High Tide Aquatics

Naso Tang starving

JVU

JVU

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I bought an adult Naso Tang 2 weeks ago. I can’t get him to eat anything. He’s swims around fine, no signs of disease, and seems alert. But he also looks like he’s wasting away, with loss of dorsal mass. He just swims right past/through food that my other tangs love. It’s getting depressing.

I’ve tried:
  • Continuous TLF green seaweed, TLF red seaweed, live ulva seaweed, on clips and attached to rocks.
  • Wide variety of TDO, Hikari, and other pellets frequently.
  • Mastic attached to the glass.
  • Reef Frenzy.
  • Reef Nutrition liquid mysis and brine shrimp.
  • Soaking food in Selcon.

When he first arrived there was some territorial stuff with the other tangs, but only for about 1 day. Since then everyone looks like they are getting along.

I’ve read that live blackworms can entice some fish. I can’t figure out how/where to buy them. I tried California Blackworm Co but I can’t see any way to purchase live worms from them on their website or through their partner links. Anyone know?

I haven’t tried freshwater dip, QT with treatment, etc. I don’t want to because I’ve never had good luck with those sorts of interventions and it’s generally very stressful to me and the fish, I don’t see any other signs of disease. I’m doubtful I could even remove him at this point.

Any ideas?
 
AC often has blackworms. Not sure they would entice a Tang but it's possible. They definitely do help with wrasses that won't eat at times.
 
I had a yellow and purple, although they seemed to be ok, the purple was not letting the YT in peace but there was no aggression that I noticed, the YT was just not eating. Came into the room and at the distance saw the PT sort of driving away the YT or keeping an eye on the YT often enough that the YT was not eating.
I placed a plastic mirror on the side of the tank and the PT directed its attention to its own reflection, the YT started eating and even joined forces to try to set territory among the reflections of both fish.
 
Worms help but my go to is flake because of long hang time, and also flooding tank with frozen food.
Two weeks without eating is rough.
 
how big is your tank?
what other tangs are already there?
how often are you offering foods?

existing fish have a social hierarchy and they associate most items introduced to the tank to be food offering.
so,
you could rearrange the tank to confuse and interrupt the hierarchy
and feed the greatest variety of feeds at each feeding
black worms are good, but blood worms are enjoyed by my fish (I don't have to keep them alive)
 
Thank you guys for all the quick suggestions!

I don’t have any flake food on hand right now, I used to use ON Formula 2. Amazon has it delayed for weeks, I could try a local store but I’m trying not to have to browse stores right now.

I have tried flooding the tank with yummy food like Reef Frenzy and the assorted pellets, floats for quite a while. He just swims through the cloud of food.

I don’t see any aggression any more for the use of a mirror. I don’t have a plastic mirror on hand I don’t think, I could try to find one.

Tank size: 160g display. I realize it is borderline too small for a Naso... Relatively lightly stocked with fish, mostly coral. Other tangs are 2 feisty yellows and a mellow blue, all of which are smaller than the Naso. I’ve been offering foods 4 or so times a day, plus 3 different types of seaweed offered 24/7 in various places.

I haven’t tried soaking in garlic yet. I had the impression it was mostly a myth/placebo. But I’m getting desperate so I’ll try that today.

I tried calling all the pet stores and aquarium stores around. AC is pretty far from me but is the only one that has live feed of any kind, they have tubifex worms and sometimes brine shrimp (but not at the moment).
 
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I tried soaking in garlic and feeding a ton. He mostly just looked annoyed at all the food in the water bouncing off of him as he swam around and everyone else ate.
 
JVU said:
Thank you guys for all the quick suggestions!

I don’t have any flake food on hand right now, I used to use ON Formula 2. Amazon has it delayed for weeks, I could try a local store but I’m trying not to have to browse stores right now.

I have tried flooding the tank with yummy food like Reef Frenzy and the assorted pellets, floats for quite a while. He just swims through the cloud of food.

I don’t see any aggression any more for the use of a mirror. I don’t have a plastic mirror on hand I don’t think, I could try to find one.

Tank size: 160g display. I realize it is borderline too small for a Naso... Relatively lightly stocked with fish, mostly coral. Other tangs are 2 feisty yellows and a mellow blue, all of which are smaller than the Naso. I’ve been offering foods 4 or so times a day, plus 3 different types of seaweed offered 24/7 in various places.

I haven’t tried soaking in garlic yet. I had the impression it was mostly a myth/placebo. But I’m getting desperate so I’ll try that today.

I tried calling all the pet stores and aquarium stores around. AC is pretty far from me but is the only one that has live feed of any kind, they have tubifex worms and sometimes brine shrimp (but not at the moment).
Click to expand...
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I have got some ON 2 flakes 5.5 oz bottles if want some borrow one until you get your shipment
 
I don’t the previous tank’s salinity, but it is from an experienced member, and I acclimated anyway.

I didn’t see the fish eat before. I had asked the previous owner to catch and bucket him before I got there with the idea of limiting our exposure to each other, this was near the beginning of the lockdown. But I was told he was eating fine, and I’ve tried the foods he was eating before with no luck. I really wasn’t expecting a picky tang.
 
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