what to feed kole and hippo tangs?

[Chelmon]

I have 50 lbs of live rocks and lots of grape caulerpa, feather caulerpa, sargassum, tang heaven, and other types of algae. and they would not eat them. I also tried marine flake food and chopped up shrimps. What else can I try? Will spirulina flake or pellets be good for them? They're only 1.5" hippo and 2" kole.
and I've got them for over a week.
Thanks

[hcs3]

the hippo is a platonic feeder. algea is a very small portion of the diet for this fish. instead, try mysis, and brine for starters. most meaty foods will be accepted once it becomes established. it will also accept nori, though it is not as important as the mysis, etc.

the kole tang feeds by scraping algea off of the rocks. most caulerpa species will be ignored as their mouth is not designed to easily consume it. unlike the hippo, 99% of the diet for this fish is algea. feed nori daily, even several times daily. any and all algea foods should be offered (spirulina, formula 2, etc). to entice a feeding response, you can try brine. however, you should get it to feed on algea as quickly as possible. if your tank is well aged, it should not have a problem finding filamentous algea growing on your rockwork.

HTH

henry