yellow tang troubles

[zboy34]

friends.... I have a 2 month old reef tank that appears to be doing great, thanks to the great support of my local aquatic store. My problem today is I purchased a small yellow tang yesterday only to find out that the are very hard to keep alive:( My friend at the aquatic store told me that their metabolism is so fast when they are young it is difficult to keep them. What i need from all of you is.....what can I do to help this fish survive????? One friend told me to put a leaf of romaine lettuce in the tank......is that right????? The fish dosent even seem to notice it!!!! I purchased some formula two to feed it....what else can you all advise me to do????? thanks zboy34

[jfumia]

How big is your tank? I would get some nori for the tang and get some algae started in the tank. They are a grazing fish. HTH
Jfumia

[mtellin]

I would disagree, I would not label a Yellow tang very hard to keep alive at all. Many people(myself included) on this board have very healthy happy yellow tangs. I think the key is to feed it a varied diet and to try to feed nori or seaweed selects etc as often as possible, tangs like to graze all day. FWIW I have a baby yellow tang as well and even though my hands are constantly in the tank working on something, he never shows and signs of stress etc.
:)

[zboy34]

thanks for the input..... I will get nori and seaweed to help it along. my tank is a 55 gal. here is a picture from a couple weeks ago... I have added a few corals and such since then. I will get updated pictures soon.

[fishymissy]

I agree, tangs can be very hardy. As others have said nori or seaweed selects are good, so are spirulina flakes, the formula 2 is good and occasionally brine shrimp, krill. The emphasis should be on the veggie diet with the meats fed once in a while!

[Carlos]

Going to move this thread to a more appropriate forum.

Carlos

[hcs3]

zboy34

[welcome]

i'm glad you got a small yellow tang. as it grows you may want to look into a larger home for it. for now, concentrate on keeping food available during the daylight hours. if you can get it eating nori, have it on the clip all day long. tangs prefer to graze throughout the day rather than have a single or 2 large meals a day. any algae based foods will be good; the larger the variety the better.

small yellows are not difficult to keep. just keep the food at the ready.

HTH

henry