How to feed (large) amounts of Nori to a tang?

[hdtran]

My sailfin tang finally decided that he (she?) liked Nori, after eradicating the macroalga on my LR.

I give it about 1/4 sheet of Nori, folded up, in a clip (see picture below). If I give the tang more than this amount, he shreds the Nori, and it floats off. Unfortunately, he chows thru this in less than a day. I've also tried Dulse; he doesn't like Dulse as much, and also munches it from the clip, so that it floats away, rather than from the ends.

I'm way to lazy to design and build an automatic sheet feeder for the tang (motor, plastic gearbox, plastic conveyor belt, Nori clips attached to belt, etc.)

What's the solution to keeping my fat tang fat and happy? Would putting two clips into the tank, each with 1/4 sheet, folded up, work? How do you tang owners out there deal with this?

Thanks!

p.s. Sorry the photo is slightly fuzzy, autofocus on my camera got confused...

 

[Anonymous]

The clips are the way to go. You can always add nori at various times of the day also. Add one when you go to work, another when you get home, and another at bed time. Just make sure that the fish are eating it all and watch you amonia levels in case a lot of it is not getting eaten.

 

[taikonaut]

As Bierboy said.

I feed mine less but more frequent. There is not much you can do to teach them how to eat like a gentleperson with fork and knife, you know

 

[Carpentersreef]

I've never had any luck with clips - the nori always gets ripped out and floats to the sump. I've had better luck with a rubber band on a small piece of LR. I usually put a half sheet there and it's there for the day.

Mitch

 

[Lostmind]

I've never had any luck with clips - the nori always gets ripped out and floats to the sump. I've had better luck with a rubber band on a small piece of LR. I usually put a half sheet there and it's there for the day.

Mitch

Ditto!

Or, I have been told that taking a piece of pvc, wrapping the sheet of nori around it and holding it in place with a criss crossed rubber band does the trick. With the pvc, you can even wedge itin your clip so you dont have to reach down to the bottom of the tank to grab the LR and strap on more nori...

also, I have seen clips with a plastic mesh unit attched... yiou could buy one of those, or make one even... should work the same as tying a sheet of nori to a rock/pvc

 

[taikonaut]

For a gang of tangs, use a plastic mesh over a length of PVC pipe. PM me if you want a photo for DIY.

 

[Rainman]

Sailfins also like to eat brine shrimp and bannanas, maybe you could supplement his diet with those.

 

[hdtran]

This sailfin (red sea version) eats everything. Flake, frozen brine (defrosted), frozen F1, pellet, etc.

And given algae of some sort, he nibbles all day at it. (With horrible table manners).

 

[Ocyurus]

My sailfin spends her whole day grazing on algae so her vegetable diet is completely satasfied without my intervention. I feed the tank (FOWLR) Prime Reef, Brine Plus, Krill and occasionally Formula 1 and she always takes a big share of dinner along with the occasional giant leaf of Romaine clipped on by the magnet which is nothing but white stuff in 4 hours (doesn't like that part).

Rainman, I never thought of Banannas! How do you arrange it for feeding i.e. skin, meat, whole thing peeled?

 

[Rainman]

Yeah, there was a big thread over on reef central about it. You just hand feed the meat only, of in smaller pieces in a feeder thingo at the surface.

 

[taikonaut]

Alright, sorry for the delay. Here is a pic of a tang feeder that made from plastic mesh (from spent carbon block filter) and RO pressure housing (I have several laying around, but you can use a large diameter PVC pipe with a cap). The larger top of the PVC holder enables me to slip the mesh over the nori. I usually wet the nori so that it will stay on the core while I slip the mesh over. There are many way to do it, but the trickiest part is how to put the mesh on without ruin the food.

(You can put a whole sheet of nori on the core, I just put a small section for taking picture)

 

[Len]

Copied over to the DIY forum.

 

[hdtran]

Taikonaut,

That's very cool. Can the tang poke his (her? its?) nose (mouth? snout?) into the mesh and pull out bits of Nori?

Do your hermit crabs or snails try to climb up the pipe and munch on the Nori? My snails definitely attempt to hunt down the Nori when it's in the water. The hermits too.

Thanks!

Hy

 

[taikonaut]

The tang (purple) can get the nori thru the mesh. You may want to use mesh with larger opening for easier job for the tangs as well as for you to slip the mesh on.

I don't have hermits in my tank, but I suppose they can climb up the mesh easily. If you put the mesh up higher, the kermit probably going to have a harder time getting a hold on the smooth PVC section... as for the snails, they are excellent climber, but their sense of smell and locomotion will put them at a great disadvantage compare to the fish. In fact, the tangs are all over the feeder even before I have a chance to pull my hand out of the water!

 

[Sprattoo]

I was wondering about what to do with my yellow tang along these lines.

He/She comes right over to my hand as soon as it's in the water as he knows I'm coming in with shredded fish or Nori both of which he will eat straight from my hand. He enjoys flakes, too seems to much on baby brine that I hatch follows me around when I scrape off Cyano too.... This guy always seems hungry, but how much is too much? I have little to no algae in the tank yet (they all just moved out of a 55 and 29 a month ago)

I will try one of these feeders.. I like the idea that he can graze longer. Should he always have enough to eat so that he becomes dis-interested in the Nori?

For my damsels I just popped in what they would eat in a couple minutes daily, and they would munch baby brine, and bits left over from feeding anemones. Perhaps I should be giving my tang more?

 

[hdtran]

Your tang will eat (and poop) seaweed all day, given the chance. Not harmful for them, as long as you keep the water clean. They will want some supplemental nutrition (like your damsels); they are not pure vegetarians.

 

[taikonaut]

>... They will want some supplemental nutrition (like your damsels)...

You feed damsels to your tangs? 8O

<running away>

 

[jcurry@wesketch]

I take a full sheet of Nori and roll up as tight as I can. Then I attach it to a piece of LR with 4 rubber bands. It helps keep the shredding to minimum.

 

[Sprattoo]

It funny... I put a piece in there strapped to a piece of PVC.

after about 15 mins he was all set.. he left it alone to go explore other stuff. It was in there for 2 days and the only ones playing with it were the hermits and my peppermint shrimp.

Guess he wasn't too hungry.

 

[taikonaut]

It is better to take it out... rottening nori will make your skimmer works harder than it needs to...