Powder blue tang

Kehaulani · Feb 21, 2015

I just bought a powder blue tang for my 75 gallon and I was wondering what is everyone doing to keep theirs happy and healthy. I know that all tangs can get ich easily and powders are known for it so just wanna keep my guy nice and happy. He is one of three fish in the tank and the biggest one at about 4 inches or so

dkray944 · Feb 21, 2015

Lots of seaweed and good water perimeters.

haleyf1024 · Feb 21, 2015

As far as seaweed goes, buy some purple seaweed, it's their favorite color. Mine eats brown, red, green, and purple but many people say theirs only eats purple or green. I would also grow some gracilaria (spelling may be off, but the macro is red) and give some to the PB every once in a while, mine love it!! Make sure you soak their food in garlic to keep up their immune system...

Mike J. · Feb 21, 2015

I've had my powder blue for 4 1/2 years. I grow Nitophyllum for it. It also has a steady diet of spirulina brine shrimp. It doesn't care a lot for Mysis. It also loves Formula Two flakes. Plus, of course, I think it's very important to have a mature tank that it can feed off of all day long.

Fishie · Feb 21, 2015

75g is small for a PBT...keep an eye if it isn't seeming happy you should change to a tang that will do "better" in a tank that size..
purple tang, yellow tang, kole tang will do quite ok.

you will also be able to keep the 1" hippo babies that are easily available...but in a year or 2 those will outgrow it as well.

PBT just like to dart quickly and they can get easily stressed with less room...

gl

Mike J. · Feb 21, 2015

I should be more specific since there are 25 species of Nitophyllum. I'm talking about what is commonly called Red Dictyota. It is a main ingredient in their natural diet.
FishDB - Red Dictyota

Kehaulani · Feb 21, 2015

Thanks for the help guys

dankreef · Feb 21, 2015

Powder blue is very active.

Longnose Hawkfish · Feb 22, 2015

If you want to make it happy rehome it to a bigger tank. A 75 gallon is way to small

Mercurio · Feb 22, 2015

Longnose Hawkfish said:
If you want to make it happy rehome it to a bigger tank. A 75 gallon is way to small

Agreed. I never realized how fast they can swim until I recently added one to my 210. I wish my tank was even bigger than that for him. But to answer your question mine absolutely loves nori and NLS Pellets. He will also eat pretty much anything else I put in the tank (spirulina brine, PE mysis, LRS Frenzy etc.).

Alesolra · Feb 25, 2015

A lot of food

KoleTang · Feb 25, 2015

Mike J. said:
I should be more specific since there are 25 species of Nitophyllum. I'm talking about what is commonly called Red Dictyota. It is a main ingredient in their natural diet.
FishDB - Red Dictyota

Where did you get the seed algae?

oh207 · Feb 25, 2015

I feed a variety of sea weed, regular green nori, purple, brown, and red. I use 2littlefishies brand and usually add a full strip every other day for 4 tangs; PBT, Hippo, Chevron, and Yellow tang. The PBT is my favorite. Sometimes I pre-soak/hydrate the nori strip with garlic and Vitamin C.
A varied diet is important to keep fish healthy. So once a day I feed a mix of Spirulina flakes, ON Spirulina pellets, and lastly some NLS pellets from an autofeeder.