not all tangs are true herbivores
if you're keeping a kole, chevron, or other of the 'raked toothed' tangs, nori is the wrong tree to bark at
from what i've seen, the 'cropping' tangs (from the zebrasomas to the acanthurus, and others) love to devour most every type of macro they can find-red 'sea lettuce' (looks exactly like ulva, but a nice deep red) seems to be a particular favorite of my powder blue)
just a sidebar observation that may be of interest- i've noticed also that some species of tangs train quicker to accepting terrestrial greens as a whole, than other species do-unicorns, blue unicorns, nasos will eat dark leafy greens within a day-fowleris tend to use the leaf as a hiding spot only
(these are short term observations on fish kept for a week on avg, under less than ideal conditions-take it for what it's worth
)
if you've seen that amazing clip on blue planet with the war between two huge schools-one powder blues, and one convicts, for feeding/graizng rights on a patch of reef-you've seen how they mow everything down to the rock surface, more or less-they spare nothing that's a plant, and non-noxious, heh.
feeding only one species of algae doesn't gurantee that the tang is getting all of what it normally gets from algae mowing-there could be 3 micro nutrients it might get from 3 different species of macro-who knows ? but "variety is the spice of life" is axiomatic for all animals diets (including us, and even some who've evolved to live on a very staple item oriented diet can have health issues resolved when an 'artificially varied' one is introduced)
so, i
think it's a good idea to not only feed sw originating plant material, but to vary that as well, if possible, when practical-many species of macro are now marketed throughout the industry/hobby-picking up a strawbery basket size (4 handfuls, not packed tight ? ) of ulva, 'ogo', etc should be fairly easy and cheap, if only for an occasional 'treat'
i'm sure you're aware, but i'll say it anyway, because i feel that too many tang keepers worry more about greens at the expense of the meaty stuff
....
tangs need fats/oils and protien, in addition to the carbs and sugars they hunger for to fuel their incredible speeds/cruising and maneuvering (you don't see a fast hairpin turn at indy, or nascar-go watch a tang, heh
)
or so i surmise
if you watch long and close enough-you can see the muscles working, almost-it appears as if the entire side of the fish is one big flexible flat long tensile body,designed to bend a plane in varying wavelengths/speeds and given that water can't be compressed, all fish have to push the water around then and to the side, (observable by your hand being harder to push palm out through water than pointed figers first
)
big strong muscles need good quality protien
every tang i've seen get nicely proportioned amounts of mysis, scallop, small frozen krill, chopped clam, in addition to a good manufactured base staple, and some 'greens' fared better/rcovered faster from 'pinch belly' than those that didn't get the frozen 'meat' add-ons
now i'm trying out a new (relatively)company's products both at work and home (iirc, he was one of the starters of ocean nutriition, or some such-while we carry them, if i thought they suck, i'd say so-i don't have issues trashing trash, whether my company markets/carries it or not is not relevant for me-i let them know what i think as well, heh
)
anyway, one of their foods that the pb goes gaga over is their 'red carnivore' cubes-it's a general mix/variety of minimysis, cyclopeeze, brine shrimp, with small bits of red 'ulva' or what appears to be some variety of rhodophyta mixed in as well (i may be misremebering the exact ingredients list, but it's essentially correct in concept)
it's a 'packed' little cube (not alot of juice with a sprinkle of meat inside
), and it'll try and slowly eat the whole thing as it travels through the tank-about 20% gets to the other fish and lps's
i seem to be writing many short story sized posts these days-i hope at least the style is entertaining, if i re-hashed too much of what's already known
EDIT:
one of the 'odd' observations about the red algae bits is that the tang will hunt them down-in a 'dark' tank, and find every dark red bit-in a tank lit by ambient room light of a monitor and a small lamp
8O
