Tang

[christine]

I recently got a yellow tang and he seems to only eat brine shrimp. I know he is supposed to eat vegetable matter too, but he won't eat the driied seaweed I give him. Any suggestions?

 

[Navarre]

they will graze off the agae that forms on the liverock quite happpily. Although they are primarily vegitarians, they wil eat absolutely anything and get tobe extremly greedy fish.

30 gallons is far too small for a tang though. 100 gallons minimum for this type of fish )

 

[TBLightningFan]

Does your tank have live rock in it? If so he could be sustaining his vegetable diet off of algae. If not, he just may not want it.

I would just keep offering it on occasion and he may start to nibble on it, or yet he may not. But I wouldnt worry too much as long as he is eating. It could be that he doesnt like that particular seaweed.

Maybe you can see if he will eat a marine flake food that has brine shrimp in it. The flake food has a good amount of veggie matter in it.

Just some ideas Some tangs can get choosy over their food. But like Navarre said... they will eat tons of what they do like instead.

 

[christine]

30 gallons is far too small for a tang though. 100 gallons minimum for this type of fish )

Darnit. My LFS assured me 20 gal was a min. That makes since though, since I have a wierd problem. My tang yesterday, was on the bottom of the tank. Nothing was wrong though. I checked for signs of fungus, whitespot, blackspot, etc.... But no go. Could the smalll tank be bothering him. My LFS people say he might have stunned himself, but im not sure I can trust them. ) Darnitt.

 

[Navarre]

Tang are open water swimmers and tend to travel many miles a day swimming over the reefs or among the surge zones. They are not fish like clowns or gobies that dart in and out of small bits of coral etc. This is why they need such large tanks as they need to flex themselves to get excersize.
Yes i would say the tang is definately becoming stressed in a tank of this size. Im afraid you local shop has missinformed you. I would ask to return him and exchange for a fish more suitable for a tank this size. Ask what fish they have then come back here with a list of fish and we can all try and help you stock the tank with more suitable livestock

Good luck )

 

[1152 Flying Fish]

one other food to try is lettus(how to spell it i dont know). i think its romane.

So thats why my tang died, i had it in my 20 and my LFS said it would be fine along with 2 or 3 more. just cant trust them anymore. Its all about the money