Fish Not Eating
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=42610
Printed Date: August 03 2025 at 6:53pm
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Topic: Fish Not Eating
Posted By: Haley'sfish
Subject: Fish Not Eating
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 7:56pm
| I just got a TR Blue Hippo Tang who has been doing great since I got him on Friday. He has been looking better and better but today he is just swimming in one place and won't eat. I have been feeding him Brine Shrimp with garlic oil. Anyone have any suggestions to get him to eat/not die? |
Replies:
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:07pm
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Have you been feeding him Dried algae? since its a tang they require alot of algae on their diet in other to thrive in ones aquarium.
Is it in a quaritine tank? this is a sign of possible ich,.
have you seen others fish harrasing the tang?.
What are your water parameters?
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
How did you acclimate your tang?
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Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:11pm
| I just put some algae in with him. He did/does have ich, but it is nearly all gone. I don't think he is being picked on by other fish everything seems good. Should I put him in a quarantine tank? The parameters are all good and I drip acclimated him. |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:17pm
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I would buy some dried seaweed i use Ocean Nutrition kind and dip it on garlic oil and put it close to your tang this will stimulate your tang to eat not to mention it will repel some ich until tang immune system is up and will fight off ich.
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Posted By: CapnMorgan
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:21pm
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As was mentioned before, Tangs are herbivores. They need a diet of algae to stay healthy. ------------- Steve http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40637&PID=356246" rel="nofollow - My Old 180G Mixed Reef Currently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8 |
Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:23pm
| I have the dried seaweed, Ill soak a different piece in garlic oil and give it to him. Should I bug him with my hand and the seaweed or just put it on a clip? Also would he be less stressed in a mesh quarantine tank? |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:37pm
| I dont think it would do any difference in a quaratine tank since its not being harassed or anything on the tank. Just put the soaked seaweed on a clip and let the tang come to it. They seem shy by a movement from the outside. |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 8:57pm
| Perhaps if you can include a photo of your tang? |
Posted By: bugzme
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 9:00pm
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What good would a pic do? It takes some time for them to feed on nori! ------------- Jeff 125 tank 50 gallon sump T-5 lighting Rum drinker, Carbon User I KNOW ROCKS THAT ARE YOUNGER THEN ME!! I AM A Realist! I write what I think!! |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: August 02 2010 at 9:49pm
I'd say it's tired of eating the same old garlic meat.  This behavior may be normal or it may be a problem. I invite you to call because it's too involved to discuss in writing. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Corey Price
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 12:03am
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Please tell us more about the fish. How big is the fish? Size matters for these blue hippo tangs.
Nori doesn't work on new fish, unless they know to eat it, in my experience. Are there other tangs in the tank that know to eat nori from a clip? Small hippo tangs are mostly herbivorous, but they turn into pseudo-omnivores as they get bigger/older. I'm not usually one to condone the use of suppliments/off-the-shelf miracles-in-a-bottle, but there's a picky fish suppliment that I've used to get fish to eat, mostly with good success. I can't remember what it's called, but it smells like bananas when you open the lid. |
Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 12:09am
| Its about 1 inch without the tail, pretty small. It has moved around the tank a little bit since the first post but still won't eat. There are no other tangs but I have tried to feed previous tangs nori with no success. Do you remember where you got the supplement from? |
Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 7:20pm
| He's still not eating.... any other suggestions? I have tried nori with and without garlic oil as well as romaine lettuce, brine shrimp with and without GO, and also reef plankton with and without GO. |
Posted By: bugzme
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 7:35pm
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You need to make sure he eats something. My tang gets to where he doesn't want to eat and I give him artic pods and he like to eat them. Then I feed him some dried nori (flake and he is back to normal ------------- Jeff 125 tank 50 gallon sump T-5 lighting Rum drinker, Carbon User I KNOW ROCKS THAT ARE YOUNGER THEN ME!! I AM A Realist! I write what I think!! |
Posted By: bur01014
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 7:38pm
| how long you leave the nori in the tank? My hippo was frightened of the clip and nori....he would stay away like it was the plague....I was worried I was only stressing him more so I gave up....finally I put nori in one day, forgot about and came home after being gone for 6-7 hours and he was chowing down! Give it time....let that nori stay in the tank for several hours....your water should be safe as long as its out before a 12 hour period. Also, make sure you clip it low and in a spot that is guarded and he feels safe in. Ex. low flow, rock work, etc......my tang still freaks out everytime I get within a foot from my tank... |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 9:45pm
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Sometimes live foods are taken when nothing else works. Is there any live food in the tank, algae or bugs? Can you get some live Caulerpa and Brine Shrimp from someone here on the MB or at one of the LFS? Does the fishes belly look sunken? Does it look bloated? One of the few unfortunate things about this hobby is that some fish just don't make it and that some types of fish just don't do well in some tanks. Hippo Tangs are not known for their hardiness either. Hang in there and learn from this experience. Personally, I found it difficult to develop the discipline not to buy any fish at the LFS that is not completely healthy in every way. I went through quite a few fish in my early days. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 10:51pm
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I posted on your ad for some suggestions ------------- 150 gallon Reef Millcreek Utah |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:02pm
What do you mean by every way? usually i buy fish that has been at least 3 weeks in a LFS and check for any abnormalities
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Mark Peterson wrote:Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:16pm
This is the best that I can do. Sorry to make such a big deal out of this. This is the only downside of this hobby for me.
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Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:20pm
| that looks bad, worse than i imagine. has the seaweed in a clip work? |
Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:21pm
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Dont even worry about it. It is a big deal. I completely understand. But that little guy looks malnourished and you need to get it to eat something. I would try anything you can. Just keep trying things and hopefully something will spark its interest. ------------- 150 gallon Reef Millcreek Utah |
Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:24pm
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and BTW those little guys are usually a bigger pain to keep alive than bigger ones. I think this is pretty normal for a blue tang of that size. They do not have the best survival rates when they are that small. ------------- 150 gallon Reef Millcreek Utah |
Posted By: Haley'sfish
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:27pm
| How can you tell he looks bad? What do you look for? I have nothing more to try here... |
Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:28pm
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When you look at the belly it looks very sunken in. This is a sign that it is not getting enough food in most cases and losing body mass. ------------- 150 gallon Reef Millcreek Utah |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: August 03 2010 at 11:30pm
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well here is a pic of a healthy one about the same size as yours
 Notice the how big the stomach is and the rest of the body looks well not skinny
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Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: August 04 2010 at 8:53am
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The pic provided by Haley'sfish definitely shows a fish with problems. My first thought was how it looks so "bumpy". A healthy fish should look smooth, more like the one in the pic above (though I don't necessarily like the look of that one either). The bumps could be several things: 1- large worm parasites show up better as the fish gets skinnier. The parasite stays large because it is eating the fish. Garlic mostly takes care of the external parasites. 2- more likely, because this is a tank raised fish, it is a problem with digestion where the food is clumping up. Clumps of food form when the diet is not right, like nothing but meaty food or nothing but dry prepared food since it left its grow-out tank. Of course, Blue Tangs are more omnivore than solely herbivore, and each one is different. Some love a lot of algae and some can do okay without so much algae, but all Blue Tangs do better when algae is the main food. The length of time the fish has been at the LFS is not best as the sole indicator. Just because it is eating and hasn't died so far doesn't mean that much. Sometimes the best fish are those that are quick and alert enough to avoid the net until they are the last fish of their kind in that LFS tank. Other times it's better to get them out of the deplorable conditions and one item feeding of the LFS and into a healthy tank as soon as possible. To be frank, I don't like the look of that Tang pictured above. It has clear edges to it's fins. Notice the ventral(bottom) and caudal(tail) fins have clear fringes, indicating some kind of water quality issue(low pH in the transport bag can cause this), or fungal influence, or stress, or all three, leading to color loss. It also has light spots on the underbelly. A healthy Blue Tang is usually more blue and not so pale around the mouth and chin. I'll see if I can find a pic I like.   They ate a large leaf of Romaine or Nori in addition to 1-2 cubes of Emerald Entree daily.   My wife loved to feed Romaine lettuce. We used Gorilla Glue to attach the algae clip to the back of the Mag-Float because the suction cup doesn't last. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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