Naso tang gets annoyed
Posted 02/18/2011 at 01:17 PM by sacremon
A little over a week ago, I got in an Astropyga radiata. Common names are something like Radiating Urchin or Long Spine Blue Spot urchin (Live Aquaria seems to prefer the latter). They are strikingly colored, reputedly venomous and are fairly active during the day. It has been wandering all over the tank, and it appears to be at least sampling some of the algae that has taken over much of the rock and sand. Yesterday, however, it discovered the rock to which I tie nori to feed the two tangs and the rabbitfish. It did so about five minutes after I put a fresh sheet in the tank, and the Naso tang had been ripping away at it.
The Naso is by far the most aggressive eater, making it difficult to feed the Pterois radiata without using eggcrate to fence the lion in. The Naso got a little payback. The urchin perched itself on top of the rock, right on the nori. The bristletooth tang is small enough that it could easily navigate around the base of the rock and eat, and the rabbit could manage a little, but the Naso is too large to do that without impaling himself on the urchin. He's a fat fish, so missing that meal won't do him any harm. I tossed in some pellets for him, and I put another sheet of nori in this morning before leaving for work, but it was kinda gratifying seeing such a greedy fish lose out to something as slow moving and blind as an urchin.
The P. radiata ate some slivers of crayfish yesterday, which is the first thing I really have gotten him to eat beyond PE mysis of late. He has tried some other things (crab meat, octopus) but seems to prefer shrimp.
The Naso is by far the most aggressive eater, making it difficult to feed the Pterois radiata without using eggcrate to fence the lion in. The Naso got a little payback. The urchin perched itself on top of the rock, right on the nori. The bristletooth tang is small enough that it could easily navigate around the base of the rock and eat, and the rabbit could manage a little, but the Naso is too large to do that without impaling himself on the urchin. He's a fat fish, so missing that meal won't do him any harm. I tossed in some pellets for him, and I put another sheet of nori in this morning before leaving for work, but it was kinda gratifying seeing such a greedy fish lose out to something as slow moving and blind as an urchin.
The P. radiata ate some slivers of crayfish yesterday, which is the first thing I really have gotten him to eat beyond PE mysis of late. He has tried some other things (crab meat, octopus) but seems to prefer shrimp.
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