Clown Tang

Question
Dear Jennifer,

I have added a clown tang and it has been doing fine since one week , but my concern is that it's not eating the food I'm using (dry seaweed , brine shrimps , frozen shrimp) , it's just picking the algae on my live rocks , but I'm afraid the algae is now gone , so how do I feed it , and what do I feed it , I tried the brokili and lettuce , but not working , please advise.

Regards,
Sam

Answer
Hi Sam. Just keep being persistent with your feeding. A healthy tang will not starve itself. If the foods you are feeding are not working for him try other kinds of frozen meaty marine food. You can try chopped krill, mysis shrimp, squid, clam, and a frozen marine herbivore food. Keep adding the algae paper as well. Tangs are funny fish and are usually a little scared of new things in a tank at first. Use the seaweed paper on a clip and put it some where in the tank where the tang is known to go often and always put it in the same spot. It may take several tries of putting this paper in your tank before he warms up to it and gets used to it. As for other foods just keep trying different things. Always remember that all these fish are taken out of the ocean to be an inhabitant of your tank. They do not know what veggie paper is and they have to be taught, basically, how to feed in an aquarium. This can take a lot of patience and persistence on your part. Right now he is eating the algae off the rocks because that is what is natural to him. Once that supply of algae runs out completely he will get hungry and start looking for other alternatives. In my experience if a fish  is healthy and stress free he will eventually eat what is offered in an aquarium. Be patient and persistent and he should come around.