Feeding Techniques

[SnowZz]

So i havent been able to get my new yellow eye kole tang to eat anything i put in the tank....Ive tried several pellets, pellets with garlic guard, frozen prepared foods, sea weed, sea weed with garlic guard....all he does is eat off the glass and rocks and i cant see this being a complete diet.

 

[fshfrk58]

My kole tang only eats off the glass and rocks and is doing very well. I have had him over six months now.

 

[pat8you]

How long ago did you get the fish?

I would try securing some sea weed to the rocks and leaving it in there for a few hours. Try not to watch the tank to much as your presence may be making him uneasy.

This one may be a little more difficult and take a little practice. Take a frozen food like mysid or brine and defrost/drain it. Take a small piece of rock (preferably rather porus or textured) and try to smash the food into the pores of the rock. That way the food is where the fish is used to finding it as if it were pods in a rock. I know a guy who trained a very unusual fish onto prepaired foods this way. Eventually you won't have to go through this process and they should eat the frozen normally.

If this fish is still very new to the tank it may just not be comfortable yet. My new anthias are the same way right now. The hide in the rock when ever i come over so i have been using a turkey baster to squirt the food down where it gets sucked into the pump and put into the tank that way. This allows me to stay out of eye sight of the fish.

 

[melosu58]

It might not seem like a complete diet but it is. They are herbivores and vegetable matter is best for them. I feed dried seaweed, vitamin fortified brine and mysis shrimp. I also feed spirulina flakes.

 

[ryshark]

My first thought was what Pat said. Take seaweed/nori and attach it to a rock. Using a rubberband usually works good. Try different color seaweeds, some fish prefer different types of seaweed. Once they get going they will probably eat them all. Right now I have, Geen, Red, Brown and Purple seaweed in my house ready.

 

[StripesTheEel]

So i havent been able to get my new yellow eye kole tang to eat anything i put in the tank....Ive tried several pellets, pellets with garlic guard, frozen prepared foods, sea weed, sea weed with garlic guard....all he does is eat off the glass and rocks and i cant see this being a complete diet.

If they survive in the ocean eating algae off the rocks, don't see a real problem with what he is doing now, unless it is losing weight in the process.