Yellow tang wont eat ANYTHING

joe0813

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We got a yellow tang about a week and a half ago from our LFS. We have it in our 30 gallon qt with the usual pvc piping, heater, hob filter. This tang will eat literally nothing. I have tried frozen brine, frozen mysis, frozen LRS, Rods, frozen bloodworms, live black worms, Nori on a clip, nori ripped to pieces and tossed in the tank, Nori soaked with garlic, NLS pellets, piscine pellets and piscine flake... Nothing has got its attention, not a single thing. Im at a loss of what else I could possibly try. Tested the tank to see if maybe that had something to do with it... Ammonia and nitrite are zero and nitrate no clue as I do water changes every 3 days
 

SPR1968

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Did you see it eating in the LFS, because that’s always a good sign to make sure there ok
 
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joe0813

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Did you see it eating in the LFS, because that’s always a good sign to make sure there ok
unfortunately no... I saw the tang and the pretty low price tag compared to most places selling right now and just said id take it.
 

Reef AquaCult

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is the fish breathing ok? if its sick with velvet or other gill issue it wont eat. if its not sick then try red gracilaria/red ogo if you can find it. also hikari seaweed extreme pellets have worked well for me with difficult tangs. also make sure good flow in tank and lots of hiding spaces and obviously good water params. also consider taking live rock w some algae from display tank out that has some live algae the fish can pick at. wondering if perhaps something is wrong with the fish if water params are good and its still not eating
 
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joe0813

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Normal breathing... Was going to start copper power this weekend but figured that would make the eating worse. Think marine collectors has some of that algae you mentioned. Also will try and find the seaweed pellets locally
 

Reef AquaCult

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does it have good weight? not skinny? difficult choice on copper, if you dont think its velvet or ich then there might not be a big rush. ive found that copper power especially 1 ppm doenst really affect the apetite too much but in a fish that wont eat already its hard to tell. live brine might be worth a shot, i would say the red ogo is high priority ive had good luck with it. still weird though all the yellow tangs i have had were vigorous eaters and not too picky. if you have a turf algae scrubber throw some of the growth in the tank too (GHA). maybe your LFS has algae scrubber you can get some free GHA. also you can try to blend / chop up the nori into bite size chunks - i put it in a spice grinder and use it like flake food.
 
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joe0813

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Display has no algae... I could take some of my wife's tanks though.. fish went through general cure already just incase. Just ordered the red ogo through brs.
 

Reef AquaCult

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pic or video might help, unless its breathing normally, has good weight and doesn't have any skin lesions. when you're at LFS ask about other edible macro algae like sea lettuce/ulva, they might have one type the tang might eat...also see if they have any hair algae in a sump or scrubber growing somewhere that you can get. good luck
 

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If it's wild - the ones they collected right before the ban have been having all sorts of problems. Expensive as they are now post a vid so people can chime in about what to do!
 

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There is a fish food in the fridge section you can buy that can treat for worms and internal parasites it has garlic in it so the fish will eat it. I just can't remember the name I have used it before and couldn't believe the worms that came out of the fish.. and they do go for it. Good luck with your fish. So sad for you.
 

ehealy13

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We got a yellow tang about a week and a half ago from our LFS. We have it in our 30 gallon qt with the usual pvc piping, heater, hob filter. This tang will eat literally nothing. I have tried frozen brine, frozen mysis, frozen LRS, Rods, frozen bloodworms, live black worms, Nori on a clip, nori ripped to pieces and tossed in the tank, Nori soaked with garlic, NLS pellets, piscine pellets and piscine flake... Nothing has got its attention, not a single thing. Im at a loss of what else I could possibly try. Tested the tank to see if maybe that had something to do with it... Ammonia and nitrite are zero and nitrate no clue as I do water changes every 3 days
Did you call the LFS you bought it from to see what/if it was eating while there? A lower than average price leads me to believe this was a problematic fish for the LFS too, unfortunately.
 
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joe0813

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Ill post a vid tonight when I get home from work.. He isn't acting abnormal or anything. Just refuses to eat anything ive put in the tank. Im going to call the store today when the open up and see what they were feeding him. The ogo I ordered from brs should be here on Thursday
 
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joe0813

joe0813

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In the 11 years ive been doing this ive never had a fish just refuse to eat anything at all. usually the garlic trick or live black worms do the trick
 
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joe0813

joe0813

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Wife tried frozen fish eggs and frozen calanus. Both soaked in garlic.... Completely ignored both. I had her put in some live rock that had some algae on it and he's also left that alone. At this point I'm out of options until the ogo gets here Thursday. If it makes it that long, he's getting incredibly skinny
 

Reef AquaCult

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Sorry doesn’t sound very good. I had a yellow tang in QT stop eating after I added general cure once. I noticed the mouth to appear swollen and the fish had difficulty eating or closing mouth and it wouldn’t eat for maybe a week. It resolved after some time and it was fine after that. If you google search it you can find other posts similar. Not sure what else to suggest. Sometimes if a fish sees another fish feeding it can stimulate their desire, like putting a damsel or clown with it in the QT but not sure that would help at this point.
 

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Maybe try a chopped up fresh mussel or shrimp from the grocery store? I've seen out fish go crazy for that stuff.
 

vetteguy53081

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Live brine is one of the best feeding enticers out there
 

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