My tang eats too much

[rostervandross]

Last week I added a baby naso vlamingi among some others and he absolutely chows down. The issue is feeding enough to let the other fish get a bite. Should I try to spot feed the other fish so they can get a head start on the food? Has anyone had a similar issue with one fish eating much more aggressively and the more timid fish having a hard time getting enough to eat?

I am going to try feeding less often for the sake of the tang.. I just don't want to cause aggression between them.

 

[DaveK]

Tangs are big dirty fish that pig out on anything. You can try feeding the tang first but most likely it will still eat food intended for other fish.

Also, it's likely your fish is a baby, so it's going to eat and grow at a fast rate. Hope you have a large tank.

 

[frisbee]

Couldn't you just throw food in at opposite ends of the tank? The tang is fast, but not that fast. Also, I'm not sure if the tang is eating nori or not, but you could put a seaweed clip at one end of the tank to keep the tang preoccupied while you feed the other fish. GL.

 

[rostervandross]

Had some success today sort of spot feeding the fish. Luring the tang over with a few bits then feeding the others back and forth.

I'm not sure what it is about sheets of nori.. i have just recently started offering it so the fish don't really go for it off the whole sheet. But once little bits break off they eat some. I am going to try some of the just dried red and green / not sushi sheet kind, maybe with garlic.


Tang is in good hands .. I am already planning ahead for an upgrade down the road.

 

[frisbee]

Instead of offering a whole sheet of Nori or one folded up in a clip, you could use some scissors and cut the Nori into small 1/8" x 1/8 " pieces. Soak these in a cup of water for a few minutes to make them a little more pliable and then pour it into the tank. GL.

 

[Oxylebius]

I have three aggressive eaters and two that hang back. In order to get food to the ones that hand back, I provide largish nori chunks to the three aggressive eaters, and while they have their mouths full, I provide smaller pieces to the two hanging back. This is along the same thought of feeding the aggressive fish on one side of the tank so that you can feed the others at the other end.

 

[Mandy11]

If your tangs don't quite understand the nori clip yet, we found a great way for them to eat is to grab a few smaller rocks, rubber band the nori to it and place in different spots around the tank. We used to place at least 4 rocks, some on the sand some hidden in the rocks.
It allows them to graze at their leisure and its more natural for them to be able to pick at it over a long period of time, like they would on a reef.
Its very important that they get fed a couple of times a day instead of just once, in their natural habitat they are all day grazers, that's why tangs have a lot of aggression issues protecting their patch of reef for food supply, often kilometers of it in the wild.

 

[dacianb]

I have two voracious tangs (yellow and kole) - at the beginning they ignored the seaweed on clip, but after few days started "jumping" just seeing me with the clip outside tank.
I put a decent piece of algae on the clip, so the tangs are full bellies, then feed the rest of the tank. In this way they are less voracious, so even shier fishes can eat well