering you? is he pale, splotchy, etc. Also, has there been a switch in lighting? They fluoresce differently depending on the lighting they are under. They do best under lower spectrum 10000K lighting, really makes the yellow pop.

[SoLiD]

When I first started out in this hobby about 2 years ago, I bought a Purple Tang from Saltwaterfish.com. He was sort of a pale purple, not very pretty, and I was kind of bummed about it. I wanted a deeper richer purple colored fish, but he was what I got, so I just let him be. I guess that's why he was on sale for $35 instead of $90.

Being from the gulf coast area, I started catching small shore grass shrimp for the heck of it and began feeding them to my fish very regularly. It was fun to watch all of my fish go crazy hunting the shrimp down.

As time went by, I noticed my purple tangs color was starting to get slightly darker and his scales were shimmery. Within 2-3 months of continually feeding him (and the other fish) live shore grass shrimp his color became a beautiful deep rich purple and his scales were very shimmery, almost glittery like my wifes eye make up. Needless to say I am very happy about my bargain fish now. Also my Blue Hippo Tang (Dori) had a growth spurt like you wouldn't believe. She went from one of the smallest fish (2 inches) to one of the biggest (5 inches) in less than a year.

After that experience, I am a firm believer that your\our fish and corals do benefit or suffer from the diet we feed them. Live feeder shrimp can get expensive to buy, so if I were you, I'd at least try feeding him frozen brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, or krill. And give it some time to change his outward appearance. You'll see, Like I Did, What a difference a better diet makes on you reef inhabitants.

-David