Help Sailfin Tang not eating

[tranvictor]

Hello Everybody:

I bought a sailfin tang last weekend, and he isn't eating. I tried Nori, mysis, brine. Nothing is working. Anyone have any suggestions?

SHould I try food soaked in entice? Garlic guard? Flakes?

Any help is appreciated.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Garlic!

[Delphinus]

How are you feeding the nori?

Best way to feed nori is to wrap a piece around a piece of PVC and hang that in the tank. A loose sheet is no good, it will disintegrate, but if he can "pick" at the PVC it won't be long before he discovers the nori-ish goodness and mow it down within seconds of being offered.

Garlic is supposed to be pretty good at getting them to come around to offered foods. Squeeze some garlic oil on the nori.

Also maybe try some spirulina flake.

[klm]

Hi there, My fussiest fish always go crazy for flying fish eggs (roe) that I get from T & T supermarket @ WEM (just ask at the sushi counter)
Karen

[WWWD]

Also maybe try some live brine just to get him eating.

[whitsunday]

I just put a piece of nori into tank held in place with magnetic algae cleaner (mag float) the motion should attract the sailfin.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I think there's also a T&T Supermarket up on 17th Ave. SE....not far from Gold's.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Oops. My bad. It's not T&T, but it's something like T&T! I'll be quiet now...

[Ruth]

A couple of other things to look for:
- are there other aggressive tank mates that might be scaring him away from the food or intimidating him into not eating?
- have you got him in an appropriate size tank with good water quality? Either of these can make a fish feel not so great and they don't want to eat.

[marcingo]

Oops. My bad. It's not T&T, but it's something like T&T! I'll be quiet now...

I believe its T & K market

[EmilyB]

If there are other fish eating in the tank, it will catch on. If not, I just put an OSI spirulina stick on in the tank for a few days, even if the tang doesn't nibble, the stuff flakes off and you will see it catching it in the water flow. Some spirulina flake. Garlic on the mysis, and away you go. Nori is foreign unless someone else in the tank is eating it, so may take a while for it to catch on.

[tranvictor]

A couple of other things to look for:
- are there other aggressive tank mates that might be scaring him away from the food or intimidating him into not eating?
- have you got him in an appropriate size tank with good water quality? Either of these can make a fish feel not so great and they don't want to eat.

He is in a new 40 gal, just finished cycling 2 weeks ago, he and a small yellow tang are the only inhabitants. The yellow isn't picking on him, and the yellow is eating all foods offered. I will try garlic tonight.

[niloc16]

personally i would say that he is not eating because the tank is too small for him and the yellow tang and the yellow tang is probably keeping him from eating. just my opinion though

[phillybean]

I agree, with-out trying to sound like the Tang police, in a 40G even the yellow is too much, the poor salfin is most likely to stressed to eat. Return it to the LFS and getting something smaller asap, sooner or later you'll have bigger problems then him just not eating.

[naesco]

I agree, with-out trying to sound like the Tang police, in a 40G even the yellow is too much, the poor salfin is most likely to stressed to eat. Return it to the LFS and getting something smaller asap, sooner or later you'll have bigger problems then him just not eating.

Good advice, Philly