how do you keep your tang fat?

[Yellotang]

Originally posted by nbd13


i am just wondering how you attach yours? is it by a rubberband? clip? or what?

I use a Vegie clip and its tied to a string so that I can pull it out of the tank everyday without sticking my hand into it to do so.

[rbaker]

Originally posted by Flame*Angel
Lillith gets all the Nori she can eat plus 3 meals a day with a variety of frozen foods soaked in either Zoe vitamines or Selco. She also gets a little extra frozen brine shrimp every evening when I feed the tubastreas:

Holy chubby fish Batman!!! I remember when you first posted that pic. It's still one of my favorites...

Ryan

[kozmo02]

wow this thread got goin pretty good, thanks for all the tips.

[purpletanglvr]

i use mysis shrimp and lots of spirulina flake. the tangs i have had in the past all love the spirulina.

[skattabrain]

let me guess... he watches too much tv?

[melev]

Kosmo,

I had a Blue Atlantic Tang, a Yellow Tang and a Blue Angel at one point, and I fed my tank twice a day.

I'd drop in pellets (Formula Two) in the morning, and frozen fare in the evenings. Later I changed it to a folded up sheet (the whole sheet) clipped to the glass in the morning, and frozen stuff at night.

I also got everyone hooked on Romaiine Lettuce, and they'd whittle away at two leaves a day, leaving just the core. Plus food at night.

My skimmer was NAAASTY, but the tank was algae free.

I got rid of all three fish to make room for SPS, etc.

[skattabrain]

in past experience i've found romain lettuce to be of little nutrional value and i feel any tang on a romain diet will fade and grow sickly.

[Stoli]

Y-Tang:

I know. I was just kidding around. Didn't mean to offend.

[mikeo1210]

Hey does anyone have any particular macro they are growing that your tang's love?

I put a little feather calerpa in my tank but, so far it hasn't been touched.

How about graciellera (sp?.. tang heaven)?

[Yellotang]

I have tryed graciellera and my tangs barely picked at it. took almost a week for them to eat a piece the size of a golf ball.

[yoink326]

My tang is really fat, and he's very carnivorous. I feed him meaty foods, such as squid, krill and shrimp. He also eats the brine shrimp for the smaller fish. I also clip on a sheet of nori which only lasts about a day or two. He's a pig and a half.

[greenbean36191]

My tang eats any type of caulerpa, graciellera, and green or brown hair algae. He also loves meaty foods and eats bloodworms, brine, mysis, and all of my pods .

[kstockman]

sheet is 8" by 8". I purchase it from a local international grocery store. The kind that I buy beaks up rapidily when torn off. SOme nori will hold together and float around the tank as a sheet. This stuff breaks up into flake. It is purple.

[Yellotang]

My tangs love the purple nori also. except the stuff I get is not in sheets it looks like it was flattned and dryed without reshaping. pretty much looks like dryed macroalgae.

[Flame*Angel]

The Nori I get around here is always green. There is a bit of variety but it's all similar I think. I guess I'm feeding about a half sheet a day then. I'd say my tang is eating about half and half veggie and meaty diet. I feed frozen spirulina formula and formla 2 every day but all the rest of the frozen is meat.

[Joseph Sorrels]

Where do most of purchase nori. I ask for it in publix super market and they look at me like i'm crazy.

[NOWICKI]

While we are talking about feeding, I'm sure that when you are placing your nori durning the day that you leave your whole system running. But, when you do your main feeding(s) do you shut any of the pumps/powerheads, or skimmer down? It seems like when I don't turn off my sump return, the food floats straight for the over flow. Also, do you defrost your frozen food or just drop it in?
Thanks,
Ryan

[melev]

Because I have refugiums under my tanks, I drop in the food with the equipment running. The only thing I turn off is my protein skimmer, because I feed phtyoplankton and don't want that skimmed out. One hour later they turn on automatically.

If I feed flake, I hold a pinch of it underwater and swish my hand back and forth so that it spread in the water column. Otherwise, it would float on the surface and head down into the sump.

I feed a frozen mixture of food I make myself every evening. I thaw it out, and drop it in with a fork and the fish come running.

http://www.melevsreef.com/food.html

[yoink326]

Originally posted by Joseph Sorrels
Where do most of purchase nori. I ask for it in publix super market and they look at me like i'm crazy.

Most grocery chains (well, at least in CA) are tending to the rising interest in asian foods, so they have an isle dedicated to that. It's more expensive, so I got to a Japanese market and get it for cheap.

[J.Unit]

Am I the only reefer to feed my tang Live Brine? Are there any drawbacks/benefits to using Live Brine? Thanks

[yoink326]

They're not as nutritious, containing mainly water.

[mikeo1210]

I've heard that about brine. It's all protein. Good for a treat but not as a staple.
-------------------------------------------
I soak all foods in selcon, zoe and garlic daily. Does anyone else supplement garlic on a daily basis (not to change subject, just wanted to know if there any drawbacks to this)?

[kstockman]

I never turn off any thing when I feed. What a PITA that would be.

To feed Nori.

Rip the 8" by 8" sheet in half. Then I fold in half three times. I then place the folded up stuff between the glass and an old pair of cleaning magnets. I leave about 1" exposed for the fish to eat. When they are done with that, I expose more (or when I remember an hour later). Repeat until gone.

Doesn't everyone do this????????????

For flake or dried mysis, I have another trick. I took a plastic cup (any kids cup from a restaurant will do) and cut the bottom off of it. I then taped the cup on to the top of the tank so that about 1" is sticking into the water. I just drop the food into cup and the fish come up and eat right out of it. All the food has to get completely wet in order for it to enter the tank. For flake this works great, but for dried mysis it is so so.

And yes I keep the cup in place at all times.

Every town that I have ever lived in has an international grocery store. If you are in the middle of nowhere, then you might be SOL.

[melev]

Ken, that is a cool idea with the cup! I have tons of flake food, but rarely use it.

[kstockman]

The cup idea comes from the fact that dried mysis takes forever to rehydrate, so it floats for a long time. I figured that I could minimize the amount of shrimp to the overflow this way.

As it turns out it is a great method to feed flake.