Picky eater - Naso tang

[karimwassef]

I got 3 tangs and one rabbit in my 380gal to eat a hair algae bloom.
My Naso started eating the hair immediately but then stopped. The hair is rooted in a sand layer on my rock from a sand storm a few weeks ago.

I don't know if he doesn't like the taste of hair or prefers other food? He eats nori like a puppy dog on treats, but I got him to keep the tang clear of hair. I haven't fed for 3 days and all the other fish eat the hair (purple, juvenile sailfin, two bar rabbit). My sea hares, urchins, emerald crabs, arrow crab, and hermits eat the hair too but 380gal is a lot of hair.

My conditions are good (temp 77, salinity 35, pH 8.37, dKH 8, Ca 400). Coral polyp expansion is good. All the other fish have full bellies.

He's getting a sunken belly. Could he be picky to the point of self starvation?

Again, he eats nori readily so I don't think he's sick - just super picky?

[karimwassef]

Day 1
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[karimwassef]

Day 3
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[karimwassef]

Day 7
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[ca1ore]

Seems like people are having a lot of trouble with Naso tangs these days. It is close to an unkeepable fish for me and I think it's designation as easy/moderate should be changed. I never had Naso's in the past eat GHA in my tanks, so you were ahead of the game, at least for a while. When I kept one sucessfully some years ago it ate nori, yes, but I also fed it a lot of meaty stuff. It's a fish that needs pretty heavy feeding to keep weight on.

Doesn't seem like you have had it all that long, assume you didn't QT? Looks healthy enough, but the silent killer is often collection practices with these fish. That is my explanation as to why I can no longer keep them - after all, it couldn't be anything I'm doing!

[karimwassef]

He's tank raised (as in grew up from a juvenile in a tank). This fish belonged to another reef keeper for about 5 years. He and the purple tang and a cleaner wrasse were raised together in his tank. I had only a juvenile sailfin and rabbit in a 90day old tank. I got them together to form a stable and non-aggressive fish base. So quarantine was the DT - nothing to infect really.

The purple eats hair, but prefers nori. I eat nori myself as a snack, by the way. The hair is absurdly bad smelling (like skimmer output) by the way. Not sure why, and I've never bothered to smell it before his pickiness to eat.

[snorvich]

Tangs tend to process food poorly. As a consequence they eat a lot and poop a lot to get sufficient nutrition. I doubt that you can keep any tang feeding only hair algae since they need vegetable and meaty foods frequently fed.

[karimwassef]

:( wish someone had told me that before

[karimwassef]

So I got a fish to maintain my tank and he needs special maintenance...

I put some flake in there and he gobbled it up. I didn't dip it in selcon this time just to see how he reacts and it didn't phase him.

[Stevenliu9]

Tangs tend to process food poorly. As a consequence they eat a lot and poop a lot to get sufficient nutrition. I doubt that you can keep any tang feeding only hair algae since they need vegetable and meaty foods frequently fed.

Agreed, hair algae alone is not sustainable diet for tangs and rabbit. My yellow tanh and foxface do keep my tank clear of hair algae as they pick on rock all day long, but i also feed them nori daily plus flake and high protein food a few times a week like pe mysis

[karimwassef]

For clarification:

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<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/26532538-44BB-4D16-B66D-4A7FA4E52623_zpsonywxzyo.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/26532538-44BB-4D16-B66D-4A7FA4E52623_zpsonywxzyo.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 26532538-44BB-4D16-B66D-4A7FA4E52623_zpsonywxzyo.jpg"/></a>

I have 380gals of hair. My tank back is in my garage and I live on a lake in TX. The mosquito and gnat volume isn't typical. I didn't do water changes for 2 months and my skimmer was pulling 2 quarts of brown gunk a week.

[snorvich]

I would try a refugium with macro algae. You have a lot of nutrients in that water. Did you, perhaps, use dry rock instead of live rock? (phosphates).

[karimwassef]

I have a DSB and macro algae refugium overflowing with Chaeto.

He likes to eat the Chaeto too, by the way.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/12C10112-45BB-4135-B1C4-94F73DD2A274_zpsvxsxzfrd.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/12C10112-45BB-4135-B1C4-94F73DD2A274_zpsvxsxzfrd.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 12C10112-45BB-4135-B1C4-94F73DD2A274_zpsvxsxzfrd.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/87D77C7F-68AB-4227-8760-E07B97E2DD45_zpsfpukqqrz.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/87D77C7F-68AB-4227-8760-E07B97E2DD45_zpsfpukqqrz.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 87D77C7F-68AB-4227-8760-E07B97E2DD45_zpsfpukqqrz.jpg"/></a>

[karimwassef]

I started it about a month ago. Here's what it looked like
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/81EE9164-248C-454B-BBCD-97954044135D_zpsfisrpetk.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/81EE9164-248C-454B-BBCD-97954044135D_zpsfisrpetk.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 81EE9164-248C-454B-BBCD-97954044135D_zpsfisrpetk.jpg"/></a>

2 weeks ago
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[karimwassef]

So the macro started from 1/2" thick to 2" thick in 4 weeks - and I added 9 urchins, 3 hares, 3 tangs (including my reluctant Naso), 1 rabbit, 100 hermits, and ~20 monster turbos, 9 emeralds, 2 Sallys, and an arrow crab.

[karimwassef]

The rocks are visible again, but it is a war

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[Stevenliu9]

I would recommend tangs in the bristletooth family for your landscaping- like kole tang or to to tomini tang, they will keep the "weed" short after they've been "cut"

[karimwassef]

Thanks. They're not really my favorite looking fish though. Why the bristletooth family? My favorite tangs are hippo regal and powder blue. Are they better than a Naso?

[Stevenliu9]

Thanks. They're not really my favorite looking fish though. Why the bristletooth family? My favorite tangs are hippo regal and powder blue. Are they better than a Naso?

Sorry my suggestion was purely from utility point of view- the structure of their mouth is designed to graze the rock works clean of algae, while most of the tangs you have or are interested have their mouth designed to "nip" on leafy greens such as most macro algae, rather than grazing hair algae.

[karimwassef]

Ah! Great to learn!

[karimwassef]

So... My best hair algae eater is my juvenile sailfin, followed by my rabbit and purple tang. Is the sailfin's mouth more adapted to feeding off hair algae?

[Stevenliu9]

So... My best hair algae eater is my juvenile sailfin, followed by my rabbit and purple tang. Is the sailfin's mouth more adapted to feeding off hair algae?

One interesting observation is when you are at a LFS or aquarium next time, observe their grazing behavior, most of them have a specific preference based on their mouth's adaptation. But I would also say that each fish have their own "taste" for what they like, just like us, some prefer beef over chicken even though we can eat both! Some tangs just have a taste for certain type of algae and some others won't even touch it! (I have a Desjardini and a Chevron in the same tank, and their algae preference is very different).

[karimwassef]

Ok. Come to think of it, the condition of my hair algae also changed after getting the Naso. I got him on a Friday and the hair was long and flowing in the current (4" to 5"). This was when he was pulling on it. On Saturday, I went through a weeding and pulled all the long glowing hair leaving a shorter fuzz cut (1/2" to 1"). He tried a couple of times and gave up.

Even with the nori, he likes it when I cut it into 6" long but thin strands. He gobbles it up like spaghetti.

This didn't really click until now. Thanks.

I'll take a rock of fuzzy hair to my LFSs and see if they can put it into their tang tanks... Let's see of they really value my patronage :)

[karimwassef]

Even my sailfin. He likes the short stuff (<1/2") and won't really go after the 1" unless no new "shoots" are available.

[ca1ore]

I would recommend tangs in the bristletooth family for your landscaping- like kole tang or to to tomini tang, they will keep the "weed" short after they've been "cut"

Interesting because that has not been my experience. Bristletooth tangs, for me, at least, have been good detritovores and consumers of slime algae (though not cyano), but generally poor at removing GHA. Best success for GHA has been with zebrasomas, particularly yellow and scopas. Sailfin is OK, but usually has to be 'shown' by the other tangs. Acanthurus are OK too. My current Achilles does a good job cleaning the rocks, though the GHA has to already be cropped before it really contributes all that much.

[Stevenliu9]

though the GHA has to already be cropped before it really contributes all that much.
Agree with that, My yellow tang and fox face nips on gha but they wouldn't touch it if it's too "long", only if it's stubby. and my bristle tooth guys would "comb" through the rock and trim the "golf lawn" size algae.