Orange Shoulder - Picky Eater

[Parker]

My Orange Shoulder Tang is becoming a very picky eater. He used to eat everything from Mysis, Flake, Pellets, Nori but as of the last month or two he stopped eating anything but a particular brand of Flake, which he goes crazy for. He's starting to get pretty darn thin. I thought maybe I would stop feeding flake for a while and just feed the things he doesn’t like in an effort get him hungry enough to eat other food again, but I worry about how thin he is and then might not make it.

Any suggestions?

[High tide]

If it is already starving do not starve it more in an attempt to train it on other food. Feed it what it likes until it has enough fat reserve and then try mixing other foods into the flake. This fish could be declining anyway due to intestinal parasites or maybe it was cyanide caught. Good luck!

[Parker]

My biggest concern is the flake is not enough to sustain the fish in the first place. It eats the flake like there's no tomorrow but keeps losing weight. It just won't eat anything with enough substance to keep it a heathly weight.

[High tide]

Unfortunately it sounds like it is declining. Have you tried soaking the mysis in anything? Garlic can sometimes entice a thinning fish. Have you tried brine shrimp? Not a whole lot of nutrition there but most fish seem to love it.

[naesco]

Keep on trying to feed it a variety of alternative foods soaked in garlic extract which sometimes acts as an appetite enhancer. Also fortify the food with Selcon.
Try Wardley's spirulina discs or pellets.
Tangs eat algae constantly. The discs take a while to break apart.
Do not starve your tang.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by High tide

Unfortunately it sounds like it is declining. Have you tried soaking the mysis in anything? Garlic can sometimes entice a thinning fish. Have you tried brine shrimp? Not a whole lot of nutrition there but most fish seem to love it.

what I do is unthaw some brine and mysis and shrimp and roll it into a nori sheet nice and tight. and bingo

[Parker]

I usualy soak in garlic, that's hasn't seemed to of had an effect with this particular fish.

I'll give these suggestions a go and report back.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

what I do is unthaw some brine and mysis and shrimp and roll it into a nori sheet nice and tight. and bingo

mmmm sounds like sushi.....I guess that would be a "Manitoba Roll"

[Haloreef]

I feed my tangs just about every food under the sun. I soak it in Selcon and Garlic. I have had luck getting picky tangs, (Achilles, Black and Powder Blue) to eat Emerauld Entre. I cant tell you off hand who makes it but it has a mixture of foods in it alga and mysis. They seem to prefer this to anything else. Orange Shoulders are notorius for bubble chasing apparently to get the micro scopic alge film on the bubble. Well thats what I read in the coral magazine any way. A sign of hunger.
My Orange shoulder was quite fat to look at but still chased bubbles I started to feed more and he gradually stopped.
Good luck!
Keith.