How do you feed your tangs?! Nori'Ed up for another 200 days

[mehaffydr]

I attach my Nori to a 1" threaded PVC fitting with a rubber band and drop it in. Works great.

 

[EMeyer]

I am always confused by the elaborate plans to feed large sheets of nori to tangs.

My tang has been happy and increasing fat for the last two years, and all I've ever done is blend the nori up along with all the other food and squirt it into the tank. Are other tangs different? Speaking for my yellow tang, there seems to be no reason to do anything more complicated. He's perfectly happy eating little pieces of nori floating around the tank with all the other food.

 

[mehaffydr]

I look at it kind of like animals at the Zoo. We used to house in a jail cell and now we try and simulate their natural environment. Of course you can keep them alive but that does not mean that their happy. In the wild Tang spend most of the day foraging and picking algae from rocks. So anything that I can do to simulate that natural behavior is a plus. So by attaching the nori and letting the tangs pick at it throughout the day more simulates their natural behavior than letting all of there meal float in the water colum. Also this spreads out their eating over a longer time rather than them having to gourge everything in before it disappears in the overflow.

 

[AnakinReefWalker]

I am always confused by the elaborate plans to feed large sheets of nori to tangs.

My tang has been happy and increasing fat for the last two years, and all I've ever done is blend the nori up along with all the other food and squirt it into the tank. Are other tangs different? Speaking for my yellow tang, there seems to be no reason to do anything more complicated. He's perfectly happy eating little pieces of nori floating around the tank with all the other food.

+1 to what @mehaffydr said. Attaching Nori to the clip and leaving for the day is more about emulation, Tangs and other herbivores grace throughout the day, and attaching Nori to a clip allows them to graze at their will.

When I first got my PBT, I cut up the pieces and fed them with the other food (just to get him eating the Nori), now I put the Nori on a clip so he can graze.

 

[EMeyer]

The rest of the day my tang swims around picking invisible amounts of algae off rocks. Its not like he sits there bored in between feedings

But my tang is a weird one anyway, he wont eat ulva or gracillaria but happily eats blended up chunks of seafood. Perhaps I should not draw conclusions from his behavior.

 

[savetheocean]

I let my tangs graze all day on my seaweed

 

[Mouser1]

I too use Asian market nori to feed my tangs. The first thing I do is to cut the sheets into quarters using an old wooden cutting board, a utility knife, and a straight edge.

I'll typically cut 5 - 10 sheets at a time and package these quarter cut pieces into sandwich bags.

When I'm ready to feed, I'll take 1, 2 or 3 of these pieces and first fold them in half and cut at the fold.

I will fold in half again, and cut that fold:

This now gets put into the algae clip and now cut into small strips:

I originally was putting the folded algae in the clip, and the tangs would rip the large piece out that would then just float around the tank. These small strips are just the right size for the tang to rip it off the clip and suck it in like a piece of spaghetti.

Sometimes something that is so basic the assumption is that everybody knows how to feed algae sheets to our fish without the fish pulling of large pieces, Well, I have been searching for the best way to do this because I'm new and didn't know. Your detailed instruction, especially the part about cutting the folded sheet into strips was exactly what I needed. Thanks.

 

[roberthu526]

I use TLF magnet holder with plastic netting. I take a full sheet of sushi nori and hand cut into 4 strips, feed one strip every two days, keeps my yellow tang and baby blue Hippo happy . Also noticed my clowns and wrasse eat it too, love this stuff.

Boy it’s too cute!

 

[roberthu526]

Am I the only one that has trouble getting tangs to eat nori? Every tang I have introduced I heavily fed nori in QT to get them used to the clip. I always leave a sheet of nori and it takes days for them to eat it, and most of it ends up floating around the tank as it eventually breaks free from the clip. All my tangs destroy frozen food when it goes in the tank. I don't think I have ever seen my pbt or hippo touch the nori...

That’s strange. All my tangs eventually go nuts on seaweed. Many didnt touch it at the beginning but after trying for a week or so they all figure out the seaweed is awesome.

 

[roberthu526]

Rotate frozen and pellets. Nori each day but they will eat as much as I put in. Not sure how much is too much. 5 tangs and a rabbit fish will finish 3 sheets in 1 hour.

I feel you. A full sheet doesn’t last past 10 minutes in a big tank.

 

[Kelfish]

Have you ever tried AlgaeMax from New Life Spectrum??
It contains 9 types of seaweed. This formula is a must have if you like to buy asian seaweed and feed your fish with it.

With this formula you will not pollute your tank, and will make your life simpler and your fish pet happy.

Ask your local store for NLS Algaemax.

 

[G Santana]

I too use Asian market nori to feed my tangs. The first thing I do is to cut the sheets into quarters using an old wooden cutting board, a utility knife, and a straight edge.

I'll typically cut 5 - 10 sheets at a time and package these quarter cut pieces into sandwich bags.

When I'm ready to feed, I'll take 1, 2 or 3 of these pieces and first fold them in half and cut at the fold.

I will fold in half again, and cut that fold:

This now gets put into the algae clip and now cut into small strips:

I originally was putting the folded algae in the clip, and the tangs would rip the large piece out that would then just float around the tank. These small strips are just the right size for the tang to rip it off the clip and suck it in like a piece of spaghetti.

This is am going to employ

 

[G Santana]

This is am going to employ

This was a GREAT Idea, and yeah they slurp down the strips like spaghetti lol

 

[ylreefer]

Rotate frozen and pellets. Nori each day but they will eat as much as I put in. Not sure how much is too much. 5 tangs and a rabbit fish will finish 3 sheets in 1 hour.

Wow. That's not bad lol. My 4 tangs make 1 sheet vanish in about 30 seconds. No joke. It's lake watching a bunch of phirana devour a chicken. Even the clownfish have a go. Sounds like I'm not feeding enough but 6 frozen cubes a day I think should be OK. .