Feeding Tangs

[angelface7217]

I have a juvenile yellow tang, kole, and unicorn tang in my 150 gallon. I have had my yellow for six, unicorn for 10 and the kole for two weeks. The yellow and uniicorn eat well on algea that I now secure to rocks and what ever else I put in there..sometimes a piece of frozen medly I made from mysis, brine, silversides, algea, garlic and a few othere vegitable....but I stopped feeding a few times a day due to increasing nitrates...my now are like 10-20 ppm with water changes...every 3-4 weeks..I have now upgraded water changes to weekly with RODI and I;m starting to seeing the results.... But my question is...is there a formula of what to feed and how many times dayily to keep them happy and healthy... ..I mean they swim and are active in the tank but ...not really getting bigger... especially that unicorn...I wanna see a horn now!! lol... any suggestions...

Thanks guys..

Kisha

[SWINGRRRR]

I have a suggestion, but its not one you'll like. Loose the Unicorn. That tank is way to small for that fish.

I feed my tangs 1/4 sheet of nori a day. Then they get PE Mysis at the end of the day with the other fish.

[angelface7217]

really..hmmm...ok...thats for the advice...

[crvz]

I was also wondering what your long term plans are for the unicorn. Did you know they grow to 2 feet in length? I imagine your tank isnt an longer than 6', which is inadequate for a fish that large.

In terms of feeding, I'd just keep doing what you're doing. Their primary diet is algae, so that should suffice for the sustenance.

[Loverotties]

You need a much bigger tank for the unicorn!

[angelface7217]

Well, I didnt know he would get that big when I first got him...he was a gift from another reefer..but now that I think about it, maybe thats why he gave him to me in the first place becasue he was in a childs tank..dunno...since I have him and it could be more stressful to wait tilll he out grows your tank...and get a new one...Im not really sure....I never really thought about that to be honest... Ive had him over six months and I dont think hes really grown at all to be honest with you...I dont know its a matter of my tank isnt big enough so Im not going to grow any more or the nurishment thing like I was asking before but right now of the few fish I have, hes one of the smaller ones. He eats like a mad-man and has a lot of personality....Hes really grown to have a special place in my heart, but I dont want to hurt him either...I can tell you though, if he grows I would consider a larger system......the minimum tank size as per other sites is 175gll. mine is 150gall..

k

[aquawolf]

It sounds like you are doing fine with the feeding. The bigger thing than the number of gallons is going to be the length and width of the tank to give the fish plenty of swimming and turning around room when it gets bigger.

If you are lucky, you will have a good LFS lined up like I do where if a fish starts to get to big for my system I can trade it for store credit on another fish. I have bought plenty of baby fish and grown them out to show size and bought more babies with the given credit.