Why are very small hippo tangs so finicky??

[Rickybobby]

When you look up getting a small blue tang to eat a lot of people say good luck. I too have had issues in the past. Picked up a new 1.5" blue yesterday. General cure right away ate some roe. And a few brine spirulina. Today same thing. Won't touch nori or mysis or salmon or clam or seaweed extreme or flakes. Does the transition from the ocean really hurt them? Or is a lack of grazing areas in qt cause problems as well? I'm glad she is eating lightly and her stomach looks very good. But I can only dream of a fish that goes nuts and eats everything

 

[Spare time]

Possibly something related to the metabolic demands. I suspect the vast majority of people in the hobby drastically underfeed fish with higher metabolic demands.

 

[sczlars]

I’d suspect that they are keyed in to certain items they recognize as food. I don’t think the hepatus tang is much of a grazer, more a zooplankton feeder. The presence of other fish already trained on what you are feeding can help. Eventually they figure it out.

 

[sc50964]

All fish need time to adjust to captivity & that’s one of the reasons to do QT. Very young and very old fish tend to have more difficulty time adjusting to live in captivity.

 

[Rickybobby]

So this fish now hides all day. I feed but not sure if she's eating. May loose one not sure what I can do now. She's in copper ate at the beggining. Not sure if the meds have taken. Away her appetite she's looks perfectly healthy. Maybe stop copper and go back to regular water and get her eating??? I don't know. I tried a baby hippo years ago from the ocean same thing happened it didn't eat and hid.

 

[Frogspon]

Hippo's and unestablished small quarantine tanks don't mix well. The LFS can put them in small quarantines because the system Is hooked up to thousands of gallons that has been cycling for years.

The smaller they are, the higher probability it's going to die in quarantine even if there's no copper and you're only observing.
.

 

[Rickybobby]

Went back to lfs. New group of bigger tangs arrived all swimming not hiding. Bought one put in fresh qt water with. Bottled bacteria. After 3 days she's eating Well breakfast is roe Calanus and brine shrimp. Dinner is salmon shrink scallop and clam selcon diet. Doing well. Just started copper now thats she's established at 1.0ppm

 

[bigdaddydz]

Anyone notice when their fish see someone new, they hide? Its amazing they have to know familiar faces.

 

[Rickybobby]

Anyone notice when their fish see someone new, they hide? Its amazing they have to know familiar faces.

They are very smart that way. Right now I sit back and don't move to observe the feeding. Also watch on camera she's very active when no humans around