Kole Tangs

[am00re34]

I recently purchased a Kole Tang (about 2 1/2 weeks ago) and i can't get him to eat. He constantly is picking at the rocks and glass, but he wont eat off the veggie clip. I also havn't seen him eat any mysis or brine that i put in the tank (my yellow tang engulfs both!).
Any hints? is there certain foods Kole Tangs prefer?

 

[jmick]

Instead of using the veggie clip you can always wedge the algae sheet in your rockwork, this might help. You can also try and soak the algae sheet in crushed garlic and see if this will spur its appetite. Or try to get some of Rod's food, I know your tang will eat this!

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Am00re34
http:///forum/post/2502346
I recently purchased a Kole Tang (about 2 1/2 weeks ago) and i can't get him to eat. He constantly is picking at the rocks and glass, but he wont eat off the veggie clip. I also havn't seen him eat any mysis or brine that i put in the tank (my yellow tang engulfs both!).
Any hints? is there certain foods Kole Tangs prefer?
Mysis is ok, but brine shrimp doesn't have any real nutritional value, so you should try to avoid using that. Try mixing the mysis with some vitamins and cyclop-eeze, feeding a little less than you usually do. You could even cut up some fresh garlic and soak the food in the garlic juice. Tangs in general need algae more than anything, but if this one is feeding off of the live rock, it could just prefer that algae to what you put in the clip. There are several different types of algae so you might want to try something different; my hippo likes green algae, but my sailfin won't touch it and prefers purple algae.

 

[renogaw]

I nursed my kole back to health from poor treatment at the lfs, and honestly, mine does not eat algae sheets whatsoever (sorta ticks me off, more money wasted).
basically they are bristletooth (i think that's what they are called) surgeon fish. they scrape algae, they don't pick at it. so as long as you supplement with some good food (not brine) yours should be fine if there's enough live rock and such everywhere.

 

[am00re34]

thanks everyone. I figure if hes not getting any food he would probably be in rough shape after 2+ weeks and hes swimming around and everything.
I'll try wedging the seaweed in a rock to see otherwise i'll try garlic. If that doesnt help them i guess he will just have to pick my rocks clean!

 

[grennan]

For what it is worth...While in QT I feed my blue spotted kole algae wafers since he would not touch nori sheets (no live rock due to hypo). Once out of QT and into DT he picked at rocks for about 3 weeks. At week 4 he then took to nori sheets on a clip (wonder if having a wrasse and angel doing it influenced). After about 6 weeks he took to eating flake/mysis/sprinula brine/cyclop-eeze.