New yellow tang not eating

[Jru5002]

On Tuesday I received an order from LA, including a yellow tang, for my 125 gallon. The tank is newly set up, just over a month, but an upgrade from my 5 year old 55 gallon tank so not really a "new" tank. It had a very brief cycle before I moved any of the fish into it, but right now the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0, 0, and 5 respectively.

My order was 4 fish: a flame angel, a bicolor blenny, a Bartlett anthias and the YT. The other 3 fish are in great shape and they all eat well.

I noticed last night that the YT is just hanging out in a small cave and didn't show any interest when I fed the tank. I have a veggie clip with nori on it, which I lowered to be closer to the cave. I also dropped a few algae wafers in there, but I'm pretty sure my cleaner shrimp will take possession of them pretty quickly.

Of course being new, this isn't too unusual for a fish. I'm looking for advice though because its belly is very sunken, so I don't know how much time it has left to settle in and start eating. I've never kept a tang before and all of the googling I've done about this (including on this forum) seems to concern older tangs who stop eating.

I've never seen anyone bullying it or really paying attention to it at all. There's plenty of algae on the rocks if it wanted to graze, as the FA and blenny started doing immediately. Not sure what else I can do to entice it.

I have Garlic Xtreme, Selcon and Seachem Entice available if anyone thinks any of them would help. I've never used any of them with nori before. I also have plenty of variety of frozen meaty food, cyclopeze and Rod's food available.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[HotRocks]

On Tuesday I received an order from LA, including a yellow tang, for my 125 gallon. The tank is newly set up, just over a month, but an upgrade from my 5 year old 55 gallon tank so not really a "new" tank. It had a very brief cycle before I moved any of the fish into it, but right now the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0, 0, and 5 respectively.

My order was 4 fish: a flame angel, a bicolor blenny, a Bartlett anthias and the YT. The other 3 fish are in great shape and they all eat well.

I noticed last night that the YT is just hanging out in a small cave and didn't show any interest when I fed the tank. I have a veggie clip with nori on it, which I lowered to be closer to the cave. I also dropped a few algae wafers in there, but I'm pretty sure my cleaner shrimp will take possession of them pretty quickly.

Of course being new, this isn't too unusual for a fish. I'm looking for advice though because its belly is very sunken, so I don't know how much time it has left to settle in and start eating. I've never kept a tang before and all of the googling I've done about this (including on this forum) seems to concern older tangs who stop eating.

I've never seen anyone bullying it or really paying attention to it at all. There's plenty of algae on the rocks if it wanted to graze, as the FA and blenny started doing immediately. Not sure what else I can do to entice it.

I have Garlic Xtreme, Selcon and Seachem Entice available if anyone thinks any of them would help. I've never used any of them with nori before. I also have plenty of variety of frozen meaty food, cyclopeze and Rod's food available.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Yellow tangs commonly show up with a sunken belly.

Doesn't sound like you QTd these fish. The YT could have flukes and/or an internal parasite or worm that is keeping it from eating.

Adding garlic to your food may help entice the fish to eat. If it is not eating due to a disease related issue, that will need addressed first

 

[dwest]

On Tuesday I received an order from LA, including a yellow tang, for my 125 gallon. The tank is newly set up, just over a month, but an upgrade from my 5 year old 55 gallon tank so not really a "new" tank. It had a very brief cycle before I moved any of the fish into it, but right now the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0, 0, and 5 respectively.

My order was 4 fish: a flame angel, a bicolor blenny, a Bartlett anthias and the YT. The other 3 fish are in great shape and they all eat well.

I noticed last night that the YT is just hanging out in a small cave and didn't show any interest when I fed the tank. I have a veggie clip with nori on it, which I lowered to be closer to the cave. I also dropped a few algae wafers in there, but I'm pretty sure my cleaner shrimp will take possession of them pretty quickly.

Of course being new, this isn't too unusual for a fish. I'm looking for advice though because its belly is very sunken, so I don't know how much time it has left to settle in and start eating. I've never kept a tang before and all of the googling I've done about this (including on this forum) seems to concern older tangs who stop eating.

I've never seen anyone bullying it or really paying attention to it at all. There's plenty of algae on the rocks if it wanted to graze, as the FA and blenny started doing immediately. Not sure what else I can do to entice it.

I have Garlic Xtreme, Selcon and Seachem Entice available if anyone thinks any of them would help. I've never used any of them with nori before. I also have plenty of variety of frozen meaty food, cyclopeze and Rod's food available.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I would keep trying new foods. My YT in quarantine right now won’t eat anything except NLS pellets. No flake, rods food, nori....also, make sure you quarantine. Good luck. He’s probably scared of the veggie clip BTW.

 

[ca1ore]

It can take a while for a new fish to 'recognize' nori in a clip as food. Don't know that I've necessarily seen yellow tangs come in thin (though it is true for convicts). A sunken belly is recoverable, though weight loss behind the head is much more problematic. I've found the best approach is to try lots of different foods; perhaps something will entice it.