I can't get new fish to eat

[smellfishy]

I have a powder blue tang about 3 inches and a pair of b/a perculas about 1 inch each. I have tried formula one and two frozen and small pellets, frozen mysis, rotofers, also omega one flakes. Anyone have any ideas I have them in quarintine for seven days so far?

 

[achilles1]

Nori, and you can try some live brine just to get them going. Did you make sure they were eating before you purchased?

 

[smellfishy]

I got them online. I forgot to post that I did try red, green, and purple nori. Anyone know where I can get live brine in the area. I have never had this much trouble getting fish to eat.

 

[DJChesnutRabbit]

You can get brine shrimp eggs at most LFS's. I think they take 24hrs to hatch.

 

[chrisstie]

Have you tried soaking the foods in garlic? The smell should tempt their appetite. For the clowns that are on the small-ish side I'd try cyclopeez.

You've double checked the parameters of the QT water they are in? Are you treating with anything or just observing in QT for now?

 

[AquaKnight]

Seven Seas, Ocean Blue, and sometimes Aquaria Studios sell live brine. I usually feed the brine some Formula flake to add some nutrition to them beforehand. As mentioned, garlic, even the bottled stuff works for stimulating appepiate.

 

[nauti1us]

For clownfish not to eat sounds odd. I suspect the water quality of the tank might be worth looking into. Clowns / damsels should be eating all the time unless really stressed and I would think it would take a lot to stress a clown...

 

[smellfishy]

They are in a 30gal qt and the water is fine they swim at the food and then back off.

 

[MIKE ALERS]

are the clowns at least picking at the food and then spitting out.clowns if theyre to small and the food supply for them to eat,they will refuse it at least mine did.have u tried flakes mine took to flakes first.

 

[rdmpe]

Try wrapping the nori on a rock with a rubberband holding it on. Then just let it sit in there for a while with nobody disturbing the tank, walking near it, etc. Hopefully the tang will take an interest.

 

[lifesworksataol]

its got to be something with the water - maybe you might try taking one of your fish that you know eats and putting him in there? i dont know if i could do it to one of my fish but you have to do something or else they are going to die. pet safari has live brine as well but i think Seven Seas will be much closer for you.

 

[smellfishy]

I tried cyclopeez, nothing. I have a small hippo tang in there and he eats fine. I will go out and try to find live food and garlic in the morning. I also did a 50% water change just in case and tested everything comes out perfect I can't figure out whats going on. I put a live rock from a holding tank that has some algae growing on it to see if the tang would try to feed off it. I used the same tank for other fish who are now in the display and never lost one from the quarantine process.

 

[lifesworksataol]

wow - that sucks - do you have a fuge? maybe you can get some cheato with some mysis and copods in there? also skinnyjoe has huge copods of some sort that i know they couldnt resist. you might want to contact him. he drives all over for work like me and might meet up with you. i hate when fish die. goodluck!

 

[chrisstie]

I don't really know of many tangs or clowns that are pod pickers but try the garlic.

Also double check that your testing supplies are accurate- sometimes an old testkit can be out of wack or even the calibration of a refractometer could be off (if you're using one) if all else fails sometimes its the equipment to double check.

You said you had a hippo - did you mean he's in your main display or also in the Qt tank with the powder and the clowns?

 

[smellfishy]

The test kits are all current I use salifert test. the hippo is in the same qt tank. None of the fish seam to be getting harassed. I have sat for a few hours looking to see if they would try to eat and haven't noticed any.

 

[Pacific Reefs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12168612#post12168612 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
Try wrapping the nori on a rock with a rubberband holding it on. Then just let it sit in there for a while with nobody disturbing the tank, walking near it, etc. Hopefully the tang will take an interest.

This got my tang to eat

+1

 

[smellfishy]

The tang ate a little for the first time tonight, but still no luck with the clowns.

 

[chrisstie]

Yay that's definitely some progress at least! Maybe all they need is time and the clowns will come around soon

 

[Me No Nemo]

Are the clowns aquacultured or wild caught? If aquacultured, try some of the ORA pellet food (ORAglo). The fact that they go after the food then spit it out makes me think they're just not familiar with the food source you're using. Aquacultured clowns often respond better to the pellets initially as that's what they're used to on the farms. The ORA is very small and clowns usually go nuts for it.

 

[cur10u5g30rg3]

Also, you can get live brine from Leeburg Pet Center. It straight up Us-27 on your left when you get into Leesburg.