fatting up a hippo tang

[newsalt]

I have a small hippo tang, probably 2"-2.5". I've had it about 3 weeks. It's battleing ich right now. I've been soaking the food with garlic and selcon to try and have it beat the ich on its own. My problem is that the hippo is very skinny. I've been feeding the tank 2 times a day every other day. In the afternoon when the lights come on I feed some cyclopeze. In the evening, I either feed the tank my frozen mush, or frozen brine or flake food. The hippo seems to eat but hasn't fattened up. I was thinking of live brine shrimp. Any thoughts?

[BoomerD]

First of all, don't feed the tank, feed the fish and corals...while some fail to see the difference, just throwing food in the tank, (as I often do) leads to excess waste in the system. That leads to phosphates and elevated nitrates.

The Hippo if sick needs to eat 2 or 3 times per day, not every 2 days... Every meal should be supplemented with selocn and /or garlic. Feeding brind shrimp is like feeding popcorn...tasty and crunchy, but 0 nutrition...fish acn & do starve to death eating it...it's possibly the most worthless fish food going...To me, the ONLY good thing about it is that it can often trigger the feeding response in fish that are not eating...as soon as they start to feed, then they get something better. No way to improve the nutritional value of the either...Gut loading them with garlic or selcon, or other vitamins is almost an exercise in futility...Better to feed quality foods...the Cyclops-eeze isn't really a fish food either...they might eat some of it, but it'n not really what they need...Formual 2 frozen is one of the best prepared foods for tangs...lot's of greens and the necessary nutritional stuff they need...

[newsalt]

Originally posted by BoomerD
Formual 2 frozen ...

I'll pick some up tonight.

[IshWish]

I feed my tangs the following:

Frozen Food:
Ocean Nutrition - Formula Two
Ocean Nutrition - Formula VHP (Very High Protein)
Ocean Nutrition - Spirulina Formula
San Francisco Bay - Emerald Entre

I cycle the frozen food feeding each day around lunch time.

Each evening I feed them Ocean Nutritions Seaweed Selects which is a pressed/dried seaweed that you feed using a lettuce clip. I feed them the green, brown, and red variety alternating daily.

I also feed the fish other food but I got these foods specifically for my tangs since they are primarily herbivores but also need some high protein food.

Hope this helps.

[hunterd_67]

I feed my tang, shrimp/scallop mush, lettuce, seaweed select and algae strips, mysis shrimp, blood warms soaked in garlic juice and all the fish go nuts over it

[johnlewis]

I feed by Nori, SF emerald entrée, and Flake. You can get Nori for a lot less than Ocean Nutritions or similar products an an Oriental grocery store or many large grocery stores in the Oriental food section.