How to get a baby tang to try nori?

[matgilbert]

Hi whats up guys? Last week I was at one of the local fish places and brought home a young 1.5 inch Tomini tang. I only have a 65 gallon tank (36x18x24) so I couldn't resist the opportunity of such a small tang that will grow with the tank but not outgrow it anytime soon.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2369/2256432389_19df4b7891.jpg

He has been eating well, and is constantly grazing on the rockwork. There's actually a part of the rock where I can see how much he's been chowing down!

Right now, he's getting some tropical fish flake and frozen spirulina brine shrimp. I know tangs are heribvores, so I bought a box of sushi nori, but I haven't been able to get him to eat it. I don't have any veggie clips yet, so I was using my little mag-float cleaner to hold the nori stationary in the tank, and the Tang will have none of it. Even my skunk cleaner shrimp has gone over and checked it out, I'm thinking maybe the tang is scared/intimidated by the mag cleaner?

Maybe the people at the fish store just never gave it greenery before? Does anybody have any suggestions of how to make the nori more appealing or a different type of thing I could feed him. Also, what about fresh lettuce? Is there any kind that would be better? (i.e. iceberg vs. romaine)

http://images.marinedepot.com/IMD/250/TL3353/TL3353_99.jpg

MarineDepot carries that, and I think I may order it in any event but I wanted to see what you guys had to say about it.

[BLKTANG]

rubberband a piece around a piece of liverock.Try soaking it in garlic juice first,or Selcon.

[BLKTANG]

The sea veggies is what i use.

[demonsp]

Ive tried differant brands and mine only seems to perfer one and whene put in the tank he goes nuts for it.

[matgilbert]

Alright maybe I will have better luck with one of those seaweed products. Is there any difference between the green/red/purple algae or is it just marketing hype?

[BLKTANG]

Mine seam to favor the green,i have them all.

[Dave Cox]

Nutritionally I doubt there's much difference between the purple or green seaweed... but some fish certainly seem to prefer one to the other.

Buy your Nori at the supermarket in the oriental foods section. It's identical to the Julian Sprung product at about a quarter of the price !

[Reeftanks6]

Put the nori in the tank and he will eventually go up to it and pick at it. Then get interested and eat it if he likes it. Thats what i did.

[2farNorth]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11816477#post11816477 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BLKTANG
rubberband a piece around a piece of liverock.Try soaking it in garlic juice first,or Selcon.

Mine wouldn't touch Nori until I rubberbanded some to a small piece of rock, when it starts eating if off the rock, gradually move it to the glass, in the meentime keep the clip in the tank for them to get used to it.... works everytime!!! Then when you make the move from the rock to the clip, keep the clip low and work it up over time!!

[ACBlinky]

I used to use my MagFloat to pin the nori against the glass, but found that fish were a little scared of going under the magnet. I tried epoxying a clip to the magnet, so the nori is off the glass, and everyone relaxed.

Try soaking the nori in garlic, selcon and vitamins as BLKTANG suggested -- the HUFAs and vitamins will keep him healthy, and the garlic will attract him -- and give the tang some time. It took mine a little while to figure things out, but once she did, she became a nori hog overnight!

[petoonia]

I had the same problem with my Kole tang. It took awhile, but I just kept putting it in everyday, and now he eats it like a pig.

[a2fire2i]

Have you tried the airplane method? No baby can resist it!!!

:-D