Geometric hawkfish not eating during TTM

gt5500

New member
This is now my second attempt at ttm with a geometric hawkfish, I've successfully put two tailspot blennies through ttm with no issues at all. Both the hawkfish were eating frozen mysis at the store, both were very active (one almost jumped out of the bag) when put in the ttm tank and both appeared healthy.
I lost the first one on the last day of ttm, it hadn't eaten during the whole ttm process and just withered away, the second one has only been in since last night but is also showing no sign of eating. I know they can take a few days to start eating but I'm really worried this one won't make it either.
The first one never really moved around the tank and just stayed in a bit of pipe or against the side of the tank. Whenever I put food in it didn't move at all, sometimes the food fell on top of it and no response at all. I've blacked out 3 sides of the tank this time and added more hiding places as I was worried the first one was stressed. What more can I try?
 
You might try some rubble rock in one corner of the tank so he feels more comfortable. (They are collected from rubble zones of Cebu.)

Just be sure to sterilize the rock w/bleach before ever reusing.
 
Unfortunately it didn't even make 48 hours however I don't think this one was ever going to make it, it was so emaciated it felt like an empty shrimp shell when I pulled it out. I had a time constraint which meant I couldn't see it feeding at the store before purchase but the owner assured me it was (and I never had reason to doubt him, until now). I can't imagine it had eaten for weeks, I did do a post mortem fw dip to check for flukes but nothing showed up. I'm not that familiar with looking at dead fish but to me the gills looked empty, I was expecting to see some sort of furry flesh inside them but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for .
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What do you think about the gills, should I have been able to see something or do they shrink back quickly after death?
 
Ah right thanks, I've never looked before so I was surprised to not see anything.
I am still not sure why the first one didn't survive, it was at the fish shop several weeks so must have been eating. It looked healthy at the shop and for the first week or so it was very energetic whenever I transferred it but it just never moved any other time and never showed any reaction to food.
 
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