tips on getting tang to eat

[sample789]

Just picked up a new tang and ive had him for 3 days now and he will only pick stuff off my rock he wont eat seaweed or anything i try to feed him. all the other tangs ive bought have eaten the day after i put them in ive tried the garlic but it didnt work and i tried banding the seaweed to a rock is there any other tricks that i could try out

[geaux xman]

tried mysis shrimp?

[treylane]

It's fairly common for some kinds of tangs that have picked algae off the rocks all their lives to be a bit slow to take on the feeding habits of a planktivore. And big hunks of nori can scare them too. :headwallblue:

Make sure you have other fish in the tank that pick food out of the water column so he can learn from them, and keep trying different sizes/locations for the nori. Usually all they need is patience and he should start going after the nori in a few days and frozen/flake food in a few weeks.

[sample789]

Cool I have a few others in there witjh him that eat like crazy hopefully he will catch on and I've tried brine mysis spiriluna brine and pellets

[PFCDeitz]

Soak your food in garlic. I use spectrum pellets with garlic and I would put a half sheet of nori drenched in Garlic and my Hippo went right for it.

[aleonn]

I've tried garlic-soaked NLS pellets, as well as garlic-soaked Nori seaweed with good success. Also, as mentioned, if there are other fish in QT with him that are eating, they'll provide a good example to the new one.

[rssjsb]

What kind of tang?

[davocean]

Some take longer, especially since your tank may be more mature and have live vegetation growing on rocks more that when previous were intro'd.
Soaking nori helps.
What tangs do you have mixed, and what size tank?

[rleepremier]

I had this same problem with my hippo. I tried nori both on a rock and on a clip. After not eating for a few days, my naso and coral beauty were feeding aggressively off of the clip and pulled a piece of nori off which then found it's way to the powerhead where it was shredded. My hippo imediately went for the tiny pieces. I would try putting a very small piece into your powerhead or just shred it up into tiny flakes.

[MrTuskfish]

IME, even though tangs are considered herbivores, they will usually eat mysis or spirulina enriched brine as a first food.

[rssjsb]

I asked what kind of tang it is because some of them are known to be more finicky than others. Nasos are notorious for this, Koles also. I finally got my Kole tang to eat Sera spirulina tabs in QT before it ate anything else. You stick them to the side of the tank and the fish can graze at its leisure. All my fish love them.

[anbosu]

Live brine is good to get tangs eating as well.

[MechEng99]

I would try getting a hold of some fresh red Agar, Ulva, and/or Gracilaria. ORA sells the Agar & Ulva, so your LFS should be able to get a hold of some if they carry ORA corals. Superglue a piece onto some live rock rubble, and let it sit on the bottom of your tank. The tang will treat it just like any other algae on the rocks. Add more as the tang eats it, and slowly move that piece of rubble closer and closer to the glass. Once it gets close to the glass, have an algae clip with Nori in it there. The tang will hopefully start to associate that part of the glass with food, and will associate the Nori as food as well. That will keep your tang eating until you can wean him onto pellet food.

I've noticed that some fish when they first come in will only eat seaweed...and about a month later will start going for everything naturally. It may be (my speculation only) that they need certain vitamins that the seaweed provides that they have depleted. Once they are healthy, they'll take any/all food in. I view it like pregnancy cravings. :) What is craved is often actually needed.

[sample789]

it is a clown tang and a kole tang i no clowns are very delicate and are hard to get to start eating he is getting something from the rocks cuz he isnt skinny he has a belly on him the kole is already eating mysis spiruluna brine seaweed and spectrum pellets i have noticed the clown will eat a couple pieces of shrimp but most of it he spits back out which leads me to another question can tangs get lock jaw? im hoping the more he watches the others and the more comfortable he gets in the tank that he will open up and start eating he is still small probably 2.5 inches thanks for all the help ive been trying the garlic tricks and shredded seaweed since i got him i just was hoping someone might have a different trick to try. im trying to get my hands on some macroalgae i have a buddy at work who has a crapload its just getting it from him

[dunning3075]

I use culerpa the leafy kind to get my tangs to eat. You dont want to keep it in the display cause it can go asexual but I give some to every customer that buys a naso or kole from me. Its just to keep them healthy until they learn from the other fish to eat from the water column.

[sample789]

he finally ate some brine today hopefully now he will start eating his veggies