"Dory" turned carnivore...

andyaz

andyaz

Member
I have a decent sized Royal Blue Tang, along with two clowns and a lawnmower blenny. I've pretty much been using the "Emerald Entree" frozen food for the whole group for a while now since I switched from pellet/flake. I've tried algae and seaweed sheets for the tang, but she never even nips at them. Not to mention, she doesn't do much for the algae that crops up in the tank. To top it off, I occasionally catch her nipping at my hermits and snails, so I'm pretty sure she was responsible for the slow decimation of the cleaning crew (which I just beefed up again this week, as she wasn't eating the algae she should be eating...). I gave up on trying cleaner shrimp, as those disappear quickly as well. Anything I can do, is Dory destined to be adopted off and replaced with something a little more friendly to my cleaning crews?
Andy
 
dave c.

dave c.

New Member
Have you tried some nice washed Romaine lettuce? I have yet to see a "Dory" that wouldn't gobble it up. Mine eats about a leaf a day, I just leave it on a clip for it and the Yellow tang and Flame Angel to graze. Good luck.
Dave
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Regal Tangs are the probably the second most tang that likes more then algae. First is Acanthurus nigricauda, which is the most carnivorous, often find with barracudas and sharks eating meat and small animals.

For the Regal, he will continue to just get worse. If you have any corals, specifically meaty LPS or zoas/polyps, I would expect those to be 'sampled' next.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Your Tang isn't an herbivore, it's a planktavore. You should be feeding Mysis Shrimp & Krill mostly with just a small supplement of algae.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
regal tangs eat meat (and anything in general) with gusto! as juveniles they are more dependent on zooplankton than any other studied tang and their primary source of nutrition. they SHOULD take algae sheets and grazing the rocks though by the time they are purchase size and as adults they are primarily herbivores. my tangs would knock over snails and hermits occasionally BUT they were either trying to eat the algae off the shell or trying to graze where the snail/hermit was. HIGHLY unlikely it was actually trying to eat either.
 
deep_sea_denni

deep_sea_denni

Member
My Blue Morph Is About 5 To 6 Inches Long I Have Had It For Over 4 Years And In That Time I Have Seen It Over Last The 2 Years Attack And Eat A Royal Gramma And 2 Small Green Chromis And Taken Nice Size Bites Out Of My Flame Angel And Yellow Tang..... I Am About To Give Her Away If It Keeps Up
 
krautburner

krautburner

Member
I know mine (only about 3")
likes the flake food,
gets super excited over frozen Mysis shrimp
and dosn't care a bit for nori
I've even tried chopping up the nori into fairly small pieces (like flake food)
and mixing it in a pitcher with flake food and mysis
he just swims around excitedly and eats everything but the nori
 
billy73

billy73

Member
It is hard change feeding habits once they start. I had one that loved open brains it did not matter what I tried so he had to go! The replacement did alot better. At the same time I had a purple tang that ate nassius snails. Sorry for your luck I hope it gets better!!!
 
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