Kole yellow eye tang... not eating?

[Lion-o]

Hi all,

We purposefully purchased a tiny kole tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus) around 2" for our elos midi. I think he's picking at food here and there but we've never actually seen the little guy eat. I have not seen his belly looking very full, which is why i'm posting.

He was in qt for a week but seemed terrified of us big scary humans, so after a couple days of nori mysteriously disappearing in the tank I thought we could try moving him to the display tank. Personality has improved as he does do laps with the other fish but still not eating when we're around.

We feed meaty pellets, frozen mix (mysis, etc), and I have the nori clip dangling. Plus lots of natural algae in the tank for grazing opportunities. I tried searching for other issues but didn't find anything aside from dietary posts and I seem to be covering the bases. Any thoughts?

Btw - is there any difference between the nori I would find at the LFS vs grocery store?

thanks,
danny

[CedzAquAddictio]

They get most of their nutrition from grazing on the rocks, and are extremely shy without much coverage in the QT tank. I'm pretty sure he ate while you weren't around. I had to leave the room, and peak around the corner to catch mine eating.

Be careful of grocery store nori. Some of it is packed with phosphates, some of it is good...

[Dr Colliebreath]

Try algae flakes and using a rubber band to attach the nori to a small piece of rock. Some fish don't like eating from a clip at first.

Grocery store nori is fine so long as it isn't roasted, seasoned, or otherwise treated.

[Lion-o]

thanks, thats what i thought :)

We are worrysome parents and his tummy just looks like its going the wrong direction. Will try and keep a close eye on him over the next week.

[Lion-o]

hey guys,

I managed to get the wifey to take some video of the new guy (temporarily operating under the name Ringo).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKrajSb2OzE&feature=youtu.be

The vid is quick and for whatever reason didnt upload as HD (I'm new to that).. but you can kinda see his belly and personality in the vid. It still looks to me to be pretty indented in the wrong direction :\ Thoughts?

[slgcmg]

He is definitely afraid. Best to stay as far away from tank as possible. Does you Lfs sell red graciliera macro algae? Tangs love that stuff. Was he like that at the Lfs?

[Lion-o]

not sure... we've bought red caulerpa in the past but I haven't been in in a while. Could give them a call.

My wife picked him up at the store, so I'll have to check with her. Thing is, most of our fish start off shy cause we always go for the tiny ones (to watch them grow and such). Problem with that logic is sometimes it takes them a while to get eating :\ This guy has been a bit more scaredy cat than most.

[Lion-o]

So the wife confirmed that in the store he was both swimming and hiding around. pretty normal stuff.

Checked with our LFS and they don't have any gracilaria. Are there any other recommendeds?

Btw, the frozen food we have is marine cuisine and our pellets are elos svM2.

the only other fish i've had this much trouble getting to eat was a green mandarin!

[Dr Colliebreath]

You could also try spirulina-enriched brine shrimp and Hikari mysis.

[slgcmg]

Honestly the graciliera is your best bet in my opinion. Saved a naso with it. Try ordering it online

[slgcmg]

Are you soaking the nori and frozen in garlic?

[Lion-o]

I avoid using garlic with my fish due to an earlier study I read that determined garlic was actually temporary relief at best (and could seriously hurt your fish). Sorry, i don't have a link to the study handy but I think you could find it if you searched on here :)

We noticed what might be a couple spots of ich on him today. After 2 weeks of QT at the store, + display time, and we bought him and QT'd him starting on Dec 29th. Does that time table seem regular? I thought ich would've showed up before then. It would explain the lack of appetite though...

Here are a couple pics, but they're not very good quality... there is some stuff floating in the water so I circled what I thought might be ich. We managed to catch him and throw him back in QT and will see how it develops...

[Lion-o]

One more thing to note, I'm kind of sad that we had to remove him because he actually was improving in activity. Swimming around the tank alot and not really eating , but occasionally looked to be picking at the algae here or there. He seemed a lot less scared of us then we had to go and scare him again as we caught him and moved him to QT :\

[slgcmg]

If it were me I would have left him in there if he was starting to gain confidence and eat. I just don't like pulling already weakened fish from their environment. You can do more harm then good.

I know the article you speak of and it is more referring to using garlic every day. I only use it to try and get a picky eater to eat. Most do that as well

[MrTuskfish]

A healthy kole tang should eat anything. IMO, its far more important to find out the cause than just feeding everything under the sun. If he starts eating, I doubt it will be the food and it sure won't be any magic garlic. Two weeks in a QT is nowhere near long enough for a new fish. A good QT has plenty of hiding places and, contrary to many opinions (IMO & IME), a QT is not a stressful place. I'd get him back in the QT, worm with Prazi Pro and check carefully for parasites. Offer good meaty and veggie foods.

[mayjong]

my kole did not eat for eat least two weeks.
now he eats everythiiiiiiiiiing

[Lion-o]

thanks for all the feedback. I agree that QT should not be a stressful place, and don't think the fish was stressed by QT. Rather, just terrified of humans entering the room. I would sneak and glance around the corner to see him swimming happily around, but once I enter the room (even at a snail's pace) he would immediately swim to shelter and stay there until I had left. That is why I decided to move him into the display once he was showing signs of possibly starting to eat. In hindsight, I don't think I'll ever move another fish until it starts eating, etc... so lesson learned there.

[slgcmg]

How's he doing?

[Lion-o]

No change yet. If we don't see improvement soon I think we're going to take the cop out response and return him to the LFS. I hate to do that, but we're going to be gone for the long weekend and I'd rather have somebody taking care of him at that time. Cross your fingers..

[MrTuskfish]

No change yet. If we don't see improvement soon I think we're going to take the cop out response and return him to the LFS. I hate to do that, but we're going to be gone for the long weekend and I'd rather have somebody taking care of him at that time. Cross your fingers..

Fingers crossed not just for the tang; but he could have easily brought disease or parasites into your DT. Monitor your fish closely for a while; some parasites can take weeks to become visible.

[ca1ore]

thanks for all the feedback. I agree that QT should not be a stressful place, and don't think the fish was stressed by QT. Rather, just terrified of humans entering the room. I would sneak and glance around the corner to see him swimming happily around, but once I enter the room (even at a snail's pace) he would immediately swim to shelter and stay there until I had left. That is why I decided to move him into the display once he was showing signs of possibly starting to eat. In hindsight, I don't think I'll ever move another fish until it starts eating, etc... so lesson learned there.

I find tangs to be quite twitchy in QT. Adding lots of PVC helps, but they all seem to run for cover (except my current Naso who behaves a bit more lik a dog than a fish).

[woodnaquanut]

Anyone ever try to put dither fish in with the QT fish? I've had similar experiences with fish in QT. They don't seem to exhibit normal behavior, being much more shy and twitchy. That got me thinking about their normal habitat and what would make QT a more natural situation. Being all alone (solitary confinement!) doesn't seem close to normal.

Within a day or so of being in the DT, the formally shy fish would be out in front, eating like a pig and ignoring us on the dry side!

If you tried using dither fish, what fish was the dither?

Even if you haven't tried dither fish, any thoughts on appropriate dither fish? Ideally they would be free swimming, cheap, tough and non-aggressive.

[GroktheCube]

My C. binotatus tang was extremely shy at first as well, and it took him a while to figure out Nori from a clip.

[Lion-o]

Anyone ever try to put dither fish in with the QT fish? I've had similar experiences with fish in QT. They don't seem to exhibit normal behavior, being much more shy and twitchy. That got me thinking about their normal habitat and what would make QT a more natural situation. Being all alone (solitary confinement!) doesn't seem close to normal.

Within a day or so of being in the DT, the formally shy fish would be out in front, eating like a pig and ignoring us on the dry side!

If you tried using dither fish, what fish was the dither?

Even if you haven't tried dither fish, any thoughts on appropriate dither fish? Ideally they would be free swimming, cheap, tough and non-aggressive.

i have not personally tried this but I have seen people put 6 line wrasse / yellow tangs in their frag tank. That could be in theory transferred to QT to keep the other fish company.

However, seems a pretty sad existence for the dither fish!!

[Marshall O]

I have a pair of clowns in my 46BF that I use as a QT. It has lots of live rock, powerheads, skimmer, UV, HOB 'fuge, etc. I don't use medicines in this tank obviously (just Prazi-pro), but I have found keeping the clowns in there definitely aids in getting new fish acclimated and eating. From my experience, most fish are very nervous being the only fish in the tank (think of being out in the reef when there are no fish to be found...). Whenever I QT a fish by itself, it will almost always stay hidden away all day vs. out and about when there are others with it.

So I guess the moral is, as long as the dither fish are not bullies and are on the hardy side, I am all for keeping them in with new fish.

[woodnaquanut]

Thanks to Loin-o and Marshall O.

I have never seen this topic discussed before and was wondering if I had come up with a brilliant leap forward in QT! Of course it could also be an 'as dumb as a bag of rocks' idea! :) Turns out it's not a new idea and might not be dumb!

To be fair to the OP, I'll move this over to the QT section and see what others think.