Fattening up a powder blue tang

[asylumdown]

I picked this guy up like a month and a half ago. He was emaciated, but not to "the point of no return" emaciated, plus he was (tepidly) eating pellets in the store, and was more aggressively eating mysis. It was part rescue, part impulse purchase. I gave him a full tank transfer protocol and a prophylactic round of prazi-pro, during which time I trained him on nori.

He's been in the display for... gack I don't know, 14 days after I got him, so a month maybe? He's put on some weight, but I can definitely still see his spine. At least his stomach area is no longer caved in, but when you look at him head on, his skull is clearly the widest part of his body. I'm wondering how long people who've 'recovered' powder blues from the brink of starvation remember them being skinny? He's an aggressive eater, particularly with the Nori, though it's hard for me to keep nori on the clip due to my aggressive hog of a cowfish (the tang can nibble for 6 hours on what the cowfish devours in 2 mouthfuls). But otherwise he's incredibly active, alert, and interactive. He's already lost all fear of my hand and will eat nori right out of my fingers. Just want to make sure he's on the right track.

[asylumdown]

and just as an aside, having a tang that eats nori off a clip, after an entire year, has finally trained my doliatus rabbit to eat nori. He's practically been a carnivore until now!

[Steve...]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I picked this guy up like a month and a half ago. He was emaciated, but not to "the point of no return" emaciated, plus he was (tepidly) eating pellets in the store, and was more aggressively eating mysis. It was part rescue, part impulse purchase. I gave him a full tank transfer protocol and a prophylactic round of prazi-pro, during which time I trained him on nori.

He's been in the display for... gack I don't know, 14 days after I got him, so a month maybe? He's put on some weight, but I can definitely still see his spine. At least his stomach area is no longer caved in, but when you look at him head on, his skull is clearly the widest part of his body. I'm wondering how long people who've 'recovered' powder blues from the brink of starvation remember them being skinny? He's an aggressive eater, particularly with the Nori, though it's hard for me to keep nori on the clip due to my aggressive hog of a cowfish (the tang can nibble for 6 hours on what the cowfish devours in 2 mouthfuls). But otherwise he's incredibly active, alert, and interactive. He's already lost all fear of my hand and will eat nori right out of my fingers. Just want to make sure he's on the right track.

I think offering the fish a variety of food and a lot of nori. Maybe soak the food in Selcon?

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Steve...

I think offering the fish a variety of food and a lot of nori. Maybe soak the food in Selcon?

yah, I've had to. In fact the only way for me to keep nori on the clip long enough for the PBT to get any is to either drop two clams in on the other side of the tank to distract/fill up the cowfish before I put the nori in. If I've already fed too many clams that day, I'll have to put in a 6 inch sheet, let the cowfish eat all of it in two bites, then put in another 3-4 inch sheet which the cowfish will ignore for 10 or 15 minutes.

cowfish are adorable, but good lord are they vacuums. 50% of the food that goes in the tank is for him specifically, and I've got 21 fish. If he doesn't get his morning clam, he'll make up for it by munching on a rather expensive colony of SPS.

Well I'll try and up the amount of nori I put in, are you recommending selcon as an appetite stimulant or for medicinal reasons?

[The Codfather]

Try marine grazer, I think this is by far the best thing I've found. It fattened up my tangs in no time at all. Between this and pacific plankton, the fish I have are fat and sassy.

[Steve...]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

yah, I've had to. In fact the only way for me to keep nori on the clip long enough for the PBT to get any is to either drop two clams in on the other side of the tank to distract/fill up the cowfish before I put the nori in. If I've already fed too many clams that day, I'll have to put in a 6 inch sheet, let the cowfish eat all of it in two bites, then put in another 3-4 inch sheet which the cowfish will ignore for 10 or 15 minutes.

cowfish are adorable, but good lord are they vacuums. 50% of the food that goes in the tank is for him specifically, and I've got 21 fish. If he doesn't get his morning clam, he'll make up for it by munching on a rather expensive colony of SPS.

Well I'll try and up the amount of nori I put in, are you recommending selcon as an appetite stimulant or for medicinal reasons?

Selcon enhances nutritional quality helping the fish

[Magickiwi]

I fed my yellow tang cyclopeze for a couple weeks to get him used to seeing me as a bringer of food. Then moved to nori and mysis now he eats anything I throw in the tank other than other fish. He's turned into quite the pig.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by The Codfather

Try marine grazer, I think this is by far the best thing I've found. It fattened up my tangs in no time at all. Between this and pacific plankton, the fish I have are fat and sassy.

+1 I put 3 grazers in my tank at a time to allow all the fish to enjoy it also have you tried the New Era Marine & Algae pellets, all my fish go CRAZY for it and are all VERY fat and healthy..

[asylumdown]

I had the new era pellets in an auto feeder mixed in with a blend of other pellets of varying sizes. It was timed to drop a very conservative amount of food in at 9am, which most mornings I wouldn't normally be home for. But for the past 3 weeks I've been writing my thesis from home and I realized that 80% of the pellets that got dropped in weren't getting eaten by anybody, and I was battling cyano, so I took that auto-feeder off. Now they only get the 11am auto feeder with a mix of freeze dried cyclopeeze and crushed flakes, which the anthias will actually eat. I'll see if I can mix the algae pellets in with the flakes.

Does anyone know where to get marine grazer discs in Calgary?

[The Grizz]

Concepts should have the grazers in stock.