mcclandy
New member
I ordered some new fish this last week. They showed up friday, as planned. It included two clownfish, a copperband, a cleaner shrimp, and a starfish. The starfish was acclimated over 8hours; and looks good. The cleaner shrimp acclimated for a couple hours and appears to be in great shape. However, the fish have been frustrating. One clown appeared to have a swim bladder issue when i opened the box, and died about a half day later. This was not suprising. The other clown has decent color and appears that it is not starving (ie sunken stomach, poor fins, and thin body) And the Copperband butterfly has great color and appears healthy (no sunken stomach, or thin).
However, neither surviving fish will eat frozen/prepared food. First, the copperband appeared to be actively hunting after a couple hours of releasing him. The fish still appeared to be hunting up until yesterday. Now, the copperband appears to mostly swim back and forth along the glass. I think he has looked most of the stuff over pretty closely.
The clown simply swims around as suspected. Nothing too unusual about him. Doesn't hunt/search for food.
*I do understand what/how butterfly's eat worms,and search them out, or hunt.. yada yada yada... This is my third butterfly, and always had great luck. The copperband is super picky, which does not supprise me too much. but the clown really throws me for a loop.
I have tried frozen brine shrimp, frozen rotifer cubes, frozen prepared fish food (home brew), with and without this soaked in Selcon and thawed. I have also tried generic dry marine fishfood. And I have even tried live blackworms.
The copperband doesn't even look at these items, ever.
The clown will look at everything, but the rotifers, suck it into his mouth and chew a bit; and then spit it back out. (i was going to raise some live brine shrimp, but the local store just sold out to some school class project using the brine shrimp eggs.)
These fish are in a quarantine tank. About a fourth of the 15 to 20 gallons are filled with cheato macro algae. And it has a single power head with a carbon cahnber attatched to it. I also dose DT's at least every two days. The temp is about 72 to 73. I need to do some chem tests. and will see what my params are at. See if they have swung out of the normal params.
I am VERY tempted to throw the copperband and clown into my display tank now; rather than waiting out the quarantine process. They don't appear to have external parasites..... Maybe the other fish will show them how or what to eat! Or, they will feel more like home.. or, it offers more natural food. I know i have alot of small feather dusters for the copperband to eat.
anyway, sorry for the ramblings. any ideas are appreciated!
However, neither surviving fish will eat frozen/prepared food. First, the copperband appeared to be actively hunting after a couple hours of releasing him. The fish still appeared to be hunting up until yesterday. Now, the copperband appears to mostly swim back and forth along the glass. I think he has looked most of the stuff over pretty closely.
The clown simply swims around as suspected. Nothing too unusual about him. Doesn't hunt/search for food.
*I do understand what/how butterfly's eat worms,and search them out, or hunt.. yada yada yada... This is my third butterfly, and always had great luck. The copperband is super picky, which does not supprise me too much. but the clown really throws me for a loop.
I have tried frozen brine shrimp, frozen rotifer cubes, frozen prepared fish food (home brew), with and without this soaked in Selcon and thawed. I have also tried generic dry marine fishfood. And I have even tried live blackworms.
The copperband doesn't even look at these items, ever.
The clown will look at everything, but the rotifers, suck it into his mouth and chew a bit; and then spit it back out. (i was going to raise some live brine shrimp, but the local store just sold out to some school class project using the brine shrimp eggs.)
These fish are in a quarantine tank. About a fourth of the 15 to 20 gallons are filled with cheato macro algae. And it has a single power head with a carbon cahnber attatched to it. I also dose DT's at least every two days. The temp is about 72 to 73. I need to do some chem tests. and will see what my params are at. See if they have swung out of the normal params.
I am VERY tempted to throw the copperband and clown into my display tank now; rather than waiting out the quarantine process. They don't appear to have external parasites..... Maybe the other fish will show them how or what to eat! Or, they will feel more like home.. or, it offers more natural food. I know i have alot of small feather dusters for the copperband to eat.
anyway, sorry for the ramblings. any ideas are appreciated!
