Tang thinks he's a firefish

[Bifferwine]

All of a sudden, my yellow tang has started schooling with my two red firefish. He follows them around, turns with them, never goes off on his own into other parts of the tank. Not only that, but he appears to eat off of them, like literally eating stuff off their bodies. Nobody has any outward signs of parasites (and they haven't had them in the past). Anybody know what's going on? By the way, this tang also is carnivorous, seems to hate all algae, seaweed, herbivore frozen food and flakes, and will only eat "carnivore formula" frozen food, shrimp, and flakes. So I guess he was weird to start off with.

[jhnrb]

Zebrasoma flavescens - yellow tang

Varied diet, mostly vegetable matter. dried and frozen herbivore foods that contain marine algae and the blue-green alga spirulina. can supplement with pieces of zucchini, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and sushi nori (dried seaweed)

Must be fed a diet appropriate for active herbivores or its yellow color will fade and it may develop head and lateral line erosion. good luck

[Bifferwine]

We feed him the Formula 2 flakes and frozen foods, along with Emerald Entree for herbivores, but he won't touch any of them. He'll only eat shrimp and carnivorous frozen foods and flakes.

[jhnrb]

I feed all my tangs seaweed selects. there are three kinds, green, brown and red. I use a non metal paper clip or other tied to a fishin line and position the piece of food so it is below the top of the water and in a area that the fish feel safe. i leave it there all day and let them graze on it. rotate the different kinds. your tang will start to eat it when he finds it and tries it. you can watch the tang and feed accordingly. if the belly starts to pouch then cut back on the feeding, if the belly is flat totally increase the feeding. good luck hope this helps. you will need to cut back on the carniverous food so the tang will get hungry and all will be much better off for the change.

[Bifferwine]

Yes, we feed him all those, along with the Julius Spring's sea veggies for tangs, we put them under a rubber band wrapped around a piece of rock. He still won't eat those, and we've had this tang for about 6 months now. He just doesn't seem to like veggies.

[minireefer]

Originally Posted by Bifferwine

Yes, we feed him all those, along with the Julius Spring's sea veggies for tangs, we put them under a rubber band wrapped around a piece of rock. He still won't eat those, and we've had this tang for about 6 months now. He just doesn't seem to like veggies.

Have tried the flake version of sea veggies my yellow would not eat any veggie matter at all either.I was able to keep calpura(macro) in tank since he did not eat it.I start use the sea veggie flake and he seems to eat it up.Now my macro is just for my refugium.

[jhnrb]

Dont know about the sea veggies. Ive only used seaweed select. I used a non metal paper clip, cut a quarter sheet off and folded it up and sliped it into the paper clip, then I hung the clip with fishin line about half way down into the water collum in the area I normally fed. I presented it every day and took it out every night. took a little while but eventually the tangs went after it with gusto. just be patient and keep it up. good luck. hope you can convert your carnivorous addited tang to the veggies. keep us posted.

[bkv1997]

I use the Sea Veggies and my regal and yellow tang are both very healthy.

My guess is it will just take some time for them to get use to it.

B