Hippo Tang has no interest in any seaweed

[Enad]

Hi all,

I recently acquired a very very small baby captive bred Blue Hippo Tang and it has been doing great for the last month or so - no ich break outs and eating plenty. However, the one problem is this tang shows no interest eating seaweed.

I bought a fresh pack of classic Nori, and it doesn't touch it. I have red and purple seaweed as well, but again no interest. I was thinking of trying to get a garlic concentrate and dipping the seaweed in there, but I thought I'd ask first here to see if that sounds like a good idea?

I've found that when the Nori gets waterlogged and a chunk floats into a return pump and little pieces get thrown around the tank, then he seems to take a bit of interest in eating stuff but even then, it's not voracious or anything like he is with live worms and my usual frozen mix. On the clip? No interest at all.

Would love to hear some opinions on what I can do to get him eating seaweed! No signs of HLLS yet but I imagine it's only a matter of time if he keeps up his current diet.

 

[AmazingYocool]

Hi all,

I recently acquired a very very small baby captive bred Blue Hippo Tang and it has been doing great for the last month or so - no ich break outs and eating plenty. However, the one problem is this tang shows no interest eating seaweed.

I bought a fresh pack of classic Nori, and it doesn't touch it. I have red and purple seaweed as well, but again no interest. I was thinking of trying to get a garlic concentrate and dipping the seaweed in there, but I thought I'd ask first here to see if that sounds like a good idea?

I've found that when the Nori gets waterlogged and a chunk floats into a return pump and little pieces get thrown around the tank, then he seems to take a bit of interest in eating stuff but even then, it's not voracious or anything like he is with live worms and my usual frozen mix. On the clip? No interest at all.

Would love to hear some opinions on what I can do to get him eating seaweed! No signs of HLLS yet but I imagine it's only a matter of time if he keeps up his current diet.

Some fish just dont like seaweed for some reason. I'd continue to offer it every now and then untill he tries it. Do any of your other fish enjoy it? Try feeding it first so he see's the other fish eating it.
On the bright side, hes eating other stuff! It can be hard for tangs to acclimate so I'm glad hes eating in general.

 

[Enad]

Some fish just dont like seaweed for some reason. I'd continue to offer it every now and then untill he tries it. Do any of your other fish enjoy it? Try feeding it first so he see's the other fish eating it.
On the bright side, hes eating other stuff! It can be hard for tangs to acclimate so I'm glad hes eating in general.

None of my other fish have ever been big algae eaters so they don't go over to the clip either.

Any thoughts on the garlic dip for seaweed?

 

[JayM]

Mine wasn’t a fan for a while either. I tried every color I could find and he just didn’t care for it until he did. Just keep offering a couple of times a week and he’ll get it at some point.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Blue Hippo Tangs - unlike most tangs - are primarily carnivorous, not primarily herbivorous; so it's expected that it would prefer meaty foods.

Info on its wild diet and the original broodstock conditioning diet (the one used to first captive-breed these fish):

For the blue hippo tang (Paracanthurus hepatus), A.K.A. the pacific blue tang;

"Feed on zooplankton and occasionally on algae (Ref. 9710, 48637, 27115, 83665)."***

"Pacific blue tang broodstock were fed a varied diet to apparent satiation three to five times daily. The diet consisted of a mixture of a commercially prepared seafood blend (LRS Fertility Frenzy, Larry's Reef Services, Advance, NC, USA); fish eggs (LRS Fish Eggs, Larry's Reef Services); frozen mysis shrimp, Mysis diluviana (Piscine Energetics, Inc., Vernon, BC, Canada); and a commercially available 1.7-mm extruded pellet ([EP1 – 46% crude protein, 16% crude fat, and 2% crude fiber], TDO Chroma Boost, Reed Mariculture, Inc., Campbell, CA, USA)."****

***Source:

Paracanthurus hepatus summary page

www.fishbase.de

****Source:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcStart?redirectUri=/doi/10.1111/jwas.12426

 

[RV Reefs]

Garlic could be an option. As long as he is eating other things, there isn’t a huge issue. Give it a matter of time, it is possible that the place you got the tang from didn’t feed nori. I’m not an expert on HLLE, so I’m not going to say anything except remain vigilant.

 

[Enad]

Blue Hippo Tangs - unlike most tangs - are primarily carnivorous, not primarily herbivorous; so it's expected that it would prefer meaty foods.

Info on its wild diet and the original broodstock conditioning diet (the one used to first captive-breed these fish):

Ah! Well that's good to know. I guess I was cocky and thought my previous Tang experience was good enough for this guy so I didn't even bother looking into the natural diet. Good to know!

I will still try to encourage some seaweed eating, just for the sake of variety.

Thank you!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

I recently acquired a very very small baby captive bred Blue Hippo Tang and it has been doing great for the last month or so - no ich break outs and eating plenty. However, the one problem is this tang shows no interest eating seaweed.

I bought a fresh pack of classic Nori, and it doesn't touch it. I have red and purple seaweed as well, but again no interest. I was thinking of trying to get a garlic concentrate and dipping the seaweed in there, but I thought I'd ask first here to see if that sounds like a good idea?

I've found that when the Nori gets waterlogged and a chunk floats into a return pump and little pieces get thrown around the tank, then he seems to take a bit of interest in eating stuff but even then, it's not voracious or anything like he is with live worms and my usual frozen mix. On the clip? No interest at all.

Would love to hear some opinions on what I can do to get him eating seaweed! No signs of HLLS yet but I imagine it's only a matter of time if he keeps up his current diet.

Algae and seaweed is of little interest to this type of fish. I have an 8" Hepatus and it recently started gobbling algae/seaweed but focuses on meaty foods

 

[Jay Hemdal]

As said, juvenile hepatus tangs are more carnivorous, so require meaty items in their diet: diced mysids, good quality tiny pellets, even some flake foods. Multiple small feedings a day are best.

 

[Enad]

As said, juvenile hepatus tangs are more carnivorous, so require meaty items in their diet: diced mysids, good quality tiny pellets, even some flake foods. Multiple small feedings a day are best.

Yup! I feed my tank often as I work from home. They get frozen twice a day, sprinklings of high quality pellets(different types) throughout the day, a few squirts of ROE throughout the day, and live black worms every morning.

 

[Paul B]

I never feed nori or any kind of seaweed and I have kept three hippo tangs over 10 years. Don't worry about it just feed meaty foods.

 

[AmazingYocool]

None of my other fish have ever been big algae eaters so they don't go over to the clip either.

Any thoughts on the garlic dip for seaweed?

Ive done it before, but what it does is make it messy. You can try to use either garlic guard or vitality while mixing whatever frozen food you feed, and add some shreds of seaweed into it and see how that does. I wouldnt do a entire sheet and let it into the tank because its probably gonna decompose easily and be really messy.