Difficulty keeping Bristletooth tangs

fishguy212

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Hi All -

I have a 105 gallon reef, i have not had any success with keeping bristletooth tangs, all of them seem to die off after a few weeks. I recently just had a really healthy 2 inch yellow eye kole tang that i got at my LFS, it died off after 2 weeks. He did not eat any nori, new life spectrum or flake food and just died. I have had the same scenario with various different ones over the past year.

All of my other fish are healthy and eating/ growing well. ( I have 2 x small yellow tangs - 2 inch size (had for 3 months now growing very well), 4 x clown fish 1.5inch, 3 x firefish).

Is there a specific food that i need to feed bristletooths or do i need to buy a certain species of them that is hardy.

Please advise if others have had better experience with keeping them for longer.

thank you
 

nereefpat

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Tangs in that genus are pretty hardy, in my experience. Kole and tomini are common and hardy.

Bristle tooth tangs won't necessarily eat nori. Other genera eat green algae, while kole and cousins are more slime/film and detritus eaters in nature. Some will eat nori, but some won't. Flakes and pellets are great food, but some fish need to be trained to accept them.

It's hard to say what is going on here. It could be they had a disease of some sort. Maybe the yellows are beating on them? Were the tangs eating in the store? A good first frozen food would be mysis. Live brine is usually irresistible, if you are haven't trouble getting them to eat at all.
 

TNreeferBX

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i’ve kept a few white tails, all settled in first picking algae off the rock. they seem to eat a lot of algae even compared to other genus of tang. also should note that i had one specimen that i purchased quite large around 4” and he would only take algae from the rocks and algae from the reef frenzy i fed, never bothered to look at the clip. he’s since been moved onto a friend with a much larger system for him to be happy
 

Euphyllia97

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Some people will hate me for this, but I still believe your chances are a lot higher to have a healthy growing bristletooth tang if you have some algae in your tank.

I know a lot of people want to go for an algae free/ low nutrient system, but in my opinion a lot of our fish do better when the tank is a bit dirty.

Algae is part of a natural cycle, which is a good way to provide your fish with a source of food.

I know we have all these things like Nori, but my bristletooth never touches it. I run my tank with 20 ppm nitrates and I have some algae growth on my rock (nothing to extreme). My bristle enjoys to pick the rocks and looks fed and happy.

Keeping some acropora aswell, that has never looked close to how it looks now when my nitrates were 1 ppm.
 
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fishguy212

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Thank you, i will just buy one that is already eating/feeding. I guess that is the safest route to go. Will just ask the LFS or private seller to show me that its taking food.
 

Crabby48

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Tangs in that genus are pretty hardy, in my experience. Kole and tomini are common and hardy.

Bristle tooth tangs won't necessarily eat nori. Other genera eat green algae, while kole and cousins are more slime/film and detritus eaters in nature. Some will eat nori, but some won't. Flakes and pellets are great food, but some fish need to be trained to accept them.

It's hard to say what is going on here. It could be they had a disease of some sort. Maybe the yellows are beating on them? Were the tangs eating in the store? A good first frozen food would be mysis. Live brine is usually irresistible, if you are haven't trouble getting them to eat at all.
Interesting I never knew.
My Tomini picks at sand bed mostly some rocks and rarely eats nori. When tank was new and clean he would eat nori. PBT wanted nori nonstop and picked at anything in the tank. Snails and hermits stayed clean.
 

ca1ore

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As others have noted, bristle tangs are detritivores and slime alage eaters. Absent adequate grazing surfaces, they may well slowly starve. Some will take quickly to prepared foods; some will not. Took my chevron almost 18 months before it would eat nori.
 

Bbfishb81

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Yellow tangs can be territorial. If you have 2 in there all ready, might be they are not allowing anymore tank mates. I have a sailfin and yellow in a 180, and if I add anyone less then 1/2 their size, it usually gets pretty beat up.
 
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fishguy212

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That is true, but they are small yellows around 2 inch in size, and they are peaceful for now. Once they become 4-5 inch i know they will get very aggressive. They are really nice fish, they dont bother any others and got along with bristletooths, 0 aggression. Otherwise i would have removed.

I had a chat with LFS employee, he has a 3.5 inch yellow eye kole tang that he is saying takes external food. I will give it a try after seeing it eat.

I do have adequate amounts of alage for a small bristletooth in my tank. But i am sure it will clean it out in a week or so, so need one specimen that is eating external food.

keeping my fingers crossed
 

ironman187

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Our kole tang ate nori on day 2 in the tank. If it were me, I'd order some Masstick and smear it on the glass or love rock. Also, don't clean your tank glass for a few days. It will look ugly, but Kole tangs love picking off that algae.
 
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fishguy212

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Finally found a bristletooth that was eating at LFS. Its a 2 inch flame tip. The LFS had 5 different kinds, but this was the only one eating food. Today is day 4, he is eating nori. First 2-3 days he was picking at rocks and the sand bed. All the signs seem good for now :) keeping my fingers crossed it thrives/lives long life.


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fishguy212

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sad news, the bristletooth just died. It was eating nori, flake food, frozen. It just started to breath really heavily in the last couple of days and just died.

All other corals, fish are totally normal no issues.
 

southerntnreefer

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ive lost a few bristletooths too, i Can keep sharks, wrasses, boxfish etc, but cant keep a bristletooth to save my life. May try one more in the 220, as its a fowlr, and i let the algae grow on the side panels and back wall a bit. Tanks been up 9 to 10 months since upgrade and downsize to upsise from a 2 year old 90 and 1 year old 125. May give it a shot if i can find a re home local thats been in captivity.

My yellow always is the welcoming committee, so ill have to keep lights off for a while.
 

PatW

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My kole tang has been very hardy. It happily eats pellets, nori and frozen food. In facts, it eats everything I toss into the tank. But fish can be odd. I have a tamarin wrasse that is supposed to be difficult and he gobbles up everything in sight. So go figure.
 

southerntnreefer

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My kole tang has been very hardy. It happily eats pellets, nori and frozen food. In facts, it eats everything I toss into the tank. But fish can be odd. I have a tamarin wrasse that is supposed to be difficult and he gobbles up everything in sight. So go figure.
ive got a quoy parrot downstairs thats supposed to be hard too, but the pita gobbles up everything and has been super. fish are weird.
 

ScottB

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Sorry about your tang.

I was sweating bullets over a spotted kole that refused to eat anything. And I tried everything. Nori, pellets, live brine, mysis, masstik, flakes. He was desperately grazing all surfaces, but my frag system was too new and clean.

I hated myself for not thinking through on this fish. Thankfully he was fat when I got him, and I managed to dirty up the tank fast enough to keep him alive. Six months later he is fatter than ever but still won't touch anything but slime algae.
 
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fishguy212

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I had kept my tank dirty on purpose for this one, apparently it liked flake more then anything else :-( sad to see him go.
 
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Best advise I can give you is to leave a side of glass, and the back, alone to build up algae. This will be a natural go-to place and you will see their mouth marks frequently. Hopefully you have a pane of glass or acrylic you can leave alone. I read this years ago in a post by Mr. Fenner. Back when I owned one I tried this with my Kole (Yellow Eye) tang and it worked great - also was interesting to watch.

You have some great suggestions here. In any case when I kept them they would eat frozen food (brine and mysis shrimp), pellets, and nori. Nori would be the green, red, and purple sheets from sources like Two Little Fishes and also green natural sheets used in Shushi. Other than that make sure you get a good fish with no mouth damage. I usually would buy my bristle tooth tanks at a LFS due to my concern with their mouths.

Best of luck.
 
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