Encouraging A Kole Tang To Take Prepared Food

[@ombomb]

Got mine on saturday and so far it's turned it's nose up at anything I've added to the tank, which has been the usual diet of the other fish (Mysis, enriched brine shrimp, chopped mussells etc) as well as dried green sea weed. Not too worried as I've had a bit of a diatom outbreak after combining the old tank with the new one and it's demolishing huge sections of it off the sand and happily grazing any algae on the rock. The fish, although still a little nervy when the tank is approached at feeding time, is happily swimming around the tank, looks very healthy and there's been no aggression from any other fish since the first day it was added, so I'm not worried in the short term, but am thinking ahead fror when the grazing drys out.

Water stats are currently top notch, 0 phosphate, barely detectable nitrate, no ammonia, no nitrite, ph 8.2.

Am i right in thinking this is a healthy fish eating naturally as natural food is available?

Can anyone recommend any other green foods that will interest it?

 

[ally--19]

you want ur water to have

ammonia at 0

nitrite at 0

nitrate at 10

ph at 8.3

try feeding it marine mix its good for tangs some times you just have to add diffrent food to see what it eats

 

[@ombomb]

thanks, I've been keeping marines for a couple of years now, so i'm pretty clued up on what makes good water.

kole tangs are natural herbivores, so general "marine mix" isn't really that good a bet, hence i asked for green foods.

 

[ally--19]

i had one before and it didnt eat.
but marine mix dose work for tangs cause thats all i use to feed my tangs

i have not had a kole tang since i set up my tank and thats been 6 years since i had a problem with my old tank as i was on holiday and my dad turned of the hole power in the house and forgot about my fish tank

 

[SkiFletch]

As herbivorous as they may be, most Tangs will also accept meaty foods. The goal here is to get him to eat something, then you can mix other stuff in with that something and convince him to eat it all... Try flake foods, including algae flakes, maybe some pellets. You can also try Roe (fish eggs from an asian market), someitmes that drives them crazy...

 

[@ombomb]

algae flakes went down well last night, a little wary at first, but it soon got to like them