Opinions on best food.

[bladedrummer]

Hello experts and dabblers of the SD reefing community,
I wanted to get your input on what you think are the best (and possibly essential) foods for Yellow and Blue tangs.
I believe they have similar diets (if not identical) and I just wanted to know what you all feed them!

Let's hear it! =)

[specvjeff]

If you are talking about a Blue Hippo Tang, their diet does involve algae but they are not a grazer like the Yellow Tang. They are planktivore. I've never really had any luck getting them to eat nori like a Yellow Tang. I've had better luck getting them to eat Spirulina Brine and Mysis. You can also feed that to the Yellow Tang along with Nori.

[bladedrummer]

If you are talking about a Blue Hippo Tang, their diet does involve algae but they are not a grazer like the Yellow Tang. They are planktivore. I've never really had any luck getting them to eat nori like a Yellow Tang. I've had better luck getting them to eat Spirulina Brine and Mysis. You can also feed that to the Yellow Tang along with Nori.

I see, I just got a yellow tang and I noticed he wasn't diggin' the frozen mysis+other stuff preparation. I feed my fish alternating between
Brine Shrimp (almost never, just trying to finish up the box I got)(Hikari Bio-pure product);
Mysis+(it's a green frozen cube, fish seem to love it)(Hikari Bio-pure product);
Reef Plankton (orange cubes, my fish and corals adore this one, seems to be their favorite);
And just yesterday I got "Emerald Entree" which is a mixed preparation which should take care of the blue tang, it seemed to like this and the other fish did too.

I was thinking of getting some sort of Algae to complement the Yellow Tang's diet since it didn't seem thrilled with the Frozen (although I haven't tried Emerald Entree with it it yet).

[specvjeff]

Try sheets of Nori.

[bladedrummer]

I will, thanks for the tip.

[march]

I've fed Nori as well, but somewhere along the way I was given a package of 'Julian Sprungs "Sea Veggies" Purple Seaweed.' It's in sheets like Nori. Don't know much about it or whether there are other brands of purple seaweed, but my fish, including a Yellow Tang when I had it, loved it!

[unbereefable]

I know this is off topic, but has anyone seen Julian Sprung's new spot feeder? It called "Julian's thing". Haha! Worst name ever! Ok now back to the topic. I've had good luck with all the things Jeff said, but I'd also add a couple of drops of a liquid garlic supplement to help combat ick for the tangs. It seemed to work well. I Mean I guess it did. Never had my tangs get ick.

[specvjeff]

I have the feeder. Not exactly thrilled with it.

SDMAS B.O.D. Member
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[bladedrummer]

I've seen it too and, even though I'm no expert, it looked like a gimmick.

[Duke4130]

my tangs and fish never liked the green seaweed for some reason. I ended up buying the H20 life packs of brown seaweed and they couldn't get enough of it. I fed that with a blend Marine fusion and never had any problems. My tangs had excellent colors also.

[Bogg]

I've always just fed mine pappone (DIY fish food)
They will graze off the rock also
If you get into a situation where the rock is too clean you can try sheets of romaine lettuce
Also the plain roasted seaweed from the supermarket

[bladedrummer]

Cool stuff guys, lots to try out right here and see what my fish will like best.
I'm going to try the different sea weeds and then go from there.
On a positive note compared to yesterday, today I fed "Emerald Entrée" which has lots of "veggies" in it
(including algae, spirulina and spinach) and my Yellow Tang was chowing down on it like there's no tomorrow.

As always, kudos to all you guys for being so knowledgeable and ready to help a n00b out!
I don't know what I would without all this wonderful support!