It's interesting to watch this fish eat. It literally makes a decision about every piece of food it encounters, some it eats, others it doesn't. Never seen a fish do that, I wish I knew what it's criteria for consuming one food particle over another was.
Either way, still eating. Slow and steady progress.
Good to hear. Mine did the same with pieces of clam from different parts of the clam. Next time I have one open I'll get a pic and indicate which parts mine preferred. If I had to guess from memory.... guts and muscle were preferred over any connective type tissue....
I'm going to be setting up my autofeeder sooner than later. Found out today there is a good chance i'll be traveling a lot in January...does not bode well for the many feedings/day this guy is going to require.
I'm planning to use the Reef Nutrition products for the autofeeder. Probably the ROE and the Artic Pods. I'm going to try to feed them manually first before I go to the trouble of building the autofeeder. I just need to find them locally.
Sorry for the drop in updates. I've been traveling a lot, it looks like I'm picking up a new account in Lexington, which is good news for me, but not so much for my fish feeding schedule.
The fish is still eating LRS foods relatively well and I've been feeding it anywhere from 3 - 8 times daily. I was happy to see some excrement the other day, this tells me there is some actual digestion taking place. The LRS food definitely appears to be the favorite, specifically the reef frenzy.
I have offered little neck clams and they don't seem to be a big hit. This fish really seems to prefer to pick small particles out of the water column, which is a little surprising to me.
I was lucky enough to stumble across a mom and pop style shop yesterday afternoon on my was home from Lexington. They sold the Reef Nutrition R.O.E. and so I picked up a bottle. Initially, there wasn't much interest, but on the second and third application, she figured out what it was and started eating it well. This is good news as it was one of the products I wanted to use in my auto feeder.
I need to find some arctic pods and mysis feast and try those next. I was also considering using liquified LRS Reef Frenzy, but I don't know what kind of shelf life it would have in a fridge.
I took some feeding videos on Thursday, but my kids have misplaced the cord for my camera. If I find it today I'll put a couple up.
Matt did you try calling Gerber? Not that I would suggest giving them any of your buisness but I think they had several of the pods if I remember correctly the last time I walked thru there
I have offered little neck clams and they don't seem to be a big hit. This fish really seems to prefer to pick small particles out of the water column, which is a little surprising to me.
Longer video. I've gotta work on my filming quality, it is, how you say "not good".
I will say that in the case of the LRS food, it seems to pick and choose different food particles. When I feed the ROE, it is interested in a larger majority if not every food particle that is in suspension. The food in this video is Reef Frenzy.
On the plus side, this fish usually spends about 10 to 15 minutes combing the tank for food each time I do feed it. It may not be efficient, but it does see to spend a lot of time eating.
It also definitely recognizes me as the privider of food.
The past week has been a bit disheartening for me. I have been super busy with getting ready for Christmas and haven't been watching my tanks as closely as I typically do. I had however noticed that my little Larvatus had not been eating and swallowing as much food compared to when I first received it. As of two days ago, it was almost not ingesting any food at all. It would still swim around and sample particles, but never appear to ingest them.
Not be denied, I decided a large water change was in order and I also made a trip to the local seafood department. I picked up some oysters, steamer clams, a scallop and a huge clam for my FOWLR (Christmas Dinner).
At first, I tried shaving the scallop. I got the same reaction as the LRS foods, a lot of sampling, but not much ingesting.
Second, I tried the Steamer Clams. Typically, I like feeding these to my puffer because the shells are softer and he seems to like to break them (the little neck shells are too tough for him).
SUCCESS on the Steamers :dance:. As soon as it hit the bottom of the tank the Larvatus was on it. I fed him one yesterday afternoon and when I came back several hours later he was still going at it.
This morning I got the clam out and while there was still some flesh left, it was clear that he had either eaten or torn most of it out. I still had some concern as of this morning because I'm fully aware that it could have just been shredding the clam and not ingesting it, but I was able to see some decent excrement when I fed him another clam today, so that in my mind helps put those fears to rest. I never thought I'd be so happy to see fish poop....
Yeah, I still don't feel like we're even close to out of the woods here yet. It seems like I always kind of get a "gut" feeling about when a fish is finally established, I don't have that yet here. Side note, I am feeling pretty good about my multibar and big regal.
I think I'm going to try feeding some of the Oysters minced up today and see how that goes. I just don't think I'll be comfortable until it's eating free floating foods well. The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to terms with building some kind of specialized feeding box for the day this fish goes into my DT.
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