How much Nori is too much Nori ???

rdmpe · 08/14/2006, 06:46 PM

I have occasionally heard comments in posts where people claim to "always have some nori on a veggie clip in my tank" and I wonder if that is really possible? Maybe my fish are starving? The second I put some nori on a veggie clip, my fish obliterate it.

Is it possible to put enough nori in a tank that the fish will actually, at some point, stop eating it?

Please, I'm serious....

The fish in my tank that eat nori off the clip are
6" sailfin tang
4" blonde naso tang
5" yellow coris wrasse (really!)
5" elegant coris wrasse (seriously!)
4" scribbled rabbitfish
2.5" starry blenny

I also put cheato on the clip, and it goes much more slowly (understandable I suppose). The only fish that eat the cheato regularly are the sailfin, naso and scribbled rabbitfish...

So I'm really interested to hear from people who have these type of fish that just casually graze on nori without totally pigging out on it.

TIA!

bkwudzjeep · 08/14/2006, 06:52 PM

Maybe ask the owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial...

My yellow tang and neon dottyback will take a half a sheet in a few hours.

Tremelle · 08/14/2006, 07:19 PM

My angels and tangs eat it until it's gone also. If I put a full sheet in there it will last about 12 hours.

zuzecawi · 08/14/2006, 09:57 PM

My tang and blenny are hogs... not only will they make a days work of a full sheet, they eat 2 POUNDS of gracilaria a month.

rdmpe · 08/15/2006, 05:04 AM

Is gracilaria a macroalgae? Can it be grown in a fuge? Right now I only have cheato growing in the fuge. I'm trying to get some red grape calurpa going (just for fish food) but it is not really doing anything... I have absolutely no macros in my tank. No microalgae either. I think my sailfin will even eat bubble algae if she finds some. Once I was pulling out a little piece of bubble algae that I found, using tweezers. The piece got loose from the tweezers and the sailfin ate it immediately...

thor32766 · 08/15/2006, 07:26 AM

not for tangs, think about this is the wild all they do is swim and eat algea. They are grazers only eating algea. They dont eat meat until we put them in our tanks. they will eat the nori all day long. we cant come close to what they would do in the ocean in day. keep feeding them. they will love you for it.

zuzecawi · 08/15/2006, 01:55 PM

gracilaria is a macroalgae, it is kinda hard to get growing, I can't grow it quick enough so I buy it by the lb from exoticaquaticsandpets on ebay. (I think that's their name).

jmaneyapanda · 08/15/2006, 02:47 PM

mind your fishes eating habits. I once had an angel that would grab the nori as soon as it went in, and tug so hard it would dislodge the sheet and then he would let it go and it would ghet stuck on the overflow teeth. This wasn't too much to eat, but unless I got it out, it polluted the heck out of my tank. I had to fold it up so many time that he coukldnt get a good grip, he could only graze the edges. unless it is fouling and pollutuing the tank, keep it coming!

rdmpe · 08/16/2006, 05:18 AM

I have the same problem, my fish will rip the whole piece(s) of nori out of the clip all at once. I thought my clip had lost some strength over time.

EvilMel · 08/16/2006, 06:55 AM

I take mine and fold it in half, then I fold one corner over slightly. The side with the small corner that is folded over goes into the clip end and the corner sorta serves as an anchor to hold it in there. My naso will totally rip the entire thing out if I don't do this. She'll also toss is all over the tank.

thor32766 · 08/16/2006, 09:34 AM

yeah my naso does the same thing.

rdmpe · 08/16/2006, 10:59 AM

Maybe I'll try using one of those hair clips with the interlocking teeth!

spoiledcats · 08/16/2006, 01:58 PM

You have some good sized fish that love nori, so one clip may not be enough. I have 2 tangs-hippo about 8" and yellow about 5". I put 1/2 of an 8x8 sheet in, and it lasts most of the day.

rdmpe · 08/16/2006, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by spoiledcats
You have some good sized fish that love nori, so one clip may not be enough. I have 2 tangs-hippo about 8" and yellow about 5". I put 1/2 of an 8x8 sheet in, and it lasts most of the day.

How do you attach it? Also - I assume most of you guys / gals are buying the nori from the grocery store sushi section???

spoiledcats · 08/16/2006, 02:24 PM

I just use a regular seaweed clip, but they wear out eventually. My hippo has hidden one of them behind a rock, so I am down to 1. And yes, I get nori from the Asian market. Too expensive in LFS.

zuzecawi · 08/17/2006, 08:43 AM

Be careful buying asian market nori, some of it includes sesame oil, makes your skimmer go CRAZY!!!

RBirns · 08/17/2006, 09:49 AM

I just added a piece of nori in a clownfish clip for the first time, and it practically disintegrated. Tank is full of bits of seaweed floating around. Did I do something wrong?

rdmpe · 08/17/2006, 11:16 AM

Where did you get the nori? Mine stays together well until it is ripped to shreds by the fish but very little if any goes uneaten. I even used to presoak it with the Kent Zoo (?) vitamin liquid, still didn't fall apart without help from the fish.

RBirns · 08/17/2006, 12:43 PM

Bought the nori at Fairway, a gourmet market in NY. Package is all in Japanese, with a sticker in English saying " Toasted Nori, Ingredients: Seaweed".

rdmpe · 08/17/2006, 01:13 PM

Sounds like mine, except mine was just from a local grocery chain. I don't see why it comes apart easily, I don't think it should.

Steve Atkins · 08/17/2006, 04:37 PM

My lot get Â½ a sheet per week. The main consumers (3 tangs, 2 large damsels and an angel) get through it in about Â½ an hour if I have just fed them anyway or about 10 minutes if I have not. The frozen mix I made up and feed the rest of the time includes about 50% volume of seaweed, made up of 5 varieties fresh seaweed, 3 freeze dried varieties plus nori so the nori on a clip is just a weekend treat.

They sometimes pull it out of the clip and it will snag in a coral, or several, until they have got it finished.

Steve

thor32766 · 08/17/2006, 08:30 PM

yeah randy i get mine at publix in their seafood section. I need to check out an asian store downtown i heard you can get loads of it cheaper there. I feed my guys a sheet a day thats wrapped in romain lettuce!

TCU Reefer · 08/17/2006, 09:32 PM

I get mine from Central Market and used a Mag Float to feed. Very hard for them to rip the whole thing out.

rdmpe · 08/17/2006, 10:14 PM

Hey that's a good idea to wrap it with lettuce - so that forces them to eat some lettuce in order to get to the nori?

I'm going to check out the asian markets as well. I know whenever we go for sushi my wife gets a seaweed salad. That would probably be some good stuff for the tangs too.

jayo · 08/17/2006, 10:36 PM

I like wrapping nori around a rigid airline tube and securing it with a couple small rubber bands (or one bigger band as in the picture) - it makes the fish work a bit harder to get the algae off and makes it unlikely that they can rip off much more than they can fit in their mouths at once (sailfin tang, rainfordi goby).

You can see what I mean:

jayo

08/14/2006, 06:46 PM	#1
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	How much Nori is too much Nori ??? I have occasionally heard comments in posts where people claim to "always have some nori on a veggie clip in my tank" and I wonder if that is really possible? Maybe my fish are starving? The second I put some nori on a veggie clip, my fish obliterate it. Is it possible to put enough nori in a tank that the fish will actually, at some point, stop eating it? Please, I'm serious.... The fish in my tank that eat nori off the clip are 6" sailfin tang 4" blonde naso tang 5" yellow coris wrasse (really!) 5" elegant coris wrasse (seriously!) 4" scribbled rabbitfish 2.5" starry blenny I also put cheato on the clip, and it goes much more slowly (understandable I suppose). The only fish that eat the cheato regularly are the sailfin, naso and scribbled rabbitfish... So I'm really interested to hear from people who have these type of fish that just casually graze on nori without totally pigging out on it. TIA!

08/14/2006, 06:52 PM	#2
bkwudzjeep O\|\|\|\|\|\|\|O Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Central Florida Posts: 2,078	Maybe ask the owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial... My yellow tang and neon dottyback will take a half a sheet in a few hours. __________________ "You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead." ~Laurel and Hardy Current Tank Info: Taking a break for a while

08/15/2006, 07:26 AM	#6
thor32766 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Chuluota, FL Posts: 6,072	not for tangs, think about this is the wild all they do is swim and eat algea. They are grazers only eating algea. They dont eat meat until we put them in our tanks. they will eat the nori all day long. we cant come close to what they would do in the ocean in day. keep feeding them. they will love you for it. __________________ "Live your life so no one has to lie about who you were at your funeral" click on my red house to see my tang compound! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon in Wall!

08/16/2006, 09:34 AM	#11
thor32766 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Chuluota, FL Posts: 6,072	yeah my naso does the same thing. __________________ "Live your life so no one has to lie about who you were at your funeral" click on my red house to see my tang compound! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon in Wall!

08/17/2006, 04:37 PM	#21
Steve Atkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Wellington, NZ Posts: 552	My lot get Â½ a sheet per week. The main consumers (3 tangs, 2 large damsels and an angel) get through it in about Â½ an hour if I have just fed them anyway or about 10 minutes if I have not. The frozen mix I made up and feed the rest of the time includes about 50% volume of seaweed, made up of 5 varieties fresh seaweed, 3 freeze dried varieties plus nori so the nori on a clip is just a weekend treat. They sometimes pull it out of the clip and it will snag in a coral, or several, until they have got it finished. Steve __________________ 500L (135USG) mixed reef, SRO3000-int skimmer, Profilux controller & doser, Tunze wave pumps, TMC Aquaray LED lighting.

08/14/2006, 07:19 PM	#3
Tremelle Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 929	My angels and tangs eat it until it's gone also. If I put a full sheet in there it will last about 12 hours.

08/14/2006, 09:57 PM	#4
zuzecawi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 472	My tang and blenny are hogs... not only will they make a days work of a full sheet, they eat 2 POUNDS of gracilaria a month.

08/15/2006, 05:04 AM	#5
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	Is gracilaria a macroalgae? Can it be grown in a fuge? Right now I only have cheato growing in the fuge. I'm trying to get some red grape calurpa going (just for fish food) but it is not really doing anything... I have absolutely no macros in my tank. No microalgae either. I think my sailfin will even eat bubble algae if she finds some. Once I was pulling out a little piece of bubble algae that I found, using tweezers. The piece got loose from the tweezers and the sailfin ate it immediately...

08/15/2006, 01:55 PM	#7
zuzecawi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 472	gracilaria is a macroalgae, it is kinda hard to get growing, I can't grow it quick enough so I buy it by the lb from exoticaquaticsandpets on ebay. (I think that's their name).

08/15/2006, 02:47 PM	#8
jmaneyapanda Commencing hatred Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 3,784	mind your fishes eating habits. I once had an angel that would grab the nori as soon as it went in, and tug so hard it would dislodge the sheet and then he would let it go and it would ghet stuck on the overflow teeth. This wasn't too much to eat, but unless I got it out, it polluted the heck out of my tank. I had to fold it up so many time that he coukldnt get a good grip, he could only graze the edges. unless it is fouling and pollutuing the tank, keep it coming!

08/16/2006, 05:18 AM	#9
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	I have the same problem, my fish will rip the whole piece(s) of nori out of the clip all at once. I thought my clip had lost some strength over time.

08/16/2006, 06:55 AM	#10
EvilMel is a serious goby fanatic Join Date: May 2002 Location: New Haven, CT Posts: 7,033	I take mine and fold it in half, then I fold one corner over slightly. The side with the small corner that is folded over goes into the clip end and the corner sorta serves as an anchor to hold it in there. My naso will totally rip the entire thing out if I don't do this. She'll also toss is all over the tank.

08/16/2006, 10:59 AM	#12
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	Maybe I'll try using one of those hair clips with the interlocking teeth!

08/16/2006, 01:58 PM	#13
spoiledcats Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Lehigh Valley Posts: 622	You have some good sized fish that love nori, so one clip may not be enough. I have 2 tangs-hippo about 8" and yellow about 5". I put 1/2 of an 8x8 sheet in, and it lasts most of the day.

08/16/2006, 02:24 PM	#15
spoiledcats Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Lehigh Valley Posts: 622	I just use a regular seaweed clip, but they wear out eventually. My hippo has hidden one of them behind a rock, so I am down to 1. And yes, I get nori from the Asian market. Too expensive in LFS.

08/17/2006, 08:43 AM	#16
zuzecawi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 472	Be careful buying asian market nori, some of it includes sesame oil, makes your skimmer go CRAZY!!!

08/17/2006, 09:49 AM	#17
RBirns Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 57	I just added a piece of nori in a clownfish clip for the first time, and it practically disintegrated. Tank is full of bits of seaweed floating around. Did I do something wrong?

08/17/2006, 11:16 AM	#18
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	Where did you get the nori? Mine stays together well until it is ripped to shreds by the fish but very little if any goes uneaten. I even used to presoak it with the Kent Zoo (?) vitamin liquid, still didn't fall apart without help from the fish.

08/17/2006, 12:43 PM	#19
RBirns Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 57	Bought the nori at Fairway, a gourmet market in NY. Package is all in Japanese, with a sticker in English saying " Toasted Nori, Ingredients: Seaweed".

08/17/2006, 01:13 PM	#20
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	Sounds like mine, except mine was just from a local grocery chain. I don't see why it comes apart easily, I don't think it should.

08/17/2006, 08:30 PM	#22
thor32766 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Chuluota, FL Posts: 6,072	yeah randy i get mine at publix in their seafood section. I need to check out an asian store downtown i heard you can get loads of it cheaper there. I feed my guys a sheet a day thats wrapped in romain lettuce! __________________ "Live your life so no one has to lie about who you were at your funeral" click on my red house to see my tang compound! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon in Wall!

08/17/2006, 09:32 PM	#23
TCU Reefer Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 1,044	I get mine from Central Market and used a Mag Float to feed. Very hard for them to rip the whole thing out. __________________ Steve - DFWMAS Member Click on the red house to view my build thread Current Tank Info: 215g starboard SPS in-wall, AC Jr, 3 x 250w MH's, 10k Reeflux, 320w VHO actinics, closed loop w/ Sequence Dart and OM 4-Way, Tunze wavebox, VorTech, 2x modded MJ 1200's, ASM G4 recirc/meshwheel, Geo 618 Ca reactor, custom Melev sump, Mag 9.5 return

08/17/2006, 10:14 PM	#24
rdmpe Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 3,737	Hey that's a good idea to wrap it with lettuce - so that forces them to eat some lettuce in order to get to the nori? I'm going to check out the asian markets as well. I know whenever we go for sushi my wife gets a seaweed salad. That would probably be some good stuff for the tangs too.

08/17/2006, 10:36 PM	#25
jayo Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 345	I like wrapping nori around a rigid airline tube and securing it with a couple small rubber bands (or one bigger band as in the picture) - it makes the fish work a bit harder to get the algae off and makes it unlikely that they can rip off much more than they can fit in their mouths at once (sailfin tang, rainfordi goby). You can see what I mean: jayo