First fish in new 145g tank, CBB

[Washout]

My levels in my new tank have been good for a week now. Did a large water change and they remained stable for 2 more days. So it is time for my tank's first fish.

This is a 4" CBB. Looks amazing, and I watched it for 3 weeks at the LFS and observed it eating frozen brine a few times. Making him my first fish I think will give me the best chance to get him eating (stress free environment). He hasn't eaten in my tank yet, but he's only been in there for 12 hours. I have done my research on these fish, however any advice is appreciated. I won't consider adding new fish until I have this guy eating. I was thinking of putting in a clam, I have seen lots of success stories of getting them to eat those.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

if you cant get him to eat, try clams. go to local supermarket and pick up some live clams. throw them in the freezer and in about an hour you can take one out, pry it open with a knife. don't break off the other half of the shell. using a veggie clip, i clipped it to the shell without the clam meat. this way, when he is done eating, i can easily retrieve the clam shell.

when i bought my cbb, he was aggressively eating. it took me almost a year to get him to finally take mysis shrimp. now i no longer feed him clam.

 

[Washout]

if you cant get him to eat, try clams. go to local supermarket and pick up some live clams. throw them in the freezer and in about an hour you can take one out, pry it open with a knife. don't break off the other half of the shell. using a veggie clip, i clipped it to the shell without the clam meat. this way, when he is done eating, i can easily retrieve the clam shell.

when i bought my cbb, he was aggressively eating. it took me almost a year to get him to finally take mysis shrimp. now i no longer feed him clam.

Thanks for the advice. How long would you leave in the clam? Until it's picked clean? or replace it with a new one every day?

 

[Sleepingtiger]

Thanks for the advice. How long would you leave in the clam? Until it's picked clean? or replace it with a new one every day?

it only last about 2-3 hrs max before its completely gone. I would just leave it in there until the following day and swap out the new shell with the old.

When i feed them clams, i only had 2 fish. the CBB and the six line. most of the clam will be eaten by the CBB. It took months for the sixline to figure out he can pick food straight from the clam and not from the CBB mouth. The rest of the clam will be eaten by the cleaner shrimps and the brittle stars.

Also another thing about the veggie clip is i place it high enough from the bottom so the brittle starts can't get to it right away. Before, when i leave it on the bottom, I would have to fight off the brittle stars so the CBB can get its fill.

 

[Washout]

Good news, I got him eating...well clams for now

Took a bit of work, and thinking, but it's a great start.

I had a fox coral in my nano with a large aptasia on it, I decided to put it into my large tank to see if the CBB would eat it. After I came home from work the aptasia was gone. I noticed the CBB was constantly swimming by and poking his nose at the stem of the fox coral every few minutes. I put my clam on top of the stem and within about 2 minutes he started picking away at the clam

Stage 2 will be drilling holes in a clam shell and putting mysis shrimp in there.

He's on his way

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Great news. Good luck!

 

[Hollifields]

Nice Job!
Sounds like (as you stated) you did do your research. You watched it eat at LFS...

When I saw the post title "first fish..." saw it was a CBB not eating, I was going to post: You should have got a damsel and you wouldn't have "that" problem!
JK
Enjoy!

 

[Sleepingtiger]

congrats

drilling holes in the shell and adding mysis? i don't think its about eating the mysis was a problem. it was more of not wanting to eat from the water column. well, that was the problem with my cbb. he wouldn't even look at it.

 

[falconut]

See if you can find live blackworms somewhere. My CBB loved them. He would even eat them right from my hand.

I had something similar to above, a pvc pipe with holes and caps. So, the CBB was the only fish that could get to the food. It was easier straight from my hand.

Good luck with him, they are awesome fish.

 

[thenewguy997]

I had a cbb as my first fish

Horrible choice.

The uneaten food sits and causes water problems

He lasted 3 weeks until he died from disease tho he was eating

Id add a small fish to eat w.e he doesnt eat

Also, its a bigger fish, so if your tank isnt absolutely cycled its a big dent in the
Bioload and .01 of ammonia can kill.

I wish you luck and i hope he survives, live brine works

 

[bonzaicube]

That fish looks very healthy. Good luck with it and hope it does well for you.

 

[Washout]

Id add a small fish to eat w.e he doesnt eat

I added a diamond watchman goby, a sailfin blenny, and a one spot foxface (juvenile) to clean up all the uneaten stuff for now. Also added a couple clowns to get stuff that's floating around. He doesn't seem bothered by the clowns or the foxface at all. He didn't get through an entire clam yet before I felt I needed to take it out. He will take the odd frozen blood worm from the water column though I don't see this very often. Unfortunately it didn't like my drilled clam idea...yet!

Clams seem to be working for now, I was also thinking of trying scallops to mix things up.

 

[Marshall O]

That sounds like a lot to add at once, even in a large tank. Keep an eye on ammonia and nitrites.