Feeding tangs nori - hows the poop?

[Milad]

Just want to get an idea from people who feed their tangs nori. Do you find that there is alot of nori poop floating in your tank after you feed? If so, how do you deal with it? my tangs doesnt seem to "finish off" the nori and when they poop it goes everywhere. And my purple, which is the fatest of them all, runs over to the power head, and pops right ontop of it and all the fish think its feeding time again. im not sure if she does this for a laugh or what.

i know tangs aren't suppose to digest everything but i figured they wouldn't poop it back out in small 1mm-2mm chunks!

[PoonTang]

Poop shouldn't be a concern. Tangs need nori in order to be healthy because in nature they are vegetarians. Your fish will recycle any of the larger pieces and the skimmer should handle the rest.

[reefwars]

they sure do lol i have a sailfin and a yellow tang i feed both nori and other green things.they poop and they poop good if you ask me its a healthy sign if you think of it tangs are always grazing and are always moving and something has to give, so they poop its the job of most fish breathe,eat,expell,reproduce . so lets figure out what can be done to lighten your poop load how often are you feeding nori? how much?? are you feeding them anything else as tangs have a large appetite for most anything that floats?? cheers

[Milad]

Originally Posted by reefwars

they sure do lol i have a sailfin and a yellow tang i feed both nori and other green things.they poop and they poop good if you ask me its a healthy sign if you think of it tangs are always grazing and are always moving and something has to give, so they poop its the job of most fish breathe,eat,expell,reproduce . so lets figure out what can be done to lighten your poop load how often are you feeding nori? how much?? are you feeding them anything else as tangs have a large appetite for most anything that floats?? cheers

i feed pellets 4 times a day on a schedule
i try to feed once a day brine shrimp or mysis before they go to bed
I use to feed 1 5inx2in nori sheet once a day before all this pooping happened

[reefwars]

hummm not gonna lie it seems like alot of food just to let you know heres my feeding schedule and its for about a dozen or more fish and coral clams crabs snails etc of all kinds.

i feed nori everyday once in the morning as they need green food constantly especially big ones. i feed about a 4x4" square on to two cups with elastics on each end of the tank.tangs dont like to be crammed with other tangs for food.

i feed frozen every 2 day just a cube or a small piece of mysis or brine sometimes bloodworms etc. and this is between 3 tanks.mainly for my puffer and clowns and trigger.

i feed pellets or flake once everyday but such a small amout i could count the flakes and its eaten immediately.

my corals eat every day zooplankton one day marine snow the other.

i feed my nems once a week a small pice of siver side or some mysis, clams etc whatever im in the mood for i rarely feed the same thing twice and they grow super healthy for it.

my snowflake eel eats every three days same as nems for food and i make him hunt for it


tangs eat just about all the foods i mentioned so obviously with their grazing they are going to poop lots and try to eat everytime i feed other animals. the trick is to not overfeed try reducing your flake food to once or twice if you prefer and frozen every two and etc. watch it go dont leave or do it when your in a hurry. youd be surprised at how well your tankmates can thrieve off your reef especially with a good refuge. i can guarantee i can leave for the weekend without feeding and they will be fine but as to keep their health progressing on the good side we provide them with all the things we can reguarly. i use to feed a few times a day and frozen twice a day at first then i had a very knowlegable reefer come to my house and she set me out on my feeding habbits and since then ive noticed huge,huge,huge differences in things like algae, nitrates,phosphates etc. and less for my skimmer

[Milad]

well my refugium isnt really a refugium. everything ive put in there seems to die. i have a mangrove in there now but the cheato and red algea went bye bye

the two automatic feeders that feed pellets twice a day, to me, seem low currently. I was going to up them but maybe i wont. The pellets get devoured so quickly, very well before the 2min mark which is said on the packaging.

It does seem you feed alot more nori than I do. 4 tangs, 1 foxface and 1 lawnmower blenny that eats off the nori clip which i clip on in a 2x2in folded square of 5x2 nori.

i will look into feeding less since my tangs look like footballs right now.

[reefwars]

i feed my tangs the two squares mainly cause of their size my yellow is fairly large and he doesnt graze like he use to theres not much left to graze as of recently and plus their not the only algae eaters in there just about all my fish are grazers if not always than at times not sure on your set up but mine has a fair bit of flow and a good turnover to my sump so i imagine most of my fish waste is gone right away between that and my livestock

[Lance]

Not to worry. Herbivores crap way more than carnivores. Ever see the size of a cow pie?