Baby Hippo tang!

[torresj9]

This past Monday a guy from my town bought a baby hippo tang. He was telling me that was going to be his first fish on his 40 gallon but started researching and found out they get huge pretty quickly so he literally gave it to me for free!
I brought him/her home and put it in my 20 gallon quarantine tank. He is about 2in. and very shy. I get close and hides behind the heater. I have some pvc pipe and from far away I see it go in there. I feed him pallets and he does it. Now this is my first time owning a hippo tang and herd they are ICH MAGNETS.
My question are.
1) how much do I need to feed him?? I saw people say they need it couple times a day.
2)what are good ways to eat seaweed? I put a piece of sheet in a clip but it does not get close to it?
3) is the shyness normal behavior.
4) would 4 weeks be good in my quarantine before going to my display tank. Thank you.

[ca1ore]

Although they will certainly eat nori, the regal tank is primarily a carnivore that feeds from the water column. Give it meaty foods.

[torresj9]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Although they will certainly eat nori, the regal tank is primarily a carnivore that feeds from the water column. Give it meaty foods.

I got some mysis shrimp. I tried it but not interested other then pallets. I'm going to give her/him time to get more comfortable.
I also read that hippo tangs this size are hard to keep alive. Is this true

[lionfish300]

I have my about the size of my thump nail. Now he/she is the biggest in my tank and about 6 inches. They do grow fast

[torresj9]

Originally Posted by lionfish300

I have my about the size of my thump nail. Now he/she is the biggest in my tank and about 6 inches. They do grow fast

How long you had it for?? And any advices?

[m0nkie]

Originally Posted by torresj9

1) how much do I need to feed him?? I saw people say they need it couple times a day. normal fish feeding schedule is fine. once, twice, three times a day. I prefer 2. I feed frozen food only. mysis, brine, clam and then nori stick.
2)what are good ways to eat seaweed? I put a piece of sheet in a clip but it does not get close to it? it probably doesn't know it yet. just leave it there and it will find it. being so small, it might be nipping on rocks for awhile, which is plenty enough.
3) is the shyness normal behavior. yes, they are shy until they grow big enough to dominate the tank..
4) would 4 weeks be good in my quarantine before going to my display tank. Thank you. I would TTM every single tang no exception. just assume all of them have ich. but if you haven't TTM all your previous fish, then I don't know... up to you. I would still TTM it

Originally Posted by torresj9

How long you had it for?? And any advices?

mine grew from 3/4 inch to 3 inches within 1 year.. then it slowed down a little.. 2 years now and it's a little bigger than 4 inches

[jmicky41]

Dime sized to 6" in 2-3 years. Now about 7" at 7 years old.

[C.Eymann]

Feed the living heck out of them when they are that small, like others said 2-3x a day is best, meaty foods, use a rubberband to adhear nori to a small piece of rubble as conventional algae clips sold in the hobby will spook them

Also, yes when they hit sexual maturity they can go from shy to very aggressive.

Like others said TTM is very wise, esp with tangs.

[Moray26]

Soaking your foods in garlic will also help by boosting his immune system. I know mine had ich and I added garlic and haven't seen it since. It's been over a year.

[m0nkie]

Originally Posted by Moray26

Soaking your foods in garlic will also help by boosting his immune system. I know mine had ich and I added garlic and haven't seen it since. It's been over a year.

garlic entice them to eat the food, the food boosts their immune system against ich. I don't believe garlic itself does any boosting like they do for us and it isn't healthy for the fish, long term speaking. It's not part of their natural diet. If the fish is not eating, I would try different live/natural food in a QT to entice them (half clam, live black worm, brine works best ime). as long as your fish is eating, they can build tolerance from ich. But ich is not gone and will pop up when your fish stress out

[ca1ore]

Got to say that I never found garlic to do much to entice my fish to eat either. They eat when they're ready to eat. I think garlic is 'correlation' not 'causation'. The whole garlic/ich thing is a disservice to the new reefer and an absurd myth that just won't go away apparently.

[C.Eymann]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Got to say that I never found garlic to do much to entice my fish to eat either. They eat when they're ready to eat. I think garlic is 'correlation' not 'causation'. The whole garlic/ich thing is a disservice to the new reefer and an absurd myth that just won't go away apparently.

+1 I agree and also agree with what snorvich says about chronic use of it to cause liver damage.

I have read though that it causes fish to increase slime coat production when eaten, similar to us sweating when we eat spicy foods, not sure if this is true or not, if it is one could argue a fishes slime coat is part of its immune system.

However, won't cure any diseases and health wise for the fish, better to use Kent zoe or selcon.

[m0nkie]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Got to say that I never found garlic to do much to entice my fish to eat either. They eat when they're ready to eat. I think garlic is 'correlation' not 'causation'. The whole garlic/ich thing is a disservice to the new reefer and an absurd myth that just won't go away apparently.

some fisherman tell me that garlic helps the fish hold bait longer.. I don't know if that means the fish like the food more or garlic covers plastic/metal hook taste..

[C.Eymann]

Originally Posted by m0nkie

some fisherman tell me that garlic helps the fish hold bait longer.. I don't know if that means the fish like the food more or garlic covers plastic/metal hook taste..

I definitely have better luck when using soft plastics lures that are garlic impregnated or scented. Im sure it has to do with the savory flavor.

[Coralmassa]

I bought a tiny hippo tang for my 40 breeder, hoping to keep him for awhile until he got big. I was feeding spirulina, cyclopeeze, and green seaweed just fine. He was very shy at first like yours, then he grew more bold around eating times, until he was swimming around all day. Don't sweat it if it doesn't go for seaweed right away, mine didn't eat seaweed for almost four months, I guess until he was big enough to tear it up. That's also how long it took for him to start displaying typical tang behavior, i.e. Darting about and picking at rocks. He was gorgeous and I hated trading him back when he got about three inches long. He had the dark black stripe covering his whole head.

One ting I noticed is that he would come down with ich whenever the temperature swung more than a few degrees, if I didn't adequately match my new waters temp closely enough. He always fought it off over the course of the week, but it was frequent enough that I bough some dr g's anti parasitic roe to feed when he had it. It never transferred to the other fish.

[shifty51008]

Originally Posted by Coralmassa

I bought a tiny hippo tang for my 40 breeder, hoping to keep him for awhile until he got big. I was feeding spirulina, cyclopeeze, and green seaweed just fine. He was very shy at first like yours, then he grew more bold around eating times, until he was swimming around all day. Don't sweat it if it doesn't go for seaweed right away, mine didn't eat seaweed for almost four months, I guess until he was big enough to tear it up. That's also how long it took for him to start displaying typical tang behavior, i.e. Darting about and picking at rocks. He was gorgeous and I hated trading him back when he got about three inches long. He had the dark black stripe covering his whole head.

One ting I noticed is that he would come down with ich whenever the temperature swung more than a few degrees, if I didn't adequately match my new waters temp closely enough. He always fought it off over the course of the week, but it was frequent enough that I bough some dr g's anti parasitic roe to feed when he had it. It never transferred to the other fish.

hopefully you got him a bigger tank real fast, IMO you should never buy a fish that will outgrow the tank you have at the current time, moveing fish stresses them out a lot. even if you think you will upgrade still not a good idea as things come up and a lot of times the upgrade never happens.