Blue Hippo Tang - need help PLEASE

CDaubs

CDaubs

Reefing newb
I bought a Blue Hippo Tank a week ago from a LFS. It is about 3 1/2" long so it's close to mature, if not already. It was in a tank with lots of other Hippos and looked very healthy. Since I've had it home it won't eat. I've tried various frozen foods, pellets and seaweed salad with no sucess. It is very active and swims all over the tank. I don't want it to waste away. Any ideas???

Thanks
 
fastrd400 said:
Did he eat at your LFS before you bought him?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. There were about 15 fish in his tank. I also got other fish at the same time and they are all eating just fine. He shows no signs of any distress or obvious desease such as ich. Just not eating.
 
I'm curious as to why you think a 3 1/2" long tanG is close to mature. These fish can be over a foot long and require a bigger tanK than what you have. Please bring it back to the store.
 
Well, anytime you buy a fish from an LFS, ask them top feed them so you can see that it eats. What you may be experiencing is your fish just stressed. It will eat when it is hungry enough.
 
It is probably still adjusting to its new surroundings. What other tank mates is it being kept with? Any other tangs that could be giving it a hard time?

And IMO longer term a 90 gallon is too small for a hippo. There are days where mine looks cramped in my 180
 
Ok Northstar, I finally got mine to eat today. I put in big flakes of formula 2 in there and he finally took it. I noticed he likes bigger flakes instead of smaller crunched up ones. After he took that I tried Fromula 1 and he did it again and ate it. No go on seaweed yet and frozen brine is a no as well for now! Goodluck. Also provide a nice little cave for him to hide in, if he doesn't have one already.
 
My hippo does not normally hit the seaweed on the clip either, which I've always found odd. He does eat frozen spirulina and pretty much everything else in the tank. Formula II is made specifically for algae eating fish, so keeping him on that should be okay for now. I would still try seaweed once a day though
 
OK, thanks for all of the input. I do have lots of rock work to swim thru and hide in. I haven't tried the Formula II food, so I'll pick some up and try it. :)
 
You said in your earlier post that you fed him Formula 2 - that is the same as Formula II, I just used roman numerals....its the one in the green and white pacakging
 
Im sorry to hear that, but I would suspect a significant part of his stress was being in a tank too small for him. They really need to be in 8ft long tanks.
 
I wonder why even reputable sites like http://www.bluezooaquatics.com will give such blatantly false information about the tank capacity requirements for fish like Blue Tangs. I am aware that they are trying to sell fish, but it just seems unethical to me.....I know many people recommend Blue Zoo, but if you look at the capacity requirements for their tangs, they say pretty much all of them can live in a 75 gallon, and we all know that's wrong. And their large angels can fit in 100 gallon aquariums! Who knew?
 
What did with my blue hipo n naso tang I got him some fress live algae I dont know the name I got from the sumps from my lfs. It look green ,look like a stroll with bubbles. they when for that .
 

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