Just curious but as anyone else here bought a yellow tang that would not eat anything? I have tried 2 different sea weeds, brine, cyclopseeze, mysis, pellets, flake. What course of action did you take to get it to eat if it did?
He is very skittish also if I get anywhere near the tank it hides. I have had it almost a week and its deathly thin. My sailfin only took 1-2 days to get used to me and it is doing great eats a lot and loves everything I feed the tank.
You know, if its small, sometimes they feel pressured by the other fish at feeding time. you know finding pecking order. and maybe not eat. ive sometimes acclimated small fish in the fuge, by themselves for a month or two until the eat and grow. then drop them in the tank. lots of pods and algae to eat in the fuge. plus you can feed them there without competition. depends on the size of your fuge, and turbulance. one of my fuges is like a 25 gallon tank. so lots of room.
Massive benefit of QT Ken has pointed out. New fish have a rough enough time as is adjusting from chemistry changes and stress. Add the stress of the new tank mates and it makes it much harder. In isolated QT the fish can eat with out competition, casually, as they please.
Size also plays a significant factor. Very small tangs are great sellers because they will fit into any tank and get along with just about anything, but staying alive is a different matter. Juvenile tangs should eat a ton of algae, but too often they are too stressed not to eat anything. Keep in mind yellow tangs are not solitary animals in the wild and often when small fish get great comfort from their numbers.
I would certainly try adding a garlic extract to the food to see if it can increase the appetite of your fish. Also try feeding many times a day(Yellows should always be fed three times a day, but attempt to feed even more often if they are not eating) and leave a small sheet of algae in the tank as much as possible(with out harming the nutrient load in the tank). Use a clip or rubber band the algae to a rock. If you have Caulerpa in your fuge or can get some you may want to set it in the tank as well.
What other tangs do you have in the tank?
I actually have a yellow tang in quarantine right now that is a very skinny very passive eater. It is hard to see them like this, but we do the best we can.
I hope your’s pulls through for you!
The yellow tang is in a a 20g long right now. Only other fish in the tank is a mandarin. I have left seaweed on a clip plus I have a ton of macro algae I left in that tank since I don’t have a fuge on it and algae left over from an algae bloom I had. It is very small 1-2" and to be honest I don’t think it is alive. I have not seen it since yesterday.
[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:4, topic:5712”]
It is very small 1-2" and to be honest I don’t think it is alive. I have not seen it since yesterday.[/quote]
Very sorry to hear. Was it grazing at all? Nipping at rocks, glass, or anything? If it was grazing it could have just not adjusted to the foods you were offering and it could have gone down hill due to internal parasites.(may have needed de-worming meds) If it wasn’t eating at all it could have been a ton of different things, but most importantly I think 1" tangs just aren’t travel/aquarium ready.
Yellows should not be super hard to keep. I would say take a break from trying them for a while and then try a larger one. Again sorry to hear.
It was my first yellow tang. It would not do anything. It survived I think a week.
Well to my surprise it is still alive. I think it might be grazing because its stomach is not as bad as it was the other day. Still skinny but not as bad.
I had problems getting my yellow to eat when I first got it as it was quite small. (Ken has it now) I found a piece of nori rubber banded to a rock worked better then an algae clip; more natural to there instictive nature to pull food from the rocks.
fwiw,
i agree what others have said. I got my first yellow about 3 months ago, small from our friends @ dpa.
This tang was skittish the first couple days, but doesn’t have to fight too much for food, just cardinals and a pair of percula’s. I feed the ocean nutrition pellets (with garlic) and at first they were a bit big for him. I crushed pellets a couple at a time and added seaweed as discussed earlier. Fast forward to now, the tang has more than doubled in size, always has a full stomach, and seems quite content until one of the kids in the house gets near the tank and he hides. Hope it works out well for you.
Thanks guys. I will try the rubber banded seaweed. I might have to try nori. I am using julian sprungs green seaweed and omega one. Last time I went to dpa they did not have the purple which my foxface loved the most. I also feed omega one pellets with garlic and flakes with garlic also.
Still eating for you?
What kind of lighting do you have on the tank?
He is still alive and skittish. I was able to get him to eat a couple pellets while i watched though for the first time.
Its just a 30" wide tank with 36" 4 t5 fixture. I still put algae on the clip. I do not think its eating that algae since it is still very skinny.
Have you tried different color nori other than green? I know some tangs or other fish at that, likes the red or the brown ones. The yellow tangs that I use to have likes the red nori.
[quote=“reefman66, post:13, topic:5712”]
Have you tried different color nori other than green? I know some tangs or other fish at that, likes the red or the brown ones. The yellow tangs that I use to have likes the red nori.[/quote]
I have the julian sprung sea weed that comes in the silver pouches. I have green and red I alternate the colors each day.
maybe give him a treat bag of live brine shrimp to chase and eat. Charlie usually has some at DPA.
[quote=“kaptken, post:15, topic:5712”]
maybe give him a treat bag of live brine shrimp to chase and eat. Charlie usually has some at DPA.[/quote]
I was planning on stopping by there one of these days after I sell my car. I usually get some brine when I am there for a treat.
I decided last night when lights went out it would be good to put the yellow guy in the big tank. Hoping maybe he would eat better after seeing my other guys eat. Well that turned out to not be such a good idea once the lights came on. My sailfin decided he did not like little yellow and started nipping at the tail. So I moved him to the Fuge where there is plenty of macro algae and even the red bubble macro.