Yellow tang lateral line - bad? Please help.

[Mihai]

I have this yellow tang since Dec 12, gone through quarantine, no problems so far. It came in pretty good shape, maybe the tummy and the back not as full as can be, but they quickly plumped up. He's a good feeder, he eats about 1/8 of Nori sheet and quite a bit of meet (mostly mysis) when I feed the tank. He's also the only herbivore in a 90 gallon, so he gets some supplemental greens in the tank.

Today I noticed that he developed one line on each side. The line goes from the back of the eye to its scalpel bone on the tail. It's not just "drawn" on, it's recessed. Is this something I should worry about? Too little food? He looks good and feeds good...

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[Mihai]

last pic

 

[Anonymous]

Looks fine to me though it could be plumper.
Continue to feed meaty foods such as shreds of shrimp, mussels, squid soaked in Selcon and provide sheets of Nori or Seaweed Select during the day for it to graze on.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think tangs really need any meaty foods. That fish looks fine to me, just make sure he gets plenty of fresh foods and vitamins. New Life Spectrum pelleted food rocks.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think tangs really need any meaty foods. That fish looks fine to me, just make sure he gets plenty of fresh foods and vitamins. New Life Spectrum pelleted food rocks.

Actually Yellow Tangs are omnivores not herbivores.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

I think I was thinking about not giving them brine shrimp.

 

[Mihai]

I don't feed it any meats on purpose, it just eats with the rest of the tank when I feed. Being the largest fish in the tank, it's the only one that gets to eat the really big pieces (e.g., a whole mysis shrimp), everybody else just leaves these to fall at the bottom, he goes and eats them all.

Regarding fresh veggies he has lots of Ulva in the tank but he's not eating it - he prefers nori on the clip. What pelleted food are you talking about (doesn't sound too fresh!)? I have about three different types of veggie wafers (mainly spirulina) for my freshwater planted tank, should I offer him some?

Thanks,
M.

 

[Unarce]

My Purple Tang only eats the New Life Spectrum Pellets, and he's nice and plump. Great stuff! You should pick up some.

http://www.nlpublish.com/

 

[danmhippo]

My tang eats anything I put into the tank. Your yellow looks great. I would, however, soak nori in selcon before I put it in to feed him. I would also stop feeding your tank brine shrimps.

Unless you gut load brineshrimps for 12 hours or more before you feed them to your fish, otherwise, your fish are not getting much out of them.

 

[Mihai]

My Purple Tang only eats the New Life Spectrum Pellets, and he's nice and plump. Great stuff! You should pick up some.

I assume you are talking about the
Spectrum Marine Fish Formula:
-1 mm sinking pellet
-Saltwater

Correct? What I don't understand is why is this dry food better than frozen food. I though that the conventional wisdom indicates otherwise (frozen food better than dry food).

My tang eats anything I put into the tank. Your yellow looks great. I would, however, soak nori in selcon before I put it in to feed him.

I agree it looks great. I like the way it looks. However, I believe that until yesterday it did not have those lines on the sides, and I'm worried that it's the first sign of something worse to come (i.e., I don't want to wait until it doesn't look great anymore ).

Regarding the soaking process - how does that work? I have dried nori (actually roasted - all the 4-5 types of nori at our assian food market are roasted) and one bottle of Selcon. Do I drip (with the dropper) a few drops of Selcon on the nori and let it soak, then put it the tank?

I would also stop feeding your tank brine shrimps.

Unless you gut load brineshrimps for 12 hours or more before you feed them to your fish, otherwise, your fish are not getting much out of them.

I know. I don't feed any brine shrimp to my fish: Rover made that up (for unknown reasons, I said mysis in my original post). I only feed cyclopeze, mysis or bloodworms in addition to the main course (home-made recipe with shrimps, squid, clams, nori, Selcon, marine flakes, etc.)

Thanks for the advice,
Mihai

 

[Anonymous]

Frozen food is 99% water amd the other 1% is phosphate.

 

[Anonymous]

for unknown reasons, I said mysis in my original post

Sorry, I was refering to David's post about them being omnivores. Meaty foods are okay, but brine shrimp is not.

 

[Mihai]

I'm sure you're exagerating a bit. Have a look at the content of two mysis brands for example:

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=60854

Furthermore, I think that when you dry the food it loses much of its nutritional value (i.e., the basic chemical substances are still there, but in less-than-ideal form). That is correct both for fish food as well as for human food.

All the best,
M.

 

[Mihai]

for unknown reasons, I said mysis in my original post

Sorry, I was refering to David's post about them being omnivores. Meaty foods are okay, but brine shrimp is not.

Sure, no problem. I know about brine shrimp - too bad it's so ready available. Actually the only live food at our LFSs (and the only live food eggs available at Petsmart).

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Straight up Mysis is good stuff for omivores and carnivores. I was talking about all of the entree type stuff that comes in the flats.

 

[MelanieF]

Mihai,

In response to your question...

The recessed line I believe you're asking about is the indentation going straight from his fins to the tail?? That looks normal to me.

As far as I know when fish develope lateral line deficiencies it affects the very thin line that curves upward on your fish before going back to the tail... Anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Mel

 

[Mihai]

The recessed line I believe you're asking about is the indentation going straight from his fins to the tail?? That looks normal to me.

That is correct. This is what worried me. I know that malnourished tangs with HLE would get "pinched" right behind and above their eyes - mine is nice and round in there. However, I'm fairly sure (no pictures though :-( ) that before yesterday it did not have that line!

M.

 

[Anonymous]

The tang looks good to me. I could always see the laterial line on mine. It would eat whatever I feed the rest of the tank. Also I fed nori ever other day.

 

[AF Founder]

As you probably know I have 6 tangs in my reef tank, including a yellow that is now with me for 17 years.

I feed all of them Nori and OSI spirulina flakes exclusively -- tangs are the cows of the sea. I use OSI flakes because my achilles will only eat spirulina flakes, which I suspect is due to the texture or strong smell of OSI foods.
Your yellow looks fine by the way.

 

[danmhippo]

Regarding the soaking process - how does that work? I have dried nori (actually roasted - all the 4-5 types of nori at our assian food market are roasted) and one bottle of Selcon. Do I drip (with the dropper) a few drops of Selcon on the nori and let it soak, then put it the tank?

Just drop a few drops of selcon on the nori sheet. Nori does not have to be fully soaked by selcon, that would be overkill if it's quite a large sheet of nori.

Some people dip the nori sheet into water as soon as it's soaked, but I prefer let the nori sheet air dried a bit then put them into the tank. This way Selcon holds up on the nori sheet better IMO.

The previous comments about your tang looks great, I meant it looks very normal just like the one I had looooong time ago. Mine also have a line like yours. Mine, however, the line lighten or intensify in color from faint yellow to blush orange in different time of the year or day. I am really not sure of what exactly the line stands for, but I doubt it's indication for illness. Mine was traded back to LFS after being with me for 3 years.