New Blue Hippo Tang Not Eating Prepared Foods

[marinenut]

Hello all,
I'm new to the forum, so please go easy on me.
I have a 125 FOWLR tank with a yellow tang, clarkii clown, 2 small damsels and a diamond gobie. All the fish are fairly small with the yellow tang being the largest, about 4 inches.
The tank has been set up for about 2 months now. I upgraded from a 40 gallon breeder.
All the water parameters are near perfect, except for maybe phosphates being slightly above .2 ppm.
I just bought a Hippo Tang a week ago and he came down with the inevitable.....Ick. I have a QT set up, which is my old 40 breeder, but I went out on a limb and took a risk, because I have a large Maroon clown in there. So I added him to my main tank right away. So far it's actually ok. The other fish are fine. I've been treating the tank with Chem-Marin Stop Parasites ever since I saw him scratching. The Hippo is doing much better now. That stuff is great.
My question is this: The Hippo seems to only be interested in picking the algae off of my live rock. He shows absolutely no interest in any prepared foods. I've tried all the common frozen ones and flakes.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to get the hippo interested in eating something else?
Here's what I've tried:
Formula One
Spirulina Enriched Brine
Regular Brine
Marine Cuisine
Emerald Cuisine
Flakes
Thanks.

 

[jimmy g]

Tangs are grazers, thats what they do all day. When I had a Kole tang in my 55 Gallon I dont have anymore it wouldnt eat prepared foods for a little over a month but still did fine from the algea from the LR and the algea sheets.

 

[scoobydoo]

Try adding Kent garlic extreme to its food and maybe that will get it to eat. I feed the frozen emerald entree, once thawed, add a couple drops to the food. Also, I've used the Stop Parasite stuff before when I had my 29g. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. It will stain your rock a greyish color (almost like pencil lead). Good luck.

 

[marinenut]

thanks for the replies. Not good news about the stained rock from Stop Parasites. I haven't noticed a color change, but I'm planning to stop treatment tomorrow and add some carbon and do a water change.
I'll try the garlic. I've seen that before in the LFS.

 

[qbnfreek]

Try Garlic soaks with Brine Shrimp, Hell is candy for fish. The garlic additive is also suppose to increase its appetite and help cure ich. Good Luck - Qbnfreek, Los Angeles

 

[yimmy]

Mine didn't eat that much when I first got it...then I put in an alagea sheet and he ate that, then one time I soaked his alagea sheet in garlic and he kept eating it...then I soaked his frozen food in garlic so it tasted like the alagea sheet. Now it will eat anything. I would give the alagea sheet a try.