Another Kole Tang question.

[tritan]

I bought a Kole Tang 2 weeks ago and it got slightly chased around in the beginning by one of the other fish. Nothing ultra aggressive, but it has since gone into hiding and never comes out, ever. I'm not even sure if its eating or not but I see him randomly swimming around in his little nook. Anything I can do or should I just leave him be.

Other fish that have done this have become comfortable within a week and come out to eat. This one doesn't even care when its feeding time.

 

[Northstar24]

It is not uncommon for a fish to take several weeks to become accustomed to a new tank, as well as the new fish it will be sharing its home with.

That being said, if it has been a week and it hasn't eaten there is some cause for concern, especially for an active fish such as a tang. Are you sure the bullying has stopped? You spoke of other fish, what are they?

What are you feeding your tank? Have you offered seaweed on the clip for the tang? I need to offer my tangs seaweed daily

 

[wontonflip]

+1 north...I hated my kole tang LOL he was a bully. Got rid of him ;) I hope yours starts eating soon, though.

 

[tritan]

Found him dead yesterday after not seeing him for a few days. :( This raises a few questions though. What does it mean when a fish runs around with its mouth mostly open a lot of the time. I noticed that he did this a lot in his final days. It was like he had lockjaw. The water parameters are great and other fish are completely fine. It was a strange behavior that had me scratching my head.

Also, I have a yellow tang that thinks the seaweed clip is a toy. When I put a clip of food in there it will vigorously shred large portions of the seaweed off that go to waste and just float up and go to my overflow filters leaving nothing for my less aggressive seaweed eaters like the blue tang. Ive tried moving the clip many places and putting a bunch of much smaller pieces in there instead of bigger connected chunks but he will just sit there and rip at them until nothing is left. I was able to put a clip in the kole tangs little area but he never tried to eat it, so there wasnt a lack of food for him to eat, he just wouldnt eat it.

 

[Northstar24]

It's possible the Kole Tang's mouth was damaged during collection, but mine also has kind of a funny look on his face with a mouth semi open. I think this has to do with how the bristletooth tangs eat though, they scrape their teeth across a rock to get algae off of it

There are some different DIY algae clips that may help with your issue. My tangs do almost the same thing. It's like a game to them - how long will it take to get the algae off the clip. I have found that folding it several times and making it a little smaller seems to help keep it on the clip

 

[wontonflip]

Even though I don't like Kole Tangs anymore, sorry for your loss....I hate losing fish..even a-hole ones.