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[kien]

When I first got my powder blue he was in not so great shape. Got ich like crazy and wouldn't eat for a bit. No one picked on him but he wouldn't eat. I was sure he was a goner. He turned the corner when I decided to dramatically increase the variety and frequency of feeds. One in the morning, one right when I got home from work, and one right before lights out, sometimes a little bit of food after lights out and even a sheet of nori every day. There was a lot of food in that tank! Everything from dried flakes, pellets to my homemade fishfood blend. He soon learned that everything I was putting in the tank was good and edible. He ate at a different schedule from everyone else. I think he started eating at night, then earlier, then eventually ate when everyone else ate and when that happened I cut the feedings back to normal (just twice a day). He is plump now, completely ick free and eats anything I throw in the tank. Be prepared to do more frequent water changes if you try this!

As Naesco says, they are very hard to keep fish! You have to put a lot of extra work and effort in if you want to maintain a healthy one. Another thing that helps (although a little late for you but might be helpful for others), is that I introduced him at night when everyone was well asleep. I actually do this for all my fish. I have moon lights on and when I did this he had a chance to explore the tank without being raked over the coals as they say. He'd swim along, explore a cave and then quickly realize there was someone sleeping in there! The other benefit I noticed was that the next morning, the other tangs would swim up to him and be like, "Whoa.. WTF, have you always been in this tank??? I guess so, just keep on swiming". The established tangs never bothered him and all 4 get along really well. It is odd because with 6' by 2' of swimming room, they seem to like swimming together in a pack.

Oh, and I soak everything in garlic extract. I have 6 cleaner shrimp and they help too. He loves to park himself in front of them. Although I have not seen any ich on him in a long time. I think he just likes to be tickled.