Feeding new Clownfish

Fluid

Premium Member
Anyone have any good ideas on converting clowns to decent flake food? I'm guessing after a few days they will get hungry enough and start eating it, but for now they just eat it, and spit it out.

Just got them yesterday.
 
Flake food is not exactly a clownfish favorite, so it might take some time. Waiting until they're hungry enough to eat it is probably the easiest way to go. How come you want to feed them flake food?
 
I have just gone that route because its always available locally. Do you have any recommendations on what/how I should be feeding them?
 
bump, they still aren't eating. Although, I do see one of them eating pods off the glass fairly often.
 
do you just float the flakes on top? I have found that if you immediately sink the flakes you may have better luck...maybe there's something about food floating on the surface that a lot of fish just dont like.
 
Mine won't eat flakes/pellets off the surface either, I have to get them near their little hideout.
 
Clowns will 'usually' eat anything with a little training. My Tomato male refuses cooked table shrimp, whereas the female shuns the raw table shrimp. The females likes broccoli and the male mouths it a hundred times only to spit it out. The male won't touch mysis. There are just some foods they won't eat....

What flake are you trying? I have found that all four of my mated pair clowns and almost all juvies eat Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef from a feeder when I travel. I would look into a qood pwllwt if that doesn't work. Spectrum, Ocean Nutrition and Hikari are all good foods and I've heard good reviews about ORA GLO. Unless your feeding a ton of clowns or heavily feeding, a container of pellet bought from mail order should last easily past a year. (I throw out all my pellets after a year, since I feed frozen/live when I'm not traveling.)
 
I have found all my clowns relish some nori mixed into the homemade mix I make.

The last batch had

20 shrimp (fresh) peeled with the heads squeezed into the mix chopped finely
15 scallops and half of their roe chopped finely
2 sheets unflavoured nori
half a pot of ocean nutrition spirulina flake.
a third small pot of nls pellets
some amino acids I had lying around (1/4 vial of zeovit)
two tablespoons freeze dried cyclopeeze.

I put it in a ziplock and flatten then freeze.
I cut off chunks and grate with a fine grater and feed

It will last me a couple of months depending on how I feed.
I have very healthy happy fish and I enjoy making the food, very satisfying:D
 
I have Spectrum Pellets, Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flake, and TetraMarine flakes. When I feed, I crush up the flakes some and stick my fingers in the water so they immediately sink in front of their faces. Sometimes my clown will mouth the flakes, but he'll rarely swallow. I'm thinking he's just not hungry yet. He hunts pods all day long, which probably taste quite a bit better.

As for the pellets, I've had no luck with him even mouthing the pellet.

Guess I'll just keep at it, it's just him and a goby, so i'm wondering if pods can sustain them.
 
I'm having the same problem with a new maroon clown. He doesn't like flake or mysis so I chopped up some frozen florida gulf shrimp I had in the freezer and viola... he can't get enough of that it seems.

I doubt seriously that pods alone will be sufficient to sustain him or the goby long term... unless you have an extremely large tank and fuge there will not be enough pods available continuously.

Just try different foods until you find something they like, once you do you will be surprised as to how much of it they will eat and then the begging will begin!

Good luck!
 
I had luck starting with cyclops then when they were eating that well I tossed in some prime reef flakes crumbled up and they started taking to that.
 
t4alews is right! I have not seen ANY fish not go nuts for Cyclopeeze. Mine are like meth attics as soon as they sense it in the water column.
 
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