Help - Tangs Eating Snails

nash1999 · 03/17/2008, 09:52 AM

Hi Everyone - Here's my setup:
75 gallons FWLR - blue tang, yellow tang, yellow wrasse, 2 percula clowns.
90 lbs of live rock - water parameters normal.

My problem is my blue tang goes over to an astrea snail - bugs them until they let
go, picks the up with his mouth and drops them on the sand. Then my yellow
wrasse and tang eat them. All of them.

I feed small amounts of Rod's Food daily.

What can I do, or what alternate clean up crew can I get?
Thanks!

bertoni · 03/17/2008, 05:56 PM

You could try feeding more. The animals might be hungry. That sounds like strange behavior for a tang.

macronut · 03/17/2008, 06:44 PM

I agree that you should try feeding more. It is odd that a tang would eat a snail. I could see it picking at the shell if there were algae on it. Get an algae clip and at some sea veggies or ocean nutrition algae for the tang to graze on. As for the wrasse if it is reef safe they generally don't bother a snail. Try a variety of other foods. I know Rods is suppose to be good, and I have never used it, but try some mysis, daphnia, brine shrimp, krill, for the wrasse and a frozen food that has some algae in it for your tang. You might try adding some garlic guard to your food prior to feeding, my fish go nuts for the food soaked in this. Just follow the directions. You can also add a few drops to the algae attached to the algae clip.

03/17/2008, 09:52 AM	#1
nash1999 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: illinois Posts: 28	Help - Tangs Eating Snails Hi Everyone - Here's my setup: 75 gallons FWLR - blue tang, yellow tang, yellow wrasse, 2 percula clowns. 90 lbs of live rock - water parameters normal. My problem is my blue tang goes over to an astrea snail - bugs them until they let go, picks the up with his mouth and drops them on the sand. Then my yellow wrasse and tang eat them. All of them. I feed small amounts of Rod's Food daily. What can I do, or what alternate clean up crew can I get? Thanks!

03/17/2008, 05:56 PM	#2
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	You could try feeding more. The animals might be hungry. That sounds like strange behavior for a tang. __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

03/17/2008, 06:44 PM	#3
macronut Registered Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 405	I agree that you should try feeding more. It is odd that a tang would eat a snail. I could see it picking at the shell if there were algae on it. Get an algae clip and at some sea veggies or ocean nutrition algae for the tang to graze on. As for the wrasse if it is reef safe they generally don't bother a snail. Try a variety of other foods. I know Rods is suppose to be good, and I have never used it, but try some mysis, daphnia, brine shrimp, krill, for the wrasse and a frozen food that has some algae in it for your tang. You might try adding some garlic guard to your food prior to feeding, my fish go nuts for the food soaked in this. Just follow the directions. You can also add a few drops to the algae attached to the algae clip.