Tang doesnt seem to want the seaweed?

[kingkapoor]

I bought some hikari seaweed sheets, hung them with a clip. Our yellow tang doesnt care. I dipped them in some seachem garlic, still doesnt care.

He does eat the frozen omnivore diet though and likes brine shrimp, not sure what to do

 

[mta_morrow]

First, it’s ok as long as he is eating and it sounds like it is.

He has choices and the nori may not be his favorite.

How long have you been trying it?

Anyone else in the tank eating it?

 

[Jeight]

no matter what I do my hippo will not eat nori but goes ham on mysis not sure how balanced a diet she is getting but shes a chonk

 

[kingkapoor]

First, it’s ok as long as he is eating and it sounds like it is.

He has choices and the nori may not be his favorite.

How long have you been trying it?

Anyone else in the tank eating it?

Its hilarious because as soon as your notifcation came up I saw him nipp at it a little. We have a newer foxface in the tank with him who is too new for me to make a determination at this point

 

[Jesterrace]

Green Seaweed/Nori tends to get most of them going. My Yellow Tang sure loved it (but it also loved a meaty based diet as well ie Reef Frenzy, fresh killed turbo snail). From my observation the "Herbivore" label for Tangs is a bit of a misnomer as they are really omnivores from what I have seen.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Try using a rubber band to attach a piece to a rock. This looks a bit more natural to them and will often get them going.

 

[dansreef]

I had a finicky tang that wouldn't really eat nori. I then added a second one who went to town on any nori I offered. Now the original tang snarfs every piece it can get its mouth on. Give it time.

 

[Millimylilly]

I just got a wild yellow tang and he wouldn’t touch the nori for a couple weeks. I think he got hungry enough after clearing the rocks of algae and finally wanted some

 

[golver1]

I bought some hikari seaweed sheets, hung them with a clip. Our yellow tang doesnt care. I dipped them in some seachem garlic, still doesnt care.

He does eat the frozen omnivore diet though and likes brine shrimp, not sure what to do

My powder blue prefers the red over the green. Then again that fish is a pig and would eat my fingers if I left them in the water long enough.

I've had tangs that never took to it. They'd eat flake, frozen, pellets, nip at stuff in the tank but would never touch the nori. If you have a lot of rock perhaps he is getting plenty of the "real" stuff naturally.

 

[Marco S]

It takes a while for some of them to get used to it, but keep putting it in and eventually they will take to it. I have five Tangs and they are currently in three different Tanks until they are all done with QT so I can add them all at once. My Powder Blue took forever to actually start eating the Nori, but my Purple Tang was eating like a pig from day 1. My Blue Hippo and Two Spot Bristletooth Tangs both pick at it all day, but seem to prefer Mysis Shrimp and pellet food for now. Finally, my Achilles Tang is starting to pick at the Nori on the clip, but will totally devour the Hikari Seaweed Extreme pellets that I bought as an alternative to the Nori sheets. I assume once they all go in the same tank it will pick the habbit up from watching the others so I am not concerned at this point.

On a side note: my One Spot Foxface absolutely loves the Nori and goes through the entire half sheet I put in his tank alone. He does seem to like the red seaweed better for some reason so I have 2 clips in my DT and once all my fish are in it I will be loading both clips with different colors to give them options.

 

[4FordFamily]

Nori is an important staple, I recommend rubber-banding it to a rock at first. This mimics their nature grazing behavior. Many tangs eat red, first for some reason.

They often start eating from clip once other fish do. In the absence of this it can take time.

 

[Nhltc99]

My purple and sailfin tang went for nori on a veggie clip (and anything else I put in the tank) immediately, no hesitation. But my blue and kole tang took longer to get used to eating nori but eventually got used to it. Weird part is I ordered the two little fishies "red" seaweed last week, and all tangs seem to be boycotting it so far. Even when I put my normal green seaweed around it on the clip, they ate all but the new red stuff. Still hoping its just resistance to something new.

 

[vetteguy53081]

YET. Eventually they all do. You can try a couple drops of garlic extract to see if it entices the tang to pick at it

 

[MartinWaite]

I have a bit of 32mm plastic pipe with a magnet embedded in epoxy resin at one end and a magnet outside of the tank. I wrap the nori around the pipe and hold it in place with 3 rubber "O" rings and most of my fish go barmy for the nori and the 8x4 inch piece of nori is gone within a couple of hours every day. I have 2 tangs, 2 dwarf angels, 3 wrasse, 3 clowns, and about a dozen gobies & other dragonettes whom all like to eat to eat their fair share of the nori. Yet when I used a clip for the nori all of them would be scared of the nori flapping around as where on the pipe is more like grazing from a rock which is more natural to them.

 

[Dimmy007]

It took my tang well over a month. I use Rods food Nori on a clip. I actually wasted quite a bit because she wouldn’t eat it. It would eventually fall off the clip and end up in the sump. Now I put a 1/4 sheet on every day and it is gone within a couple minutes. I like @4FordFamily idea of rubber band to a rock.

 

[Dimmy007]

Also Blue hippo eats what ever the yellow tang misses or rips off and lets go. Patience is key like everything in this hobby.

 

[Alexcus simon]

My yellow tang doesn’t eat any nori or algae but loves frozen food not sure how or why this is a thing but it is. I personally just thing that they learn to associate with different foods when they are young and tend to continue on that path.

 

[ca1ore]

Yup, just requires a bit of time and perseverance. Hippo is more water column feeder than grazer, so may take even longer.

 

[Oldsalt]

If you can get some Gracilaria that's their preferred macro. It's brownish red and grows wild in our estuaries here in Perth Western Australia. I doubt dried Gracilaria will entice. My Tangs devour the stuff so I keep it growing in the refugium. My Foxface goes for green mostly.

 

[vetteguy53081]

An 8' X 8" sheet of seaweed lasts 2-3 minutes in my tank

 

[EmptyWallet]

After trying the rubber band on rock as per posts above, put some nori sheets (your local Japanese restaurant or local supermarket would sell Nori for a fraction of the cost of Hikari) in a blender to quickly dice it up into flake form. Then mix with water till it sinks a bit (otherwise floats and goes over the overflow) and feed it just like normal flake. Once your Tang(s) gets a taste for it via flake they will likely now start to nip at sheets on a clip. I have to broadcast feed 'Nori flakes' because my Moorish Idol bullies the tangs and keeps them away from his clips - no matter how many sheets I hang across the tank at the same time. Like watching a game of tennis with him darting up and back across the tank to warn the tangs away. Red Marine Algae (ocean nutrition brand) is like crack to fish, give that a try too... (flake form is hanging sheet fails).