Blue Hippo
- Thread starter lt34
- Start date
tank watch
Member
How big is the tank? Make sure water quality is good. blue hippo is a tang, so be prepared for him to act like one towards new fish later on. Also, familiarize yourself with their behavior. i.e. lying on their side, wedging between rocks, etc. more than likely he will get ick. feed him well, keep him strong, and he should get through it. that has been my experience......Matt
seannmelly
Active Member
In my experience with hippos, I agree with tank watch and puffer32. We have a 125 gallon reef and when we added the hippo, we already had 3 yellow tangs. The hippo got beat up and laid down in the sand for almost a week before he started to swim around and eat frozen food. After he pushed the yellow tangs back, they wouldn't bother him anymore, however once in a while he would get a couple spots of ich but it would be gone the next day. In your 90 make sure you don't have any fish that will beat up on him whatsoever to make his transition to captive life that much smoother. Make sure to feed a varied diet including greens and use garlic. And be prepared to move to a bigger tank when he starts to grow! Hope your first experience with a hippo was as great as mine was!!
Melly
Melly
wilsonreef
Member
Just remember that Tangs need a varied diet. I have 1 yellow tang, and 1 blue hippo. Both are almost 2 years old. I feed them Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, dried seaweed sheets, and I pulverize fresh shrimp freeze it then put some in the water. They eat as it thaws. I wll say one thing both of my tangs are really big eaters. My Yellow Tang is about 4" long and My Hippo is about 5" long. A friend gave me some Calupra (sp) and I put it in just for them to eat, it didn't last anytime. Also, vegetable content in their diet helps in the prevention of HLLE.
seannmelly
Active Member
Originally Posted by wilsonreef
Just remember that Tangs need a varied diet. I have 1 yellow tang, and 1 blue hippo. Both are almost 2 years old. I feed them Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, dried seaweed sheets, and I pulverize fresh shrimp freeze it then put some in the water. They eat as it thaws. I wll say one thing both of my tangs are really big eaters. My Yellow Tang is about 4" long and My Hippo is about 5" long. A friend gave me some Calupra (sp) and I put it in just for them to eat, it didn't last anytime. Also, vegetable content in their diet helps in the prevention of HLLE.
I totally agree with you on the diet for a tang. We had 3 yellows and one hippo and we plumped them up nicely feeding frozen: omega3 enriched brine, mysis, marine cuisine, emerald entree, squid, prime reef, krill and dried seaweed sheets all soaked in garlic extreme. They were the reason why we have more food for the fish then ourselves!!!
Just remember that Tangs need a varied diet. I have 1 yellow tang, and 1 blue hippo. Both are almost 2 years old. I feed them Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, dried seaweed sheets, and I pulverize fresh shrimp freeze it then put some in the water. They eat as it thaws. I wll say one thing both of my tangs are really big eaters. My Yellow Tang is about 4" long and My Hippo is about 5" long. A friend gave me some Calupra (sp) and I put it in just for them to eat, it didn't last anytime. Also, vegetable content in their diet helps in the prevention of HLLE.
I totally agree with you on the diet for a tang. We had 3 yellows and one hippo and we plumped them up nicely feeding frozen: omega3 enriched brine, mysis, marine cuisine, emerald entree, squid, prime reef, krill and dried seaweed sheets all soaked in garlic extreme. They were the reason why we have more food for the fish then ourselves!!!
tank watch
Member
It has also been my experience that the smaller hippos, 1 to 2 inches, have a better survival rate than larger ones. Maybe because they didnt live so long in the ocean before the aquarium. My $.02 anyway.