is it OK to feed Tang with lettuce

[tuan]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum and I'm really admired all of your expertise in reef keeping.
Here is a question. I have a yellow tang and a blonde naso tang in my 75 gallon tank. everyday I feed them variety of foods: brine shrimp, dried sea weed, lettuce but it seems like my tangs love brine shrimp and lettuce more than sea weed. Is it ok or parhaps healthy to feed them lettuce?

Cheers,

Tuan

[Casey]

Hi welcome to TRT glad you found us. The sea weed is good for him I would use Romaine lettuce the iceburg does nothing for him really,but none of it will hurt anything.

yes but make sure it is limp.....get all the celulose out of it.

[mapster]

lettuce really has no nutritional value, much like brine shrimp. Think of it as more of a snack than part of a staple diet. You may want to think about soaking those products in vitamins (ie Selcon)before feeding. That should a least add a liitle nutition to the meal.

Dried seaweed (nori) is good stuff for the herbivores. Maybe add some meats to the meal as well (krill, squid, etc.)

Welcome to TRT

like MN said, make sure you soak the lettuce in ice water for 15 - 30 mins before feeding.

[tuan]

Thanks a million for the advice.

Tuan

[Reefer Addict]

Welcome to TRT tuan!

A good way to give brine some nutritional value is to also soak them in a nutritional supplement.

I put my live brine in a cupful of saltwater from the tank, drip in some Kent PhytoPlex and MicroVert and let them gut-load for an hour or so. I then feed them to the fish, and the fish in turn get the undigested food the brine had consumed. This is kinda like putting blue-green algae on a potato chip.
It's worked great for me... my copperband butterfly has survived several months eating this and red tubifex... he's growing quite well too.

Once again, welcome aboard.

[Doug1]

If you have to feed terrestial greens, blanched spinach fortified with selcon would do but lettuce and brine shrimp are both empty calorie junkfood.
Nori treated with Selcon and a few missed meals usual brings tangs around

[OodleyBoodely]

Think of it this way, tuan.

tangs=small children
lettus/brine shrimp=gooy candy

In moderation, candy is ok for children, but, if allowed to eat only what they want, children eat only candy. Result: malnutritioned brats.

It's up to you to dole out the goodies! Good luck!

[MsReeReee]

And u allso have to be careful as far a chemicals on your lettuce when u buy it ........i use to get organic lettuce

[Brooke]

I think any kind of lettuce is a poor substitute for our herbivores. Sheets of nori are very easy to find these days and the fish will soon learn to eat the nori from a lettuce clip. You can also feed frozen herbivore cubes, and spirulina flakes. You should look for mysis shrimp instead of brine. Mysis is much more nutritious. It's in the freezer section at the LFS.

A 75 gallon tank is also going to be way too small for a growing naso tang. The naso will eventually need a tank more in the 135-180g range.

Welcome to TRT!

Brooke

[tuan]

Thanks for all of your advice. This morning I rushed to the LFS and got Selcon supplement; I fed my fish with brine shrimp soak with selcon, and they ate like a pig - nothing is sweeter than seeing your fish eating. My naso tang is only 3 1/2 inch long now but I'm currently ordered from Tenacor 450 Gallons tank.

Cheers,
Tuan

[Brooke]

Yep...I bet the naso and yellow tang will be happy in a 450! I'm jealous