Hippo Tang and Yellow Tang Diet?

[danmhippo]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Circa:
<STRONG>I was wondering what is a good Tang diet that will bring out the "best" colours and let the fish be very healthy.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fresh Live macro algae (depending on which species of tangs you have, the required diet varies). I would skip the artemia, useless food for the tangs. If feeding Nori, I soak nori in selcon for 2 minutes before I feed.

The last variable to keep them very healthy is to stock light, frequent water changes, swimming room, ample food, and monitor your water chemistry.

 

[Circa]

What do you guys think? I was thinking a flake food and nori. And the ocational brine shrimp? I was wondering what is a good Tang diet that will bring out the "best" colours and let the fish be very healthy.

BTW new what is formula 1 and 2?

 

[Circa]

Yah damnhippo I am not sure what artemia is? And what selcon is...

Sorrry I am still somewhat new the the hobby. Ahh I have a better idea now on what the tang should get. But my other question is I have been told not to give the tangs lettice or any "land food" What is your take on this guys?


Btw any pics of these healthy tangs?

 

[danmhippo]

artemia = brine shrimp. Dead or live, artemia is not very nutritious. The most nutritious stage of the artmia is when it is just hatched out of the egg. Land vegetables does not give tangs the proper spectrum of nutrition either. Better to stick with seaweed clips fortified with selcon.

Run a search under "selcon" using the search feature of this board. You will find the information you are looking for.

Good Luck

 

[zspeed32]

i would stick with the more natural diet of a tang........macro........however, my yellow shines macro totally......it actually prefers meaty foods, such as crab, squid, shrimp (not artemia), etc.,......the only other thing it will eat is diatoms....

 

[NoriMuncher]

Don't think you have to worry, I had a yellow tang that I only fed flakes for years(I know, I was a bad, bad guy back then), with a leaf of Romaine every month or so. I treat my tang much better now out of guilt, but not sure if he really needs that much variety.

 

[JohnD]

I have several tangs and I feed them Formula 1 and 2, Prime Reef, Spirullina etc all from Ocean Nutrition. I use the cubes. One a day and each cube is soaked in either selcon or vita-chem.

They get a leaf of Seaweed Selects every day and every now and then some terrestrial food - blanched broccolli, blanched green bean.

I just happen to like Seaweed Selects, but my fellow board members also recommend nori, unspiced.

I agree with Dan, brine shrimp do not have much nutrition. As a treat (once a month) I feed live brine shrimp that have been soaked in vita-chem.

 

[Lockart]

I rotate between Nori, Spinach, and Romane. The tangs don't seem to show a preference they eat it all and their colors are great.

 

[Marty M]

My tangs are looking their best since I started feeding nori every day. It used to be the supplemental food. Now it is the staple, and frozen cubes are the variety. My Sohal was becoming a possessive demon when I used to let them graze on it. He would attack any fish that tried to take a bite. I want to discourage his aggressive habits, so now I shred it into bite sized pieces, and soak it in tank water to soften. They all compete fairly now because there is nothing to defend.

 

[Circa]

I have heard some great tips and info here. I will for sure be giving nori because it sounds lke that is the best food for them. After all they are grazers...

I don't know if there is much else people can say, but maby there is. So I will keep this thread going.

 

[jrodrig692]

I feed my Yellow Tang and my Clown Tang mainly Seaweed Selects, and Nori when I can't get the Seaweed Selects. Also feed a mixture of Prime Reef, Formula 1 and 2, Brine Shrimp Plus, Plankton, Daphnia, VHP, Mysis Shrimp, Watley's Community food, Spirulina, soaked in a couple of drops of Vita Chem. I like to give my fish a varied diet, therefore I chose 1 cube from 3 different packages, and rotate. I figure, I like variety in my diet, why not them.

 

[npaden]

One thing that everyone seems to be unsure of is what a Hippo Tang's (Paracanthurus hepatus) diet is. Most of us assume that it is a grazer because after all it is a Tang and Tangs are herbivores and like to graze.

While I recognize www.fishbase.org isn't the be all end all of marine fish information it might be more accurate than what we see our fish happen to eat in our tanks. They list zooplankton as the primary food of these fish not algae. I think it is important for us to at least attempt to feed them some meaty foods (other than just brine shrimp) especially if this is their main diet in the wild.

Here is the link to fishbase:
Paracanthurus hepatus

FWIW, Nathan

 

[Circa]

Nathen thank you so much for pointing that out. In fact I assumed the same thing that all tangs are grazers. I guess you could still do it as long as you suppliment some zooplankton in there diet.

I will be making a note of that, I have learned alot lately and I don't want to forget this.

 

[JohnD]

Natan and Circa,

The Hippo does eat meaty foods. That is why jrodrig692 and myself pointed out that we feed ours Formula 1 and 2.

 

[npaden]

JohnD,

I just wanted to point out the fact that hippo's and yellow's do not necessarily have the same diet requirements. Also in your description you mention the seaweed selects and jrodrig692's description says mainly seaweed selects although jrodrig doesn't even have a hippo tang so I don't know why it matters what he feeds his yellow tang and clown tang.

I just wanted to emphasize the Hippo tangs primary diet in the wild is not herbivorious but carnivorious.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[esmithiii]

How does one feed zooplankton?
E

 

[jrodrig692]

Most Tangs are Herbivores in the wild, although in the aquarium it is an entirely different world. My tangs have become omnivores. At the start they would not touch anything but the algae, and now eat anything that hits the water. There are many people out there that have kept hippos for an extended period of time with no problems, depends on how the fish will adapt to its new environment. Therefore I believe the ocean will always be the ocean, but an aquarium is not a little piece of the ocean, its a little piece of what you make it.

 

[npaden]

Esmithiii,

I would imagine that something like Ocean Nutritions Prime Reef or Formula I would be a good source of meaty foods for fish that require them. Zooplankton is basically just small animal matter floating in the water column.

I agree jrodrig692 that the important thing is feeding our fish nutritious foods that they can digest easily. I believe most tangs would be omnivores and I know that there are people who have kept hippo tangs successfully with a algae as their main diet, but I think variety is a good thing to keeping a healthy fish.

JMHO, Nathan