clownfish not eating

[Dert42]

i picked up 2 Ocellaris from gateway on sunday.
neither one has eaten from what i've seen yet.
i've offered flakes, pellets, frozen shrimp and seaweed.
they don't even go for them much less taste them.

any suggestions?

 

[dynamitedj]

Try garlic. I hear people say that the fish are attracted to the taste and it supposedly helps prevent ick. Did you try mysid shrimp?

 

[DrBDC]

What kind of flake. Mine go nuts over prime reef flakes.

 

[JxMetal]

Mine eat everything........even fingers, hands, arms. Anything that is in the water it will bite.

 

[Spiffyguy]

when I got mine they did not eat much. I got them eating using OSI flake and the freeze dried cyclopeeze. They loved that stuff and eventually got the flake too.

 

[trottman]

they were eating forzen mysis last i fed em... they might just still be stressed from the move

 

[dela]

Sometimes fish as just plain dumb.

Do you have other fish?

If the other fish are going crazy, then that will usually let the other ones know it's time to eat!

 

[Dert42]

the flakes i have offered have been garlic flakes.
i've been offering mysis shrimp, last night one litterly bumped into one of the clowns faces, and the clown did nothing.

the big one was swimming around last night, and it gone this morning. i couldn't see her anywhere. the little one is swimming in place the same place he's been swimming for 2 days straight.

and the blue tang is missing, even though she ate some yesterday.
i'm very discouraged.

 

[eahkmh]

I would try the cyclopeeze. Its like fish crack for my fish, they go crazy.

 

[JxMetal]

Everything seems to be like crack to my fish.

And has anyone ever noticed how much a bicolor blenny poops! It doesn't seem normal even.

 

[Dert42]

big clown and blue tang both dead.
small clown still not eating, dead by tommorow i'm sure.

man. i sure am happy.

 

[DrBDC]

 

[craig813]

man that sucks, did you just get the tang also?

 

[bkh24]

try frozen cyclopeeze. It always works. Fish love it corals love it. It is just great stuff. I am sure freeze dried is the same stuff but I use frozen.
Good luck

 

[Dert42]

i will pick some up and use it on the next new fish i get.
little clown was still alive this morning. but still hiding.

i got a bunch of birthday money and everyone said buy more fish so i did.
i got 2 clowns, a blue tang, a blue goby and 2 srgt. majors.
i'm down to 1 clown and 2 majors.
the majors are doing great. go figure the cheap fish are the best...
water quality is fine too.

 

[saltyunderground]

This sort of thing happened to me not long after I set up my new 75g tank. I added several fish and a couple of clams all at the same time. Not long after, many of my fish died including some that I had prior to the new tank. I believe it was just too much too fast even though all of the water, rock and substrate for the new tank came from an established tank.

Now I try to add no more than two new fish (two of the same species) no sooner than 4 weeks apart. I have also become a believer in a quarantine tank to observe new fish that may be sensitive to change or known to be disease prone.

I suggest you wait 4-6 weeks after the last death before you add any new fish to the tank.

 

[Dert42]

i'm just trying to understand, what is the purpose of waiting 4-6 weeks?
am i waiting for something to flush out of the system?

 

[Shooter7]

It allows your bacterial levels in your tank to acclimate to the new amounts of waste that is going into the system. Your tank will support a certain level of bacteria with just one fish to reach equilibrium. Add another fish and the bacteria has to adjust again, and so on. Add several fish simultaneously and it's a huge adjustment. Should take this opportunity to set up a QT. The QT allows you to not only watch your new fish for diseases, but also gives you and the fish time to get used to one another, feeding times and type of food, ability to eat without a bunch of competition from other fish, etc. I agree with Lisa.

 

[saltyunderground]

In my case, there was a parasite that was introduced with one of the new fish. It quickly took out all but one of my fish, a possum wrasse. I wanted to make sure the parasite was no longer in the system so it was important to wait 4-6 weeks to make sure the wrasse did not have it and that is was not in the system (no hosts to live off).

In your case, the tang may have had issues. They are known for being delicate. Also, if the clowns are wild caught, they can be tougher to acclimate and could have introduced an issue.

In my opinion the Sargent Majors are going to be problems for the fish in your tank as they get older. Especially if you want to add new fish. They are known to become absolute terrors in a tank when they mature. Figures they are very hardy huh? You might reconsider that choice.

 

[DrBDC]

Did the sgnt majors possibly pick on them? Those are some of the meanest nastiest damsels there are and are known to kill othe fish. They get pretty big too.