Yellow Tang never picking on rocks.

[Cyndrol]

So I have never seen my yellow tang pick on my liferock. I see him sometimes nibble my sand, but is there any reason he never picks on my rocks? I have relatively low algae growth (never really seen algae on rocks besides coraline algae and brown algae when I put new rocks inside the tank) might that be a reason? I though there must be some kind of biofilm or microfauna he can eat. My tang is not sick, very active and can eat A LOT of Nori algae and anything else that I give him so thats not the issue.

Its just a question I cant really find an answer for, since picking on rocks is their natural way of finding food. My Bicolor Goby does that aswell so there must be stuff on the rocks he can eat.

[Clown79]

They pick at rocks for algae, if the rocks have no algae, thats the reason.

[Cyndrol]

Ah I thought they pick anything they see on the rocks so also the biofilm that forms there. Good to know thanks 🙂

[Clown79]

19 minutes ago, Cyndrol said:

Ah I thought they pick anything they see on the rocks so also the biofilm that forms there. Good to know thanks 🙂

They may but mostly foraging for algae.

[mcarroll]

Has the tank ever had algae growth?  How old is it?  Are there nutrients in the water to grow algae?

[Cyndrol]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Has the tank ever had algae growth?  How old is it?  Are there nutrients in the water to grow algae?

I had hair algae that I brought in with the life rock at the start. It spread pretty bad (didnt hurt the tank only looked ugly), but it disappeared around 5 months in. The tank is now exactly 2 years and 3 days old. I do have some algae on the front glass every 3-5 days that I need to remove, but thats about it.

I recently also bleached my rocks (around 2 months ago), because of vermitid snails and only had some brown algae for about 3 days when I put them back in, which is normal since all the life has been removed from them.

My parameters are all stable and I am happy with them. My corals are growing so I guess they get enough nutrients.

[mcarroll]

On 9/20/2020 at 5:03 PM, Cyndrol said:

I had hair algae that I brought in with the life rock at the start. It spread pretty bad (didnt hurt the tank only looked ugly), but it disappeared around 5 months in. The tank is now exactly 2 years and 3 days old.

On 9/20/2020 at 5:03 PM, Cyndrol said:

I recently also bleached my rocks (around 2 months ago), because of vermitid snails

🤯

 

To say the least, there's no wonder why the Tang doesn't pick at the rocks.

[Cyndrol]

18 hours ago, mcarroll said:

🤯

 

To say the least, there's no wonder why the Tang doesn't pick at the rocks.

might be, but the rocks are already covered with coraline algae so I assumed there would be stuff for him to munch on.

[Tired]

Tangs don't eat coraline, most things don't. Tangs eat green algae that they can actually pick off the rock. And macroalgae.