Help: powder blue not eating

[reefhead165]

Hey guys i got this powder about a month ago and it seems like it doesn't want to graze on the algae that i put in the tank. All he does is graze on the side of the glass. He looks like he is starting to get a pinch belly...:mad:. I have been feeding green, red, and brown algae. He does seem to care for it. I clip it to a rock and the other 2 tang eat it but not the powder. Back to the algae what one is better? is it good to give the tangs a variety rather just one kind. I never really hear anyone giving there fish brown or red.

[shifty51008]

I have always fed mine plain seaweed from the china store that is used for sushi, and my tangs always enjoyed it.

have you tried other types of food other than seaweed? mysis shrimp, cyclopeese, brine shrimp, ect. also have you tried soaking the seaweed in garlic extract 1st? that usually helps entice them.

have you noticed any spots on the tang like ich, velvet, ect.?

[reefhead165]

i did the garlic and he eats a little that way... i saw 2 white but i believe they are gone now....

[shifty51008]

haven't tried feeding anything else?

the tang may have ich and even though you say they are gone they will come back but worse, but again I don't know for sure if thats the prob. but it could be the cause, and powder blues are one of the worse tangs to get ich.

[stevek480]

Try soaking the seaweed in some Selcon, my tang loves that.

[Flame_Angel]

Try soaking the seaweed in some Selcon, my tang loves that.
This is sage advice. I always use Selcon when I'm confronted with picky or listless eaters, and it's great stuff. Just be careful you don't put too much into the tank at one time. :thumbsup:

[Allmost]

I feed my tangs a mix of mysis shrimp and nori

they love it.

unfortunetly no algea grows in my tank anymore for them to eat, so I have to feed more I guess

[stevek480]

I feed my tangs a mix of mysis shrimp and nori

they love it.

unfortunetly no algea grows in my tank anymore for them to eat, so I have to feed more I guess

Sounds like a good problem to have!

[Allmost]

Sounds like a good problem to have!

lol thanks to Zeovit.

a note on the selcon though, the useful shelf life on them is less than 1 month old !!! I heard it from their representatives ! I will try to find the link for it and post it here. really shocking as there are no expiry date and well it ususally takes a month for it to hit the LFS shelf lol I wanted to enrich seahorse fry food with it and was adviced not to ! not sure if they loose 100% potency or some though.

I have a bottel and still once in a while soak food in it, (best not to let the soaked water be added to the tank.) but as it seems its useless :(

[stevek480]

I was curious about this, so I sent American Marine an email:

Steve K <***@gmail.com> Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:36 PM
To: info@americanmarineusa.com

Hello,

I just bought your product Selcon and I am using it to soak food for my saltwater reef before adding it. So far my fish seem to love it!

I have one question though, is there an expiration date for the bottle? It doesn't state any shelf life that I can see. Thanks.

Steve Kraatz

***@bestweb.net <***@bestweb.net> Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Reply-To: ***@bestweb.net
To: Steve K <***@gmail.com>

Discard the open bottle after 6 months. Refrigeration is not helpful to the product.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

[Allmost]

hmm yea, from my source 12 months shelf life, 1 month after opening !

I kinda trust this source as he is one of the biggest breeders of clowns and seahorses !

not cool how they dont put those info on the label though . cause noone knows when it was made lol

[reefhead165]

okay back to the topic......my tang is slowly starting to eat, i feed it vita chem with garlic guard (mysis and brine. I think the problem is more or less territory problem between him and the yellow tang. i notice that they would get into battles when the algae would go in. So now i put two different clips of algae in one brown and one red.....the powder blue seem to graze a little on the red algae. Any further suggestions?

[mal1099]

yeah i feed my tangs Nori,spectrum pellet,mysis,arctic pods and krill. gived them alot of protien and keeps them nice and fat. I also soak my food 2 times a week in garlic and vit c. Yeah i have 4 tangs and i use 3 clips to feed them the nori if i didnt the bigger ones keep the smaller guys away. btw i have a Blue Hippo, Orange Shoulder, Bariene and Sohal they pretty much get along most of the time and i added them in the order listed since that sohal is a bully and he is the smallest of the 4.

[reefhead165]

Does anyone agree that red algae is better to get the powder blue to eat

[stevek480]

I have this pack of seaweed from Rod's food that had purple algae in it, and my tangs seem to love that the most. Second best seems to be red.