new spectrum pellets - new clowns not eating

[lhscouchmonster]

I bought two clowns on sunday from reefe shoppe. They sold me new life spectrum community pellets. I asked if they were for freshwater and they said it didnt matter. They did not have any marine formula 1mm pellets. Looking online it says these are for freshwater fish. I cant really tell the difference in ingredients.

The one clown isn't eating and the other is barely eating. They said the clowns were raised on the pellets.

Should I give them a few more days or is the 1mm community food the problem?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Do you have any frozen shrimp? Try running one on a grater, thaw the shavings and see if that will get them started eating better. The fw NLS could the problem, but if they are pellet trained I wouldn't think it a problem for them wanting to eat it.

 

[lhscouchmonster]

The clowns will both suck the pellets in and then the smaller of the two always spits it out while the larger one will occasionally not spit it out. The smaller clown will dart over to food and then turn back right before eating the pellet. Im getting worried because the fish acts hungry but hasn't ate in days.

I tried frozen mysis shrimp two days ago and they suck it in and spit it out. Ill try again tonight. They may have just been stressed because they werent used to the larger tank yet and missing all their buddies.

It's possible they are munching on copepods or something but from what I read, O clowns should be pigs.

All the water parameters are good and my corals are doing great (even creating new heads/ polyps). SG is 1.024. Tank is about 81 degrees because of the heat so I am slowly adjusting down to 79 now.

 

[Foody]

All of my fish are small (small mouths). Not one of them can inhale a 1mm pellet as it. I use a paring knife and break them into 2 or 3 pieces first and voila, they get sucked down quickly and easily.

 

[lhscouchmonster]

All of my fish are small (small mouths). Not one of them can inhale a 1mm pellet as it. I use a paring knife and break them into 2 or 3 pieces first and voila, they get sucked down quickly and easily.

I will try cutting them apart tonight. Hopefully that's the problem. The pellets look pretty big in the water for such a small fish. Maybe they can't swallow the pellets and thats why they are spitting them out.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

try crushing the pellets..... easier than cutting!

 

[blanden.adam]

Yeah, of they are ORA clowns then they are fed NLS pellets almost exclusively at the hatchery when they get to a certain maturity point. For what it's worth, all my fish (save the mandarin and the tang, picky beggers) eat the 0.5 mm NLS pellet.

 

[NirvanaFan]

If you can find the .5 mm spectrum pellets, they may take that. How big are the clowns?

If you can't find some at TRS or CF, let me know. I've got a bunch that will go past the expiration date (in Dec) if they aren't used.

 

[lhscouchmonster]

i tried to crush the pellets and they werent too interested. they werent too interested in the frozen mysis either. I have a feeling im going to lose the clowns... i cant figure it out

should i try to add some juice from my crushed garlic i have in the fridge?

 

[NirvanaFan]

It won't hurt to try. Clowns can go a pretty long time without food. I wouldn't write them off yet.

 

[blanden.adam]

Sometimes garlic on some PE mysis will entice finicky fish to eat. IDK if I believe the anti-parasitic properties of the garlic (maybe, maybe not, I really cant say), but it certainly does stimulate a feeding response in many fish.

 

[lhscouchmonster]

Sometimes garlic on some PE mysis will entice finicky fish to eat. IDK if I believe the anti-parasitic properties of the garlic (maybe, maybe not, I really cant say), but it certainly does stimulate a feeding response in many fish.

Do you use a garlic supplement made for fish or do you use actual garlic/garlic juice from the canned garlic?

 

[NirvanaFan]

I'd use the real garlic if I had some available. If not, the supplement would be fine.

quick note: To my knowledge, there has been no study that actually proved that garlic helped fish that wouldn't eat. It still doesn't hurt to try it in order to get the finicky fish to eat though.

 

[blanden.adam]

I'd use the real garlic if I had some available. If not, the supplement would be fine.

quick note: To my knowledge, there has been no study that actually proved that garlic helped fish that wouldn't eat. It still doesn't hurt to try it in order to get the finicky fish to eat though.

That would be a real hard study to do

 

[lhscouchmonster]

FLAKES! That's what the little clownfish has been waiting for. Specifically formula 2 by ocean nutrition. The guys at reef shoppe suggested i start trying F2 flakes instead of the mysis and pellets.

I tried crushing the pellets, pre soaking the pellets, soaking them in garlic, and did the same with mysis but the little guy would spit all of it right out.

The other flakes I had for my freshwater fish were not interesting him when i tried but he scarfs the F2 flakes down quickly.

The little guy has started doing a weird twitching thing that looks like a seizure. Online it says that this is a submissive movement which makes sense because he is only doing it when he's really close to the bigger clownfish. Any truth to that?

Boy these clownfish sure are quirky creatures...

 

[blanden.adam]

Glad to hear they are eating! And with regard to the behavior, terrifying the first time you see it isn't it? It's a submissive maneuver, that one will probly become your sexually differentiated male. It's perfectly normal clown behavior.

 

[lhscouchmonster]

Glad to hear they are eating! And with regard to the behavior, terrifying the first time you see it isn't it? It's a submissive maneuver, that one will probly become your sexually differentiated male. It's perfectly normal clown behavior.

haha it was terrifying. I immediately googled "clownfish seizure" expecting the worst. That was the first time i ran (and i use the term loosely because the tank is in the home office so it was more of a swivel in my chair) to google about my tank and didn't find something that made me wasn't worried, freaked out, or frustrated. :spin1: