Yellow Tang, help feeding..

[fishygurl]

Ive had my yellow tang for maybe a month now, to me it seems as though it keeps slowly getting skinnier and skinnier. I am starting to get worried that it might die..
I dont think its because i underfeed, i think i over feed. I feed a cube of frozen mysis or the freshwater frozen mysis (i forgot the name but it has more fatty stuff in it..) everyday along with lots of flakes, plus mysis, cyclops, or coral frenzy for my corals. A couple times a week.
I have a 125 gallon reef.
Other tank inhabitants:
2 clowns -both around 1 1/2-2 inches
1 yellow tang- the one im concerned about- 4-4 1/2 inches
1 blue hippo tang- about 3 inches
4 chromis- each around an inch
1 blackcap basslet- 2 1/2 maybe 3 inches
1 lawnmower blenny around 4 inches
1 mandarin dragonet- 2- 2 1/2 inches
When i feed the tank he will eat, but he definantly isnt as frisky as the hippo tang which is a pig and eats all the time. The yellow tang seems very cautious when eating, and will normally stare at the food for awhile as if deciding if it wants to eat it or not, and by that time it usually has floated away.
I dont think this is normal.. is there some sort of disease possibly?
Any help will be much appreciated!
Oh and i feed algae sheets every week.

 

[mx#28]

Tangs should really be fed at least 3 times a day for long term health. That aside, though, the hippo tang could very easily be intimidating your yellow tang into not eating by your description of his behavior.

 

[ilovemytank]

+ 1 on the hippo tang not making him comfortable. also are you using algea sheets ?

 

[-tara33-]

you said you feed algae sheets every week, this really isnt enough, tangs graze all day on algae, try putting dried nori on a clip every morning, my yellow tang loves it as they are 70% herbavore and 40% carnivore, and if you dont have much algae on the rocks then put a peice of rock in a dish of tank water and leave it out in the sun for maby 2 days so the rock has a good cover of algae on it and while the algae covered rock is in the tank have another outside and alternate between the two rocks

 

[salt nate]

Tara, 70% plus 40% equalls 110%. I hope youre a better aquarist than a mathmatician!

 

[deejeff442]

thats funny.i feed my tang and foxface and the rest of my fish 1 cube a day in the evening i feed them some seaweed and i noticed they go after the seaweed alot faster then the cube food.

 

[spiderwoman]

Here is a sample of what I feed my 150g reef that has...
- 1 Hippo med/large
- 1 Yellow Tang (maybe a bit smaller than yours)
- 1 FoxFace large
- clown pair
- Midas Blenny
- Bartletts Anthias
- female Bellus Angel
- Sunrise Dottyback
- Solar Fairy Wrasse
When lights come on I feed a good handful of Prime Reef flakes. An hour later I put in sea vegetables or nori sheets on 2 clips and they will both be cleaned in under 30 minutes.
Once the MH lights are finally off in the evening, I feed them either a good chunk of
Rods Food and PE Mysis w/vitamins/Zoe/zoecon/garlic
OR
mixture of Ocean nutrition Angel food and PE Mysis (as above)
OR
homemade frozen and PE Mysis (as above)
Sometimes I'll take a small slice from a frozen bar of Cyclopeeze and place it in front of the powerhead to melt directly in the tank.
I get my PE Mysis in 18oz bags.
I do feed 3 tanks total with the same mixtures and my fish seem very healthy and well fed. Good example is a Flame Angel in the 75g reef that is about 1/2 inches thick... he is a fat little sucker.

 

[fau8]

the algee sheets should be available everyday all day for a tang.

 

[fishygurl]

ok so i should feed the algae sheets every day.
And im thinking that it must be the blue hippo intimidating the yellow into not eating as much, since all my other fish seem very healthy and in good shape. I didnt get why all my other fish get fat, but the yellow.. is there anyway to get the yellow to eat more? Or not be as scared? the yellow tang is bigger then the blue...
i do feed the flakes and frozen different times of the day usually. With the frozen i do add zoecon and garlic extreme.

 

[spiderwoman]

The only suggestion I have is to ditch the garlic extreme and use fresh garlic for the juice.

 

[-tara33-]

Originally Posted by salt nate
http:///forum/post/2822498
Tara, 70% plus 40% equalls 110%. I hope youre a better aquarist than a mathmatician!

lol i suck at maths, plus i wrote that after working 13 hours and then a hour at the gym so i was tired

 

[m0nk]

Yes, feed algae sheets daily. Extra feedings will also help aggression stay lower. Also, you can chop up or press some fresh garlic and soak the food and algae sheets in it. Alicin, the beneficial chemical in garlic, breaks down quickly so the garlic extreme isn't helping much.

 

[retired]

My unicorn tang appeared to be getting very skinny while everyone else was doing fine so i started hand feeding him flake food first.As he takes it from my fingers the others start to eat but he gets the clumps and now he is looking really good.

 

[calaxa]

Algae needs to be available all the time for this tang. He's definitely more of a grazer than the hippo is. Hippo is basically a pig and when you got one eating well, they eat just about everything (at least mine does). If you are really worried, there is a seaweed that no tang I have seen ignore, Tang Heaven Red from indo pacific sea farms. I bought this when I first got a tang, and that hunger strike ended so fast. Luckily I was able to convert to dried nori to save some money (now getting it for $26/lb. from the asian supermarket). In a pinch, you can also try enticing with romaine lettuce or fresh spinach.