Hippo Tang won't eat seaweed

[GongShow]

Hey I have a Hippo tang (first tang) for about half a week now and i was told it would eat seaweed of a tank side clip like crazy yet mine wont even touch it it'll graze the rocks and eat that but it's pretty much cleaned 3/4 of it and it'll eat the flakes and pellets i put in. Are the flakes going o be enough to sustain him. Is that normal that he wont touch it and what can i do to try and coax it into eating the seaweed.

[kien]

Some tangs are really skittish and take a little longer to recognize food sources. He might just be highly suspicious of the clip. My blue tang, about 5 years old now is still a huge chicken and is scared of anything I put into the tank at first. Give him some time, I'm sure he'll figure it out.

Something to try is to change the delivery method. What I do is wrap seaweed around a tube like 1/2" PVC with a rubber band and stick the tube in the tank. It is weird.. at one end I'll have a clip and the other end i'll have the tube. My blue tang will eat off of the tube but not the clip. Other tangs will eat off of both.

One other thing you can try is other leafy matter like Romain lettuce. My tangs LOVE romain lettuce more than seaweed! If they do end up liking Romain lettuce, try wrapping it together with seaweed so that when the eat the romain they'll probably end up nibbling on the seaweed as well.

[belzebuth]

My Dori is 6 years old, she will eat a little bit of Nori but it is not her favorite. My hippo eats anything from shrimp pellet, spirulina flakes, Mysis and squid. Just ensure you are offering a variety of food not always the same thing. Give it sometime your fish will come around.

[freddy]

If you have a magnfloat(magnetic cleaner) on your glass,try putting the seaweed between the cleaner,my tang and angel wouldn't touch the seaweed in the clip,but when I used the cleaner they went to it,I guess they were used to the magnfloat because it's always there.

[edikpok]

you can try cutting seaweed (I buy mine in Save-On-Foods....) into pieces, presoak it in aquarium water in a separate container and then dump the water+ soaked seaweed into the ank. My hipo loves it this way! Make sure that the pieces are not too small....

[christyf5]

or try a different brand. mine was picky, wouldn't touch it until someone gave me a different brand to try. I guess some are prepared differently or something. once they get it figured out they'll eat pretty much any brand.

[GongShow]

okay thanks for the advice it was just a kinda weird cause my friends eats it like it's been starved for a few days and mine wont go near it

[naesco]

Originally Posted by GongShow

Hey I have a Hippo tang (first tang) for about half a week now and i was told it would eat seaweed of a tank side clip like crazy yet mine wont even touch it it'll graze the rocks and eat that but it's pretty much cleaned 3/4 of it and it'll eat the flakes and pellets i put in. Are the flakes going o be enough to sustain him. Is that normal that he wont touch it and what can i do to try and coax it into eating the seaweed.

Your LFS was wrong to say that it eats seaweed.

The Hippo or Regal or Blue tang is a carnivore. It is the only meat eater tang as all the rest are veggie (seaweed) eaters.

You need to get some dry mysis shrimp or any other non veggie food, soak it in garlic extract (garlic extreme) for 10 minutes and throw it is the current. It will also pick up shrimp pellets from the bottom. Feed often and only garlic soaked food. Frozen food will not suck up the garlic.
The reason for the garlic is to avoid the fish getting ich and they are fish magnets and it also assists a fish's appetite.

Hippo's will also eat algae (nori) but it needs meaty foods. Mine also loved algae.