Tang eating flake food?

[CamoFan]

Good afternoon all,

I currently have a blue eye kole tang who apparently has taken a liking to eating my omega one flake food. I've offered ocean nutrition green marine algae (with garlic extract) 2-3 a week for the past 2 weeks but it prefers to pick around the tank at the algae on my rocks.

Recently, it has taken interest in the flake food I mentioned above along with the algae it finds on the rocks. Is this any cause for worry or does it just prefer what it finds in the tank over what I offer?

Does anyone else have a tang that prefers flake food or am I not offering something good? If not a good choice, what would you recommend?

 

[T-J]

I have a yellow tang that eats everything. Loves the LRS frozen foods (Reef Frenzy is what I use). Flakes (probably because they resemble Nori). Pellets. Nori on the clip. Never been a picky eater. Super fat and healthy (except for a bacterial infection years ago that attacked its dorsal fin making it a unicorn yellow tang!)

 

[CamoFan]

I have a yellow tang that eats everything. Loves the LRS frozen foods (Reef Frenzy is what I use). Flakes (probably because they resemble Nori). Pellets. Nori on the clip. Never been a picky eater. Super fat and healthy (except for a bacterial infection years ago that attacked its dorsal fin making it a unicorn yellow tang!)

The tang is fat, getting fatter and an active swimmer. He does shy away when I come to the tank to look at it. The tail fin is a little torn, but I think it's because he wedges himself into the rocks at night. He also seems to like film algae too. So, he eats film algae, flakes and whatever hair algae he wants.

Maybe I just have a weird tang?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

The tang is fat, getting fatter and an active swimmer. He does shy away when I come to the tank to look at it. The tail fin is a little torn, but I think it's because he wedges himself into the rocks at night. He also seems to like film algae too. So, he eats film algae, flakes and whatever hair algae he wants.

Maybe I just have a weird tang?

Not weird at all... what did you expect him to eat? Fish have foods they need a certain amount of in their diet but most aren't 100% carnivores or 100% herbivores. (This goes for all animals really...)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good afternoon all,

I currently have a blue eye kole tang who apparently has taken a liking to eating my omega one flake food. I've offered ocean nutrition green marine algae (with garlic extract) 2-3 a week for the past 2 weeks but it prefers to pick around the tank at the algae on my rocks.

Recently, it has taken interest in the flake food I mentioned above along with the algae it finds on the rocks. Is this any cause for worry or does it just prefer what it finds in the tank over what I offer?

Does anyone else have a tang that prefers flake food or am I not offering something good? If not a good choice, what would you recommend?

Having now 26 tangs, they all generally eat flakes and pellets but do understand while they are herbivores, they have certain dietary needs and require fats and omega 3 and B12 in their diets accomplished from other foods. Vitamin and fat deficiency can lead to HLLE and otyher health issues.
Some foods I feed mine are :
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
TDO Pellets
small plankton
Hikari Marine cuisine
Ocean nutrition veggie diet
spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
Prime reef
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract

Add selcon vitamins to foods occasionally

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Good afternoon all,

I currently have a blue eye kole tang who apparently has taken a liking to eating my omega one flake food. I've offered ocean nutrition green marine algae (with garlic extract) 2-3 a week for the past 2 weeks but it prefers to pick around the tank at the algae on my rocks.

Recently, it has taken interest in the flake food I mentioned above along with the algae it finds on the rocks. Is this any cause for worry or does it just prefer what it finds in the tank over what I offer?

Does anyone else have a tang that prefers flake food or am I not offering something good? If not a good choice, what would you recommend?

If you are worried, buy some flake food for herbivores and add that to your feeding regimen... something like Ocean Nutrition Formula 2

 

[Idech]

My tang loves spirulina flakes.

 

[CamoFan]

Thanks all for the input! I’ve never had a tang before so I just want to make sure it’s treated and fed properly. I’ll go ahead and see if my LFS has the above mentioned foods and give them a shot.

 

[i cant think]

Good afternoon all,

I currently have a blue eye kole tang who apparently has taken a liking to eating my omega one flake food. I've offered ocean nutrition green marine algae (with garlic extract) 2-3 a week for the past 2 weeks but it prefers to pick around the tank at the algae on my rocks.

Recently, it has taken interest in the flake food I mentioned above along with the algae it finds on the rocks. Is this any cause for worry or does it just prefer what it finds in the tank over what I offer?

Does anyone else have a tang that prefers flake food or am I not offering something good? If not a good choice, what would you recommend?

My Ctenochaetus binotatus loves any food. It just took a while to adapt into Flakes and pellets. Are you feeding anything else appart from
Flakes/pellets?

 

[CamoFan]

My Ctenochaetus binotatus loves any food. It just took a while to adapt into Flakes and pellets. Are you feeding anything else appart from
Flakes/pellets?

I offer 2-3 different types of frozen food (mysis, rods food and LRS reef frenzy), omega one flakes and pellets along with the nori sheets for the tang.

 

[CamoFan]

Fed Rods food today and the tang went after it . Oddball creature. I ordered some ocean nutrition formula 2 and some spirulina flakes.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Fed Rods food today and the tang went after it . Oddball creature. I ordered some ocean nutrition formula 2 and some spirulina flakes.

Again, not oddball at all. All my tangs eat meaty foods.

 

[homer1475]

My blue eye kole tang will not even touch a sheet of nori.

 

[exnisstech]

My tangs will eat pretty much anything I put in the tank. My convict scrapes the film algae off the glass and grazes on the rocks. The yellows graze on the rocks also. The naso, purple, and blue tang don't really graze but will eat nori and any other food I throw in. I feed mostly frozen but I do toss some pellets in when they are begging.

 

[Poseidon03]

Fed Rods food today and the tang went after it . Oddball creature. I ordered some ocean nutrition formula 2 and some spirulina flakes.

All my tangs love meaty foods. They eat flakes, frozen and pellets. I would get a seaweed clip and some nori seaweed for it to snack on.

 

[jda]

You are all good. Tangs are not actually herbivores even though they eat a lot of algae -they cannot get all of their nutrition from algae alone, as described above. They are omnivores, even in the wild. They eat meaty fare in the ocean too and saw some flock and devour a sea urchin that some sort of parrot opened up. Even the algae that the eat is covered in all kinds of meaty zooplanton and other things. They will also eat plankton out of the water column if the can find it.