Tang that doesnt like sea weed?

jake22

Member
Me and my friend went to the lfs in my area today and he picked up some sea weed for his yellow tang. We put the sea wead in the tank and held it down with a big shell. The tang wont even look at it. All his hermits love it though. On the package of the sea weed there is a picture of like 30 tangs feasting on a bunch of it. His tang will eat everything meaty we give it so he is eating fine but he wont touch the algae.
 

worm

Member
you may need to get a clip with a suction cup on the other end then attach it to the glass. and yes, those hermits and snails will make a feast of it. all my fish luv it!
i was told not to let seaweed stay in your tank for over 24 hrs. it has to be removed. why? i honestly don't know. maybe someone can comment on that...
 

dfimble

Member
My Yellow Tang is the same way. Won't touch the stuff.
I'm thinking that if I get another fish that does like it, that maybe he will see that he's supposed to eat it and try some.
Anyways, it gives me an excuse to buy another fish!
David
 
My tang would not eat any kind of veggie for a long time. I bought some caulerpa (algae) off of a member of this board, and my tang decided that he was a vegetarian all of the sudden.
I think you just have to find something that it likes, and stick with it. You may have to go through a variety of things before you find something that he likes.
 

reef fool

Active Member
My yellow and my hippo tang play tug-of-war with seaweed. My clown tang won't touch it though. Who knows? If we could only get inside their heads to figure them out. If you are feeding them some quality flakes, they will get their necessary greens.
 

wamp

Active Member
Sometimes a little garlic extract can entice them to eat it. Or, you can crumble it up with his other food. More than likely he will get a taste for it then.
 

indy1

Member
I guess I'm lucky. I have a yellow tang that eats everything: krill seaweed, flake, brine shrimp and whatever else I put in the tank.. He's kinda like my batfish in my 150. Anyone ever heard of an aggressive batfish, well I have one.. Heshe eats everything. Even seaweed.....
 

dubba-r

Member
My angels dont go crazy over it as well. I put it on a clip and they just nibble on it a few times and once they taste what it is, they completely ignore it. They like more of the meaty stuff. But once in awhile I mix pieces in with their food so they can get used to the taste.
 
Seaweed absorbs nitrates as a major part of it's life cycle, as with most photosynthetic psuedo-plants and plants. Nitrates are important to the healthy growth and photosynthesis process. When a algae or plant dies, it rots like anything else.
A farmer sews plant material back into the soil because decaying plant material releases nitrates back into the depleted soil.
Seaweed and other algae will release nitrates back into the water stream when it decays.
This is the only reason that I can fathom for getting it out in a timely manner. Who needs more nirates in the tank water?
It just makes sense not to let anything rot or decay in your tank.
 

jedimaster

Member
my naso, yellow tang and maroon clown, ,all play tug o war with nori when I put it in, I usually feed nori twice a day, a piece about 2 in by 3 inch, it is gone in about 5 - 10 minutes. I also put in some flakes for the chromis, I just toss it in and it floasts for a couple seconds til it gets pulled under by the naso its always there first. All three will eat the nori out of my hand if i dare although I got scratched by the naso once.
 

lurch694u

Member
My yellow and blue tangs love those baby spinach leafs that you can buy in the grocery store that comes in a plastic bag...
That might be a good try for those tangs that are picky...
:D
 

brianf01

Member
They love the live red stuff. They will get used to Nori as well. Mine took a while to like Calpera, but once they get used to it they want it all the time. He wont touch lettuce though.
 
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