Tangs and diet

[Gregcoyote]

It occures to me when I see most tangs, especially yellow ones, they are paper thin. I have found we aren't feeding them enough. A few years ago I started a program to beef my tangs up. They are all now quite fat and seem very happy. But it took far more food than I would have imagined to get weight on them. Like birds, they must have a very short digestive system. They create a lot of waste matter which can be a problem for some filtration systems.

Mine eat romain lettuce, nori and proteins daily. Wondering if others have found the same thing.

 

[carey]

My yellow tang and my blue are extremely FAT. lol When you look at them head on you can really tell, they are quite thick. I probably overfeed but that's just me. lol
I feed mysis, brine, bloodworms, NLS pellets, spirulina flakes and always have seaweed clipped inside. I have yet to have any issues with them, so I figure I am doing it right.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My point. It does take a lot of feeding them to get them up to weight. They tend to be lean in the wild, maybe ours are too fat?

 

[carey]

It's kinda a joke here that all my fish are fat. It's not really a joke though as all my fish are fat in all my tanks. lol Even my mandarin is fat. I have a barnacle blenny that is almost white on his sides cause he is so fat. I've always wondered if fat is better or if i am overfeeding and actually hurting them. Except for the mandarin, I want him to be fat. lol

 

[RJT]

I wonder if we can really compare our tangs in an environment measured in feet to an ocean where they may travel miles. Also, if you look at fish that are in pet stores they are thin I assume from getting caught, traveling across the world, put into a wholesellers tank then into the lfs tank.

I feed my tangs a variety of food and they do eat a lot. Their mouths look small but they can consume a tremendous amount of food in a short amount of time. I wouldn't consider mine fat but healthy.

 

[herp_mommy]

I feed mine three or four times a day. She's plumped up significantly from the fish store. Would be interesting to see a study done on the diet of tangs in the wild.

I did find this though: A diet study on ray-finned fishes, which include the blue tang, although that isn't one of the species they studied. Unfortunately the entire journal is not free...

The influence of diet and gastrointestinal fermentation on key enzymes of substrate utilization in marine teleost fishes

there's several journals on diets, but most are specific fish.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I guess you could compare them a bit to geese that eat vegetable matter and tons of it because their digestive system isn't very efficient. Hence the huge amount of poop they leave behind. One of my reasons for this discussion is that also a reason for a bigger tank with larger filtration for tangs? Roominess is one thing, processing poop is another. A small number of geese can poison a pond with nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Gregcoyote]

It's kinda a joke here that all my fish are fat. It's not really a joke though as all my fish are fat in all my tanks. lol Even my mandarin is fat. I have a barnacle blenny that is almost white on his sides cause he is so fat. I've always wondered if fat is better or if i am overfeeding and actually hurting them. Except for the mandarin, I want him to be fat. lol

Unlike people, I think plumpness is good for your fish. Certainly better than starving. A fat mandarin can only be a good thing!

 

[mr_X]

The tank I always refer to that I used to maintain and fed twice a week had a powder blue, red sea sailfin, and a yellow foxface in it, which all came in rather thin, but after I fattened them up, twice a week feedings kept them looking quite robust. I just think they suffered and scrounged a bit before they arrived to our controlled environments.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I would tend to agree, but I have seen pictures of lots of thin tangs. My point is that they ingest more material than many other fish do.

 

[RJT]

I would tend to agree, but I have seen pictures of lots of thin tangs. My point is that they ingest more material than many other fish do.

I agree. The only other fish I have seen that can compare are Moorish idols and tile fish. Both of them can eat an entire cube of formula I, nori and mysis for breakfast. My tang does it also.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I decided to run a short test and see how much lettuce and nori they could eat. I was astonished at how much it was. I have cut it back now.

 

[JustinKBreen]

I have to agree, my vlamingi tang eats like a pig.. I also probably overfeed my tank as I have a lot of healthy bristle worms too

 

[AquaRick]

It's my understanding that tangs have rather large and long digestive tracts and is needed to break down plant matter (nori/seaweed). Carnivorous fish on the other hand don't have the longer digestive tract (compared to body length) as they do not require it to absorb the nutrients from their meaty foods.

Very similar to other herbivores such as cows etc.

 

[tilton.s11]

Just curious...my tank is too small for a tang, but at my local fish club someone said if you cut a seaweed sheet into strips like a fettuccine noodle tangs will slurp it. Has anyone done this? If its true can someone post a video. I want to see. LOL

 

[Gregcoyote]

It's my understanding that tangs have rather large and long digestive tracts and is needed to break down plant matter (nori/seaweed). Carnivorous fish on the other hand don't have the longer digestive tract (compared to body length) as they do not require it to absorb the nutrients from their meaty foods.

Very similar to other herbivores such as cows etc.

That is accurate, but can be relative. For example, cows and horses eat basically the same vegetable matter, but cows process it more fully. If you have raised both, the difference is obvious when cleaning up after them. Surgeonfish have a very long gut, but only one stomach. As a result, they produce a lot of poop for the energy they get from their veggies.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Just curious...my tank is too small for a tang, but at my local fish club someone said if you cut a seaweed sheet into strips like a fettuccine noodle tangs will slurp it. Has anyone done this? If its true can someone post a video. I want to see. LOL

They love nori, seaweed used for wrapping sushi and will eat spinach or many types of lettuce. They will eat chaeto every now and then and slurp it up like a noodle. But mostly it's a tearing motion when they eat.

 

[tilton.s11]

Seaweed sheets.... :/ LOL

 

[melosu58]

I feed my tank every other day but on the off days I feed dried seaweed to the tangs so they basically eat every day.

 

[mr_X]

Seaweed sheets.... :/ LOL

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Go to the supermarket or perhaps an asian supermarket and you can buy a massive package of nori for cheap.