Vegan Kole Tang?

[wpeterson]

We added a juvenile Kole Tang to our tank last Thursday. He's been very shy, but warming up as he's been in the tank longer. He's quite active at grazing off algae on the rockwork. Additionally, I've been introducing Nori on an algae clip - but he'll only eat it if it's deep in a cave where he feels safe.

I've read that Kole Tangs should be omnivores and eating meaty food, but he is not. I've tried the following foods:
- Neptune Systems CD3 pellets
- Omega One Micro Pellets
- New Life Spectrum Pellets
- Frozen Mysis
- Frozen Brine Shrimp

He's less shy now and will swim out in the open as long as no one is visible near the tank (he's out when I'm across the room or watching the webcam).

Will he warm up to meaty foods as he acclimates to the tank? Are there other foods I should try?

 

[BAYMAC]

Kole tanks are made to graze algae. If they catch other stuff, bonus, but look at the shape of their mouth

Try some live stuff, like copepods or artemia... blood worms?

 

[wpeterson]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give those a try.

He's getting a lot of algae to eat between the foraged algae and Nori I'm feeding. Will he be OK with just algae over time? Should I be concerned about introducing some meaty foods to complement that?

 

[denzil]

If it were me, I wouldn't be too concerned as long as he's eating something. Some fish are just plain picky.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Do you have algae on the rocks at all? He's probably scraping at them (mouth shape) without you seeing him.

 

[wpeterson]

He's definitely scraping algae off the rocks and he's eating Nori attached to rubble if it's inside of a cave.

He'll probably be fine, but I prefer to see new arrivals clearly gaining weight so I know they're thriving. I was hoping there might be some advice for getting more protein into him, but it sounds like they are often picky. Thankfully, everyone else in the tank is eating well so he should be able to follow their example.

 

[denzil]

The only thought I could come up with is maybe blending them together and then freezing them into cubes?

 

[aqua-nut]

My Kole was extremely shy in QT. He would eat, but not if I was in the room. I even set up a video camera to film him eating so I could assure myself he was actually eating!

When he got to the DT, it was like a switch was flipped. Now he's out all the time, eats everything and is a real PIA as I clean the glass.

Give him some time. You might want to soak the nori in some Selcon or similar to get a few more calories in him. As he gets more comfortable he'll become the pig of the tank.

 

[wpeterson]

Thanks for the reassurance. Our Kole won't eat or come out if he can see anyone, but I've been watching him on our aquarium web cam and he's eating nori and picking off the rocks when no one is around.