Harlequin Tusk hiding...

[N8MAN1068]

I bought a Harlequin Tusk this past week...LiveAquaria finally had a sale on the Australians.
Since I've had him (Wednesday), he's barely come out of the rock work. He won't come out when the halides are on, and will come out and do a few laps briefly after they go off and it's just actinics.
My concern is feeding...since Wednesday, he has not eaten in this tank. How long should I wait before becoming ultra concerned? He's about 4-5", and a beautiful specimen. I'd hate to lose it. I'm not sure how to try to feed it by itself, as it's tankmates(Volatins Lion, and Humu Picasu) might be too fast.

What would be the best way to coax him out to eat? The girlfriend recalled how I wasn't too worried when the Volatins didn't come out to eat for awhile. I countered that the Volatins didn't cost as much nor was as hard to get.

Thoughts? Help? Suggestions?

 

[n8ureman]

I recently got one too. (mine is not an australian however.) For the first few days mine hid too. then he started pacing nervously. After about three days mine finally ate. How I got mine to eat was by placing a cube of frozen mysid shrimp in the tank. When my other fish would go to eat the cube he would check it out. (mine seems very courious) he discovered it was food and now is eating really well on mysid shrimp (rinsed in freshwater and soaked in vitamins like I normally prepare it. As well as Rods food.)he has calmed down a lot and is a model citizen with the rest of the tankmates. I hope this helps.

 

[N8MAN1068]

Thanks. I've tried feeding, but the other two wolf food down before he even notices from his hiding point. How big is yours? I doubt mine would be interested in small food like mysid.

 

[Recty]

It can be hard feeding a more timid fish like a tusk when there are larger aggressive feeders in the same tank.

Sometimes you can feed the tank and put some meaty food on a feeding stick and get it down to where the tusk is. He will start associating your feeding the tank with food and hopefully be more inquisitive, start coming out to feed and you'll eventually get to stop having to stick feed him.

Most of those issues just take some time, make sure you get food to him somehow and keep him nice and healthy

 

[N8MAN1068]

Any advice on what good treats would be to get him to come out?
I'm sure the trigger would haul tail and chase down the stick. I can hand feed him as it is now, and any time either of them see the medicine cups come out, they put their mouths on the glass and wait for the food to come. I use the medicine cups to thaw out food and dose selcon.

 

[Recty]

Nothing comes to mind that your other two fish wont greedily gobble down first. Tusks are not nearly as aggressive as their name or appearance would make you think. Trying to feed them with your other fish in the tank will be pretty hard until he is weaned onto your prepared foods.

If you have live feeder shrimp, he will for sure eat those. The only problem being your other fish will eat them faster than he does.

Otherwise, just feed your other two fish until they are so stuffed they cant eat, then try to get food down to your tusk on a stick.

Anything meaty and marine based is good, shrimp/fish/mollusk of some sort.

On a healthy tusk, you probably dont need to start really worrying for 2 weeks, but if you dont have him eating by then, you'll start running into problems.

 

[N8MAN1068]

Any idea if LiveAquaria withholds food for a few days to cut down on waste during shipping?
Every now and then, or if i'm working in the tank positioning rocks/coral, I'll net the lionfish and hang him up in a corner. I might try doing that for awhile during feeding.

 

[dones20]

the best thing to try is either some live guppies or so ghost shrimps i had the same prob they are very timid to the acclimation part just be patient and try the above foods