Struggle with Naso Tangs

steallife904 · May 17, 2023

Hello,
So as title says I cannot keep a naso tang alive. I have tried 4 times now. Each time they last about 2 months then gone. It’s a 150 tank that’s been running over 5 years. No change in parameters. I have a blue tang and tomini tang in the tank. No one ever picked at the naso and it was bigger than the other fish.
I stumbled on something recently though I wonder if it the issue. Do naso possibly eat more algae than other tangs. I feed rods algae blend to tank daily. About every other day I put seaweed on a clip for them. Video I saw mentioned giving seaweed daily and folded up a whole sheet of it tight and put on clip. I normally just rip a piece off and stick on there. Is that my issue possibly??? Under feeding?

T-J · May 17, 2023

I have a single Yellow Tang that can burn through 1/2 sheet of Nori in no time. Plus it eats a ton of LRS frozen food too. It loves the meats!

Reefering1 · May 17, 2023

Sounds like the problem.. do they get skinny then die? I feed a 10"x8" sheet of seaweed to my naso, desjardini and tomini tang everyday(occasionally missing a day won't hurt). The naso and desjardini are both about 6-7" long almost a inch thick.

steallife904 · May 17, 2023

I have not noticed any of them skinny, no pinched stomach or anything. What usually happens though like this time is the naso just disappears. Never found it so can’t inspect it to see anything. Saw it swim and eat day before. Next day or 2 I realize it’s not there. Have a canopy to do no jumping

exnisstech · May 17, 2023

I've had my naso for over 6 years. I only feed nori a couple of times a week. Staple food is a raw seafood mash with PE mysys. I toss a few pellets in once in a while when they are begging. Naso is in with a purple, hippo, yellow, and convict tang in a 180g. They are all fat and healthy.
You said you've lost 4. Are they from different sources?

steallife904 · May 17, 2023

exnisstech said:
I've had my naso for over 6 years. I only feed nori a couple of times a week. Staple food is a raw seafood mash with PE mysys. I toss a few pellets in once in a while when they are begging. Naso is in with a purple, hippo, yellow, and convict tang in a 180g. They are all fat and healthy.
You said you've lost 4. Are they from different sources?

Hello, yes from 2 different local stores.

CivicS14 · May 17, 2023

I found my experience with Nasos are that they are very passive so when it comes to feeding, my other fish will outcompete them for food.

My first Naso died due to starvation because it couldn't compete with other tangs: purple, yellow, and regal.

Second Naso, I kept it in QT for almost 6 months training it to feed from my auto feeder that I have in my display and to eat Nori the moment I put it into my tank. He lived for over a year then in a rush I trusted someone else's QT process and velvet wiped everything.

I'm on my 3rd blonde naso. This guy was a lot easier to train to eat pellets and Nori, so only 4mo in QT. I got him fat and ready to enter the display in case he couldn't compete for a while, which happened to be the case. I have an Achilles, Purple, Sailfin, & Yellow Eye in there. It took about 3-4 days before he got anything to eat and that's because I have to overfeed the tank for him to get anything. He's been in the display for a month now and he has gotten a lot better in going after food. I think the head start with training and fattening him up helped a lot.