New Kole tang shows no interest in vegetation

[stevo01]

Hey friends, I picked up a new kole tang last Saturday at my lfs. I've been trying different foods with him in my qt. Loves any of the meaty foods like brine, mysis, and Marine Cuisine. Gobbles it all up no problem. I have chaeto and calupra growing in the qt but haven't seen it touched. Also tried feeding some nori and showed no interest. I've got a frag with gha on it. I purposely put it in the qt to see if the tang would mow it down and it hasn't. Is this normal and ok of a Kole? Thanks!

 

[Jack Eskay]

This is typical, took my tank a week or two before he started eating the nori I fed him

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Mine wouldn't eat anything for 2 weeks. Then started off with my sis and after that it would eat algae like crazy

 

[stevo01]

Cool guess I'm off to a great start

 

[Husker]

Mine doesn't really eat nori off the clips (my wrasses do, though, and they make such a tremendous mess). I do have some nori ground up in the home brew fish food that he seems to eat. He is constantly grazing on the rocks, though.

 

[ksfulk]

My kole and my sailfin wont touch nori at all. They pick at the rock, but want nothing to do with the whole stuff. I supplement their diet now with spirulina enriched brine and seaweed extreme pellet foods.

 

[shred5]

Kole are not really a leafy type algae or seaweed eater, they prefer slime type algae and the kind of algae that coats the glass and rock etc. and algae in the gravel.

 

[stevo01]

Awesome sounds like it'll be a perfect mate for the Reefer!

 

[Husker]

Mine cleaned up all algae I had in about 2 weeks and keeps it to almost unobservable levels despite heavy feeding and infrequent water changes.

 

[stevo01]

Quick video of the fish in my 30 gallon quarantine. I have a Yellow eye kole tang (from Hawaii), and a cute young juvenile/female Blue sided fairy wrasse (indo region). There is a small white spot over the koles eye. I believe this is a lymphocyte and should heal soon. Fingers crossed. Otherwise I feel that these will develope into beautiful specimens.

 

[chefjpaul]

Mine took about 2 weeks as well, he must have been hungry

 

[ca1ore]

Kole are not really a leafy type algae or seaweed eater, they prefer slime type algae and the kind of algae that coats the glass and rock etc. and algae in the gravel.

This. They're detritivores more than herbivores. My Chevie never eats off the clip.

 

[mcarroll]

What @shred5 and @ca1ore said.

You'll never have a cyano problem with him around.

As a bonus, they're apparently almost always found living singly in the wild....not a schooling or shoaling fish really at all.

 

[chefjpaul]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/some-tangs-arent-very-good-at-eating-algae