Love/hate picky eaters

[Naraku]

I really hate picky eaters.

Do they NOT realize that they will die, if they don't eat?
Are they that stupid?

Also, the prettiest fish tend to be picky or more sensitive.

For example, Heniochus intermedius, H. chrysostomus and Moorish idols are all prettier (IMO) than black and white common heniochus.

The pickier butterflyfish tend to be prettier.

The starcki damselfish is prettier than common blue damselfish but are so rare and hard to keep.

Yet all of them are pickier eaters.

 

[Naraku]

My H. chrysostomus was eating pellets for a few days.
Now he decides that he absolutely will not eat pellets.

He also will ignore my mysis if they are smothered with pellets.

Is he so stupid to realize that he may get malnutrition if he continues to only eat mysis?

 

[Moort82]

I've always wanted a pair of orange spot filefish but couldn't care for them so haven't.

I did have a starki damsel for years though. They shouldn't be hard to keep at all and aren't rare just more seasonal than some of the other damsels.

 

[this is me]

I really hate picky eaters.

Do they NOT realize that they will die, if they don't eat?
Are they that stupid?

My feeling exactly when I tried my first two yellow belly Regal Angelfish. It's so stressful when you have a fish that just won't eat!

 

[scooter31707]

I know the feeling. What have you tried so far? With Butterflies and Angels, I have had great success with fresh clams from my local supermarket. It took about 3 minutes for them to realize what it was and they started tearing it up.

 

[MondoBongo]

I've always wanted a pair of orange spot filefish but couldn't care for them so haven't.

where there's a will, there's a way.

my OSFF haven't been nearly as hard as i thought they would be. getting them through QT and introduced to other foods was a considerable amount of work (like a HUGE amount of work, i was doing 5 - 8 daily feedings of live white worms and still having trouble keeping them plump), but once they started eating prepared, they eat it like there's no tomorrow.

fill the gaps with plenty of acros to munch on, keep the water quality high, and they're happy campers.

most of the "hard to feed" fish i've encountered aren't actually all that hard to feed. it's just a matter of finding and providing them food that they like. i see so many people on here complain about fish not eating, then when you ask them what they've tried it's usually a very limited list of one, maybe two types of frozen food, or the pellets their clownfish eat.

at any given time i usually have about 4 or 5 different types of frozen on hand, 3 or 4 different kinds of flakes/pellets, and live cultures of white worms and black worms, and the ability to spin up a culture of baby brine shrimp in less than 48 hours.

i typically will start offering frozen food while the fish are in QT/grow out, and adjust accordingly. if the fish are eating any of the frozen fine then i will slowly start to introduce pellets or flake with it. if they turn their nose up at the frozen, then i try the live. i have also had good results soaking things in selcon. it smells rank and often times it seems to help pique interest in food. some fish never move on past frozen to pellet/flake, but that's fine with me, frozen is easy enough to feed.

other fish can also help. specifically in reference to my OSFF pair, my female is my rock. she has consistently been the first to try new foods, and the male watches her closely. he will get agitated if he sees her eating, but he is not, and then usually after a couple days of watching her eat something new, he will follow suit. that doesn't mean i stop feeding him during that time, but at feed times i will offer the new food first, then if either of them don't take any i will feed them something i know they like.

 

[Naraku]

It started eating LRF. it picks bits and pieces. It likes the seaweed pieces.
Does not swallow large pieces.

Had to do a 100% water change because it smelled horrible afterwards.

Its also a reason I hate feeding frozen.

 

[scooter31707]

If it likes the seaweed pieces, then it make take to Nori also.

 

[MondoBongo]

size can be another huge factor for "picky" eaters.

originally i didn't think the filefish would ever take frozen, because i was trying two different types of roe, LRS, and PE myses. all of which were far too large for their preference (they have since learned to chew up the PE myses), but the key was hikari myses. they're much smaller. they could be taken by the fish without any chewing.

the roe was too small, lrs and pe myses were too large, but hikari myses were just right.

sometimes it can take a lot of experimentation, but i don't get any fish expecting it to just eat pellets/flake/granules.

 

[Naraku]

It was eating spectrum 1mm pellets briefly when I tricked it into eating by covering it with mysis.

It doesn't seem to like to swallow hard food.

Should I try the tiny spectrum pellets.?

Should I try to introduce another butterflyfish that is eating pellets?

 

[MondoBongo]

It sounds like he likes frozen. That's what I would feed him. You may or may not be able to get him on pellets. Keep trying different things, but if not you're going to have to feed him frozen or give him to someone who will.

 

[lespaul339]

I had a flame angel that would'nt eat and starved to death. Tried feeding that fish everything and it just wouldn't eat! Very frustrating indeed!

 

[Naraku]

Have you seen/have butterflyfish survive for years on frozen?

Most butterflyfish seem to get skinny and perish if on a strictly frozen diet.

It sounds like he likes frozen. That's what I would feed him. You may or may not be able to get him on pellets. Keep trying different things, but if not you're going to have to feed him frozen or give him to someone who will.

 

[MondoBongo]

Have you seen/have butterflyfish survive for years on frozen?

Most butterflyfish seem to get skinny and perish if on a strictly frozen diet.

I've never fed just frozen. I always supplement with at least some live here and there as well as rotating vitamin supplements that the food is soaked in.

From the sounds of your posts though you only want to feed pellet, or is that an incorrect interpretation?

 

[Naraku]

I just can't fatten it up with frozen. he only eats bits and pieces here and there.
its really frustrating. He won't swallow big pieces. He will swallow seaweed large pieces though.

It seems like this fish doesn't want to take the effort to swallow chunks.
Its a very lazy fish.

I really don't have time to dump LRF every day. Only for it to pick bits and pieces.
Then I have to do a 100% water change, even though he's eaten very little.

He also spits mysis head pieces out. He is chosey about the pieces he swallows.
If I thaw a cube of mysis, he swallows about 20% of it, the rest he spits out.
When I soak the mysis in selcon, he will try it and spit it out.

Since, he has swallowed pellets before, I'm currently starving him to force him to eat.
Today is day 2. If he doesn't eat by day 5, I'll have to feed mysis again.



All fish that have accepted pellets have become strong and full.

 

[Naraku]

The only live food I feel confident about is brine shrimp. It won't fatten him up.

Most life food can carry disease.

 

[Naraku]

I'm thinking of adding a regular heniochus which tend to eat pellets easier.

hopefully he will learn.

 

[ali1]

My copperband has to be the worst. He knows the difference between bloodworms and liveworms and will give me attitude. Sometimes you have to run the tank dry to teach him a lesson

 

[ThRoewer]

I don't think that there are really that many fish that are truly picky eaters.
In most cases fish that refuse to eat have been treated wrong during capture or transport.

I've heard from divers that some of the fish that seem to be difficult to get to eat will eat even bread when offered to them in the wild.

My suspicion is that many of these picky eaters went without food for to long so that they no longer feel hungry. At that point it will be difficult to get them interested in unfamiliar foods. Another factor might be that many of the picky eater specimen we get are already too large/old and therefore too fixed in their eating habits.
Someone in Japan got juveniles of obligate coral polyp eating butterflies to eat clams. The key for that was likely that the fish were still juveniles and that they were caught locally and literally went from the ocean into the tank.

The fact that even such specialized eaters as orangespot filefish can be trained to go after pellets should give food for thought.


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