[Mattfish]

In the old tank, our Blonde Naso Tang was well behaved and ate what we fed him. While on vacation at the lfs that built our new setup, he seems to have developed a bad behaviour - he now seems determined to eat every snail and hermit crab he can find.

It's not only expensive, it means our cleaner crew is constantly disappearing at an unpredictable rate.

Any ideas on how to teach him manners? Does anyone have a job for him so he can at least pay for what he eats?

[rlcline76]

If it is that bad, I suggest getting store credit for him.

[Mattfish]

Wish I could, but we've had him now for 4 or 5 months. He didn't do this before, but he's too big to give him a time-out in the fuge.....

[RyanG]

Are you feeding him enough?

[Mattfish]

If anything, I 've been overfeeding to try and distract him - but that's good thought. I'm hoping that now that he's back home, and we keep him fed the way he likes, he'll drop the bad habits.....

[Jay03GT]

I was gonna ask the same thing. Maybe at the LFS he wasn't getting enough algae/seaweed and was "supplementing" his diet. Maybe now that he is home you can give him enough greens to break the habit.

[e_baer]

Too bad you cant do what you would do to a dog. Put some hot sauce on whatever he is chewing.


Are you 100% sure it is this exact fish that is eating everyhing?

[Mattfish]

Originally Posted by Jay03GT

I was gonna ask the same thing. Maybe at the LFS he wasn't getting enough algae/seaweed and was "supplementing" his diet. Maybe now that he is home you can give him enough greens to break the habit.

I'm hoping, If anything, we're overfeeding, and with our water a little out of balance from so many fish back home so quickly, it's a concern. We're keeping a careful eye on everything until it settles down. And if I have to cut back on food and buy more cleaner crew in a few days, it would seem like that's my better choice, if I have to make one.

Originally Posted by e_baer

Too bad you cant do what you would do to a dog. Put some hot sauce on whatever he is chewing. Are you 100% sure it is this exact fish that is eating everyhing?

We tried hot sauce - that didn't work either (just kidding, in case anyone gets the wrong idea!) But a time-out would be nice - our fuge just isn't big enough, and since I haven't followed Becky's prime rule #1 - the QT - I'm kinda stuck. But I haven't seen any other fish eating the snails or the hermits - only him. It's still possible he's getting help, but for sure he's the biggest, if not the only culprit.

[rlcline76]

I am not big on aggressive fish that I cannot get to calm down. Store credit...doesn't matter how long you have had him or if he did not come from a certain store. Might want to look into it if it gets too bad. You'll take a hit, but CUCs are pretty important and they cost money, too.

[Mattfish]

Good points, Becky - thanks!

We didn't bring the Eibli Angelfish back home because he was a voracious coral eater..... This guy seems to be calming down now, so either it was a spite thing, an adjustment thing, or a feeding routine thing.

He's behaving now, and there's still plenty of targets if he wanted to misbehave, so probably the food issue was the one....

But I'm keeping a close eye on him - I love him, but if he's going to make trouble, we'll pull him out. Everyone else is behaving, and the tanks settling in. Incredible to have a "real" tank.