questions about yellow tangs

[spongebob lover]

hello everyone !!
I have a few questions about these lovely fishes.
My boyfriend got me a baby yellow tang and a fire shrimp for valentine's day which it was awesome because i've been wanting these boys since i started this hobby. My questions are what can i feed him? and also he's always swimming up and down on one side of the glass is that normal?
(so far he does eat stuff from the rock )

 

[wrightme43]

Find the nearest asian grocery store. Look for NORI it is dried seaweed. Roll it up and rubberband it to a rock. Happy Tang. They will eat most prepared food, They love and need seaweed to thier best. In my opinion. HTH Steve

 

[johnehr]

My tang eats anything and everything I throw in the tank. You probably just have to get him used to your regular feedings. Just try a few things until he ends up liking something. I clip a little bit of nori on the side of the tank. The tang and the turbo snails seem to love it.

I had problems with a lawnmower blenny. He wouldnt eat anything except stuff on rocks. I was getting worried about him starving. Then finally he realized that all the other fish were eating the stuff I was giving them, so why couldnt he? Now he's one of my most aggressive feeders.

 

[johnehr]

Oh yea, if the clip does work, rubber band some nori around a rock. It seems more natural and your tang will more likely eat it. Then you can migrate to a clip in a few weeks once it realizes that nori is tasty.

 

[spongebob lover]

thank you Steve and jonher i will buy him/her nori and i'll try my best to feed him some of that

Gaby

 

[spongebob lover]

well i tried feeding him that but now he just hides behind the rocks and he doesn't wanna eat .
I don't know what to do !!
whatelse can i feed him ?

 

[wrightme43]

Have you tried live brine? Most fish will eat it but its like living off of candy bars, yeah you eat but it doesnt keep you healthy. Leave that algae in there if it is going to aclimate to captive life it will start to eat it soon. Another thing I have noticed about yellow tangs. Do you have anything bright yellow near the tank? When I wear a yellow shirt mine freaks out. HTH Steve

 

[DonW]

Try some flake. Most LFS feed flake or ask the store what they fed. You need to get it to eat something. You can always train it after he/she is more comfortable.
Next time you buy a fish have the store feed him/her so that you can see that the fish is actually eating. Never trust that the fish is eating in captivity unless you see it first hand.

Don

 

[spongebob lover]

no, where do i get the live brine? and i will also buy flakes too.
The first 2 days he was in the tank he was moving all over the tank and he would eat some kind of red/brown hairs from the rocks, then i started giving him the nori and he didn't want to eat it from the rocks, instead my clowns, my damsel and even the fire shrimp ate all .
I tryed giving him some romaine because my bf told me some of them eat this green, but again he didn't even try eating it .
He looks very skinni unless that's the way they are, but ya.. he doesn't wanna swim around he's just behind a rock.
About wearing something yellow i guess he does'nt care

 

[jordy926]

My Tang kinda did the same thing when I first got him, swimming up and down one side of the glass. After a day or two he seemed to calm down and come out to the open areas of the tank to eat. I feed mine a variety of foods, from frozen brine shrimp(the omega 3, which he seems to like the most) to flakes and every other day some dried seaweed. I have had him for about 3 months and he seems to be doing great.

 

[spongebob lover]

wwoouu you know the only thing that i'm still wondering about is how come they eat live brine shrimp ? i thought they only like greens but hey if he takes it, i would be more than happy because i don't want him to starve.

 

[wrightme43]

My understanding is this. Planteaters will eat brine because its a good way to get quick energy. They are oppertunists in the wild. There is just something about brine that fish love. I really dont just KNOW why they do it. LOL they just do. HTH Steve

 

[spongebob lover]

lol thank you Steve for explaining me

 

[DonW]

Fish in general are kind of odd that way. Mine will eat anything I put in the tank. Lately I started feeding freeze dried plankton. Although this keeps them fat the tangs really should be supplimented with Nori.
You really just need to keep him/her alive long enough to get comfortable. Yellow tangs are one of those fish that are captured in huge quantities and are very mishandled. This leads to them just plain starving themselves.

Don

 

[spongebob lover]

well i just wanted to say thank you to all because finally HE'S EATING !!!
i bought brine shrimp, flakes, ulva you name it ,so finally he's swimming around and eating.
I went back to the store where my boyfriend bought him and i saw something sad , i saw some of their yellow tangs sick and with scratches i felt like i wanted to buy them all and take care of them but my tank its not that big
Anyways i just felt like saying something about it ok.

 

[elvis]

I'm a little late here but my purple tang didn't want to eat much when I got him. I put a couple of drops of Seachems Entice on a peice of dried seaweed and before I could get it on the clip he was eating it out of my hand. I'm not sure how it works, but it works.....and it works well.

 

[spongebob lover]

thank you for the tip elvis
I was really scared because he was not eating at all , but now he eats alot i feed him flakes, brine shrimp, formula 2 , ulva, red algae and some nori and he eats it all, hopefully i'm not over feeding him .
I just have a question, does anyone know if is it ok to leave the clip with food in the tank or are we suppose to take it out at night ? and can this affect my tank? because i don't want to have any amonia or anything like that.