What/how to feed herbavores in a QT with carnivores

[pseudorand]

Two questions:

• How much veg do tangs and foxface really need?
• Will a veg-heavy diet hurt a fairy wrasse?

The Long Story:

I just got a tomini tang, a foxface, a red-fin fairy wrasse and a bicolor blenny in QT. All ate Hakari Spirulina Brine Shrimp the first day and seem happy enough. However, I also added a sheet of nori tied to a rock. I expected the foxface and tang to devour it, but they haven't touched it. The interwebs/R2R forums seem pretty adamant that my tang and foxface need a veg-heavy diet. I'm worried that the Spirulina/Brine shrimp combo isn't enough veg. The ingredients are: brine shirmp, water, spirulina, other stuff (in that order).

So I bought Hakari seaweed extreme pellets, which is the only "herbivore" food I could find that listed seaweed (instead of wheat meal or fish meal) as the first ingredient (67% seaweed per the package). The fox face and wrasse both loved it. I imagine the tang may have got some of the pellets that sunk after I left, but he's shy and didn't come out immediately (normal for tomini, or so I've read).

I also have both chaeto and red pom-pom from my fuge in the tank, neither of which the tang or foxface have touched yet. It's a newer QT setup, so hair algae is minimal, but I have the lights on high to solve that.

I know this isn't a new question/problem. To summarize the "research":

• Patience, they'll find it
• Some tangs never eat nori
• Some tangs are picky -- try the green, brown and red varieties
• Frozen romaine lettuce may work
• Chaeto is too tough, but the pom-pom should be edible

I really just want to know if I can dump a cube of the Hakari Spirulina and Brine Shrimp in every day and call it good. Since this is QT, who knows what other sources of problem I may have to deal with. I'd like to eliminate diet as a potential source of problems so if anyone does get sick I can focus on other potential causes.

 

[hotdogmj71]

I feed my 2 spot bristletooth nori 2-3 times a week and spirulina brine 4-6 days a week. He seems fine after approx 1 year. It takes a few hours for him to work on a nori sheet & never seems to excited to see it. He does constantly pick at rocks and the glass though. I think for a month or so of QT you'll be just fine but you could always try a diff nori brand or color

 

[ichthyogeek]

I mean...you could dump in Hikari* spirulina enriched brine shrimp, but there're a couple of better options (like PE Mysis) even with the spirulina enrichment (spirulina's basically a phytoplankton, really a cyanobacteria, but we won't get into that). Brine shrimp is okay when enriched with spirulina. But just okay; it's certainly better than unenriched brine shrimp.

I don't think that any fish really eat chaeto? Good on you for getting the pellets with seaweed as the first ingredient!

As for the nori on the rock, remember that Ctenochaetus tangs are "scrapers" and not "snippers". They use their teeth to scrape against the rock to dislodge any algae, instead of nipping at it. Doesn't mean they won't try to scrape on the nori though.

Some other tricks, would be to feed the nori first thing in the morning (presumably when the fish are hungriest). If you can observe them throughout the day (as in, sit by the tank), you might be able to see them go after the nori sporadically. And then when evening comes, that's when you can feed the seaweed xtreme first, followed by the hikari* brine shrimp. This way, you're really prioritizing the herbivores (who would much rather prioritize the zooplankton/meaty foods you're providing), and essentially making them eat their veggies.