Hunger Strike Continues........

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ltopper

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The yellow tang I have had in my 30gal q-tank since last Saturday still has not eaten (to my knowledge). For 2 days he/she stayed in a corner....looked pale and I noticed a very small spot on one of the pectoral fins (may have been there from the beginning and I never noticed it). After two days the tang started moving about the length of the tank and continues to do so. Not zipping around but calmly swimming. Appears to check out the bottom (bare) alot but I have not seen it eat any nori or the frozen foods I've tried (spirulina brine, live brine, mysis shrimp). I have soaked these foods in Selcon and Garlic Guard....have offered with/without. Test the water parameters faithfully and everything is great! Color is better though the white stripe along the side is still quite visible (maybe natural for this fish?). Should there be concern at this point? I'm just so used to all my fish in quarantine eating and this is the first. I don't notice rabid breathing....not speckled with ich....color seems fine, but will not eat. Someone suggested getting 1 blue/green chromis which might help stimulate thetang to eat? never heard of that but I'm willing to try anything.


help :confused:
 

Ace25

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Tangs are grazers.. I think of them as a really fast cow in the ocean the way they behave and eat. Most don't really care for meaty foods like shrimp as their main diet, but will eat them occasionally from my experience. I think your Nori is the best bet for them, or other types of seaweed. That does seem like a longer than usual acclimation period to start eating again though. I would definately lay off the garlic, I know what most LFS tell people about it, but from reading, it is not good to give fish, especially in a small QT tank just sitting there leaching into the water. I say try to get a variety of different seaweeds to go with your nori, that is the best bet for a tang to start eating I think.

Yes, the white stripe from my experience is normal on a yellow tang. It becomes much more prominent in the night colors though. They yellow fades a little and the white comes out more.
 

ltopper

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Tangs are grazers.. I think of them as a really fast cow in the ocean the way they behave and eat. Most don't really care for meaty foods like shrimp as their main diet, but will eat them occasionally from my experience.

I do understand that they are "veggie eaters" but had a tang years ago who readily ate brine shrimp, Formula one-two, and mysis shrimp and thought I'd try anything with this one. Just getting desperate as I have yet to see this tang eat the Nori. I have some another type of packaged dried algae which he/she hasn't touched either.




IThat does seem like a longer than usual acclimation period to start eating again though.

That's what I thought.





I would definately lay off the garlic, I know what most LFS tell people about it, but from reading, it is not good to give fish, especially in a small QT tank just sitting there leaching into the water.

Ok, I will discontinue the garlic. I was only adding a little bit to soak into the food.....and I am anal about water changes so I'm hoping that it's been ok. Should I keep using the Selcon or stop that as well? I was hoping to hear from others who have maybe gone through the same thing with a fish in the q-tank. Any suggestions??
 

Grins

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The white is their night coloring but it shows up when stressed as well. What was the tang eating in the store? Although they need to have primarily a vegetation diet they are omnivores in my opinion and mine will go nuts for cylo-peeze as well as his nori clip. Do you have anything for it hide in in the tank by the way? I bought a large pvc joint for mine when he was QT'd...

 

ltopper

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Hi Grins.....



Thanks for the response. They said the tang was eating Nori that was clipped in the tank.......I don't have a large pvc piece as this is the largest fish I've brought home and my other pices are small. I'll make a trip to the hardware store though and see about getting a hiding place for the tang.
Maybe that will help....I swear, other than not seeing this fish eat a darn thing, it seems ok.
 

Star_Rider

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I have a tomini tang,scopas and a hippo
the tomini was the first tang in the tank and finicky at first..but I tried different seaweed, nori..they started in the tank after it had been set up for week and had significant algae growing..which it loved...it took some time for it to eat 'nori'. I finally found it preferred brown algae(nori) but now eat just about anything.the ..the scopas and hippo were added after a long qt period..they learned from the tomini that the nori was food. they preferred formula 1 and would not touch nori
 

Grins

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You might even try some frozen emerald green to see if it will eat that instead, once you get it to eat that though it should go for the nori. Formula II flakes should also work.

Oh, the PVC there...cost me all of .34 cents I think.
 
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