I'm worried about my Tang's feeding habits.

[Infinity]

Well, I have a medium yellow tang. He loves eating flakes, doesn't eat a lot of sea weed. He eats half and feeds the other half to the filters, which I have to clean every few days. New problem: He eats flakes, I guess that's ok. But this is what is scaring me. he LOVES live brine shrimp. If I put like a table spoon of brine shrimp, he's goes on a crazy shopping spree. Even the royal gramma doesn't get to eat that much.
I don't think tang's should be eating brine shrimp. Is this unusual? should I do anything about it? Is my fish crazy?

[reefrunner69]

I don't think tang's should be eating brine shrimp.

[acronym:b875a24154="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:b875a24154], simple solution is not to feed it, which isn't a bad idea anyway, hardly any nutritional value in brine shrimp anyway and is a good source of [acronym:b875a24154="Phosphate"]PO4[/acronym:b875a24154].

Is this unusual?

Nope, quite common, even though tangs are considered herbivores, they are not vegans. To remain healthy they require lots of green algae in their diet, but brine shrimp are fish candy, they are like lays potato chips, they can't stop with just one

Is my fish crazy?

Quite possibly, but not cause of the brine shrimp :P

[MACATUA]

Fish candy, thats a good one

[Infinity]

Well, I seriously think my Tang has mental issues. He's not really that aggresive. He tries to be, the other fish, though less than half the tang's size, frequently ignore him. I have a small Tomato Clown who loves chasing the Pink Skunk anenome fish. Which is a little smaller than the clown. The gramma, which sometimes yawns, opens it's mouth WIDE. I find it freaky. I'm fairly new to this aquarium thing. Although I am certain I am doing fine in terms of taking care of them. Even though I might have a slight edge in terms of equipment. My water runs through the 2 filters about 10 times an hour. I guess a little extra filtering never hurt anybody.

[Infinity]

One other thing, I caught my tang doing some goofy stuff last night, after the lights turned off. He stood near the intake of the less powerful filter (emp 400) and started fluttering his side fins. I don't know if it was the filter's vacumm causing it or the what. Apparently he enjoyed this alot. And well, after he caught me staring at him, he started darting a bit around the aquarium in a very odd fashion, up and down. Not trying to jump out. Just being himself I guess. Thanks for the advice

[reefrunner69]

Tell the tang if he continues to do that at the filter....................He will go BLIND!!!

[Hara]

that was too funny...

[alrmc4]

do you have a cleaner shrimp in there? just wondering if that could be a sign of ick?

[astride13]

I have the opposite problem. My yellow tang eats "Sea Veggies" algae sheets like I am starving him. I put in a 3"x1" sheet in the morning and it is normally completely gone by the time I finish my breakfast. I put various other foods for the other fish when I come home at lunch or after work and he eats some of that. I sometimes put some more algae in at night and he eats all that. This is in addition to him eating off the rocks all day. Maybe because he is small and needs it to grow.

[Infinity]

Actually, the cleaner shrimp has "disappeared" for the last 2 weeks. The Tang was bothering the tang, i.e. just following it around everywhere. So the shrimp hid in a deep cave that's built into a decoration thing. And has never come out. The shrimp has been in the tank for about 3 months. Never had an issue, just the tang. All other fish is fine. I have a Tomato Clownfish, who during the first few weeks appeared to have developed ich. But wasn't really spots as much as it was a pale white spot underneath it. It has been long gone. The Yellow Tang has actually never been so BRIGHT. He always has his top and bottom fins fully extended and seems to love being in the tang. Never aggresive towards others really. And I don't know if this is normal. but I think the top part of his body is turning SLIGHTLY orangish in color. And I hope this isn't bad, but he has a slight line on either side of his body that starts from behind his eyes and curves all the way back to his white diamond thing on his tail. There aren't any noticeable lines, except some that look a bit like his bones. Also around his stomach area, it's a little green. Just a little. I guess he's been eating alot of sea weed.

astride13. I'd check the filter, because my tang really tugs on the seaweed as he eats, which breaks the big piece into smaller pieces and they get fed to the filter, powerhead, or protein skimmer. He seems to like flakes and brine shrimp alot more than seaweed. However i leave the Sea Veggies in there just in case he gets hungry.