chewing tang

[tmkx3]

okay I have a powder blue tang that is picking at to rubber sealant in the corners of my tank. Why is he doing this? I am afraid of ciurse that he is gonna break the seal!!!! I have stacked rock in the corners but i hate that because it blocks my view of the tank from the sides

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Has he actually nipped into the sealant? I suspect he is eating a tasty green algae coating plus diatoms and not the cement which is pretty tough stuff.

 

[tmkx3]

He is nipping at the rubber. I can hear it pop when he is picking

 

[Krish]

When I put down my pvc board bottom on my old 75gal, I sealed around the perimeter with silicone and my yellow tang thought it would be fun to pull it all up! He never ate any just pulled it up. He never messed with the tanks seal though...I think it is just in their nature to pick all day just as they love to do with live rock looking for some algae to eat. Just "grazers"

 

[shallowreef]

Sounds very odd? I would say that you should be able to leave him in there and i wouldn't worry about it. I would however add more algae (a vegi clip with sea weed) to the tank to keep him occupied. Or you could just go in the tank and scrub your corners really well. Maybe there is algae there and he is nipping both algae and rubber.

 

[jetaero]

How big is the tank? (Just wondering)

Very interesting on it's taste for seals...

-Josh-

 

[steve-s]

I would however add more algae (a vegi clip with sea weed) to the tank to keep him occupied.

This is actually your best solution!!

tmkx3,

Tangs will consume just about anything in lieu of the foods they need. If their required intake is not met, they will make it up just about anywhere else. Silicones a new one on me but I'm not too surprised by it. Tangs are like the billy goats you see in the cartoons eating cans and getting into the garbage. Just a easier on the eyes

Cheers
Steve

 

[leebca]

In order of highest probability:

The fish is stressed
The fish has found pecking at the smooth plastic to be 'easy on its mouth'
The fish has found a source of 'brown algae' or other algae, which first attracted it there
The fish likes the feel of it and wants something to do.

Some individual fishes I have found over the decades, just like to be entertained. You can divert the fish by providing other diversions (new base rock, new plastic decoration, etc.)

But if the fish is in a tank too small for it (less than 100 gallons) or not long enough for it (6'), then the fish is stressed at least from this situation and maybe other sources.

 

[tmkx3]

I have a 125g 6foot long tank, But the fish have just under gone a copper treatment for ick. They have only been back in the tank for 2 weeks. I treated them with coppersafe for a month and left the main tank fallow 7 1/2 weeks. There are no signs of ick so far.

 

[leebca]

Good news about the size of your tank. That's important to these fish.

A copper treatment does put a lot of stress on the fish. For a tang I would have preferred a hyposalinity treatment. If copper was needed, the use of an organically complexed copper medication would be the optimal choice, IMHO. In general, the Genus Acanthurus is sensitive to most copper medications that are chelated or ionic. They do really well with protein complexed copper medications.

Maybe just give the fish time to acclimate to the 'regular' water and see what it's behavior is like in a few weeks. Do check the aquarium water at least once just to be sure no copper slipped into the display.

 

[tmkx3]

okay thanks Lee. I used the copper because I don't have a refractormeter. I hate using meds in general because of my experience with it and freshwater fish, but the ick on the tang was getting really bad.

 

[steve-s]

Sometimes copper is neccessary or unavoidable. It wasn't so much the fact that copper was used but the choice of copper type. The point Lee was trying to make is be more descriminating about the properties/effects of the meds used and how they will affect/interact with the species you are treating. In this case, the best choice of copper would have been Cupramine by Seachem. It is an <<amine>> based copper and nowhere near as harmful as ionic salts or chelates.

Cheers
Steve