Training Tang to eat???

[d2mini]

I've been having a weird problem with new fish being too stupid to eat.

I bought a juvenile sailfin tang and high fin cardinal together. Neither would eat and both were dead in 4 days. I found the tang, so i brought him back, got store credit and bought a bigger Sopas Tang. He seems like he might be eating if something falls in front of his face and he actually sees it in time and thinks about possibly trying to get it, but it's been days and I still can't go near the tank without him freaking out and hiding. So while the other fish are going to the top of the water or swimming after falling food, he's either hiding or not paying attention. I also tried both red and green nori on a veggie clip and my cleaner wrasse is more interested in that than the tang is. I've got rods food, two kinds of sinking pellets and flake food. I've soaked in garlic too.

So now what?

 

[Bifferwine]

Do you make them feed the fish at the LFS before you buy them? Don't buy any fish unless you watch it eating beforehand. Sometimes fish are finicky. Just don't buy the finicky ones to start off with!

 

[PRC]

Geez, sounds like you've tried everything..My Tangs or FF won't eat the red algae sheets. They also won't eat the red Rod's Food Herbivore food.

I feed the Ocean's Nutrition Green Marine Algae w/ Garlic. They barely let me put it in the tank without attacking it.

 

[reeffreak]

Try rubberbanding the veggie around a rock or rock rubble instead of the veggie clip.More natural then the clip.

Internal parasites(worms,flukes) is another possibility.Call me paranoid but I seen it too often.a usually easy fish that would never eat.

 

[ltljoker]

I have had that exact same problem Dennis, and I make the lfs feed the fish befor I buy them. but when I get home they dont eat greens which tangs need. Hence they usually die. :frustrat: With tangs it seems like a hit or miss crap shoot:Cheers:

 

[Bifferwine]

I have always fed my tangs Julian Sprung brand green algae sheets. I've tried other brands and other color algaes, but they won't touch the others. No one has turned down the J.S. green algae though.

 

[dcantucson]

It doesn't matter how many different foods you try, if the Tang doesn't want to eat it won't. I tried almost everything with a Lipstick Tang once and thought it was surely going to die. After almost 2 weeks it finally began eating flake food of all things. I think if your fish died in 4 days then they probably were already starving to death and probably didn't even feel like eating when you got them.

 

[OhNoNemo]

Man,that stinks........but have you tried QTing the fish so there is nothing else going on around him.....may give him the time he needs to come around...good luck

 

[yote]

+1 David Thats a real possibility.

If a fish is not eating within 4 days,theres something going on with that fishes health.Could be stress from collection and transport.Could be parasites.But you should be seeing the fish at least picking at the rocks,which is the normal wild feeding behavior of tangs.

 

[wontonflip]

Broccoli maybe? Whether you try organic or not, make sure to really really rinse it well to get any pesticides off it (even organic can be contaminated, since there's no regulation on what happens after it leaves a farm). My foxface actually likes to eat floating pieces of chaeto.

Have you tried feeding with the lights out and/or water flow off?

Hopefully there is no parasite. Those suck.

 

[d2mini]

But you should be seeing the fish at least picking at the rocks,which is the normal wild feeding behavior of tangs.

I do see this, but my rocks are pretty much clean of any kind of algae other than coralline so it worries me. Maybe he'll come around. Gonna go try some mysis again....

 

[d2mini]

Have you tried feeding with the lights out and/or water flow off?

Ya, but for the most part he goes and hides when i come around so the food is floating around and he's hiding out instead of trying to get some. I've tried middle of the day and when just my actinics are on. And i turn the vortechs on feeding mode which cuts the power down but still allows the frozen foods to spread throughout the tank rather than just sinking.

 

[PRC]

Just a thought here....is it possible that because your tank is in a high traffic area maybe the fish just can't get comfortable? Maybe try covering the sides of the tank for a few days? Just graspin' for straws. I know if I was a fish, and I was trying to mind my own business and some hairy beast like Wally kept lookin' at me I'd crap my fins.:D

 

[the reef kid]

My kole didn't come out of hiding at all for like a week. He may come around, and as PRC said, maybe leaving the tank covered will help him settle?

 

[wontonflip]

Just a thought here....is it possible that because your tank is in a high traffic area maybe the fish just can't get comfortable? Maybe try covering the sides of the tank for a few days? Just graspin' for straws. I know if I was a fish, and I was trying to mind my own business and some hairy beast like Wally kept lookin' at me I'd crap my fins.:D

That's good point, prc. The way my 125g is set up only one short end of it is against the wall -- so basically, I have the 2 lengths and one short side of the tank exposed....the result has always been that most of my fish tend to hover around the side of the tank that is against the wall. They've gotten used to things now, where the chromis now sleep in the rocks away from that wall. But the others feel safer in the other end.

I think Dennis' fishes' only stress is Wally LOL

 

[dcantucson]

Wonton has a good point. Dennis you may have to get rid of that dog. That's all there is to it. :lol:

 

[d2mini]

lol, its not a high traffic area. No one goes near the tank unless its to do tank stuff/check it out. And Wally hasn't been paying as much attention to it recently.

 

[Bifferwine]

And Wally hasn't been paying as much attention to it recently.

Maybe because all the fish he really likes are dead? :lol:

 

[d2mini]

Maybe because all the fish he really likes are dead? :lol:

:shock: ouch.

 

[PRC]

lol, its not a high traffic area. No one goes near the tank unless its to do tank stuff/check it out. And Wally hasn't been paying as much attention to it recently.

Oh, I thought it was kinda in the center of your living room from the pics I've seen. That's what I get for assuming.