Out of ideas - how to get A. Perc to eat

ReefKeeperRob

ReefKeeperRob

New member
Let me summarize what has happend so far

1. I bought 2 University of Maryland raised A. Perculas. Note I bought them before the dealer was even able to put them in his tank. Yea I'm learning. I bring them home and put them in my display. Bad move again I know.

2. For the next 2 weeks one of them is fine the entire time and eating right along with the other fish. The other looks strong and sometimes gets excited about feeding but doesn't actually eat anything. For 2 weeks I did not see this fish eat a single thing.

3. 12/18 Percula that is not eating is swimming very weak and Chromis pick on him when he wonders into their rock the last few nights. I'm worried that QT may stress it more since I don't have one setup but decide that if I do nothing the fish is not going to survive. 12/18 setup QT with 50% Display water and rip some of the wet/dry filter apart and put it in my QT filter.

4. Within the first two days the Percula is eating some food while the other is still eating much more. Everything looks like it's going to be great.

5. This brings us to now which is that the Percula seems to get excited about eating but he'll swim up to the food and just stop. I've tried pellets, flake, Spirulina Brine, Live Brine, Frozen Mysis (which I think was way too big). He is definitely doing much better and is swimming stronger, I think the combination of no fish and less flow is the main reason it is doing better while it adjusts. (Yea I know that's the whole point of the QT).

I just checked the parameters

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

salinity - 1.024

Is there something that I can't see that I should be treating for? The only thing I see that looks the slightest bit out of the ordinary is a tiny white fleck between it's eyes but I noticed about a week ago (not necessarily new) and I've been watching it and it's not growing or spreading.

I would really appreciate some ideas as I'm getting frustrated. The QT looked so promising but now it seems we're back to the same old routine.

Please do not turn this into a thread about what I did wrong. I know - I got it - I'll do better in the future.

I just want to know what I can do now
 
I took a couple of pictures to show the white fleck. It looks bigger than I thought now that I look at the pictures.

3143792376_2c8eb520b1_m.jpg


3142963135_80d87f6590_m.jpg
 
I would find his preferred food and feed small portions several times a day. I've had the best luck with live brine and formula one flakes.

I would make plans for the QT to be a long term thing. Several months at least. He's most likely weak from malnutrition. He will need famuliur surroundings to heal and build up his strength.

Before placing him back in the display, I would remove the chromis and any damsels you may have.

I can't tell what the white spot is. Maybe it's a wound from the chromis? Traveler 7 knows his stuff about medicating clowns. Hopefully he can chime in with some suggestions for you.

Good luck.
 
I shaved frozen food for about a month for my percs. That was the only way they seemed to eat. Now they'll go for anything.
 
What do you mean by shaving frozen brine? If it worked for you I'm willing to try it! I tried the spirulina regular frozen brine again with no luck tonight. He'll suck in 2 or 3 pieces then just spit it back out :(

I just thought of something. The brine that I bought says it's for fresh or saltwater fish. Now I know saltwater fish should not eat organisms living in freshwater. The frozen Brine that I bought said it was for fresh or saltwater fish. But I thought I read somewhere that freshwater fish can not eat organisms that live in saltwater. So would that make the Brine freshwater? I looked through several different packages at the LFS and could not find any info on any of the packages about whether any of the brine or mysis were raised in freshwater or saltwater.

Any recommendations on specific brands I should try. Right now I'm using San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Spirulina Brine Shrimp which I found at Petsmart.

Thanks for comments so far, I really want to this to turn out to be a success. It's going better so far, just need to get it eating so it can build up some strength.
 
try rods or ocean nutrition. also try formula 2 flake. hikari s pellets because they are small, all else fails try adding some garlic just incase you have a italian clown fish. actually the garlic has antibacterial properties and also is a appetite stimulant.
 
Right after I read the post about shaved seafood I went to the store and bought some raw frozen shrimp. I cut it up as small as I could and fed it piece by piece. The first piece I put in happen to be a lot bigger than I wanted but man you should have seen it attack it! It probably was tearing at it for 15 seconds or so. I'm not sure how much it actually ate. I tried a few smaller pieces that they could swallow in one gulp. It is definitely more excited than before and takes in everything it sees but plays with it mostly. This is definitely a big change though. I did see it actually eat a few pieces. I walked back to the tank a few minutes later and it had dragged the large piece back to the pvc pipe they are hosting and was tearing at it. I figured this was good because this is probably exactly how they act in nature feeding the anemone they are hosting while they are eating.

The funny thing is the one that was already eating doesn't touch this stuff. It ate a big meal a few hours ago so maybe it wasn't hungry.

Anymore ideas? What is the trick to to getting the shrimp really tiny? I was cutting a small piece for several minutes but most of the chunks were too large for my fish anyway.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14027749#post14027749 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by elegance coral
I've had the best luck with live brine and formula one flakes.
Click to expand...

Ditto on live brine shrimp. Most fish stores will carry it. A portion only lasts a few days in the refirgerator, but I can't think of a fish that I've ever had that refuses live brine.

Kevin
 
I use a microplane (rasp thingy) and shaved enriched brine shrimp cubes.
 
I tried the live Brine and it didn't seem to work. I'll get some more on Monday if the LFS has it, I know they have it sometimes because I've bought it before.
 
So now neither one of them are eating. The one that was healthy now has a bulging eye :( The LFS gave me something a few weeks ago which is supposed to be good for fish. I would like some second opinions. It's called Marine-Max and it's made by Tropical Science. It's two bottles, one bottle is supposed to be a disease preventing probiotic, the other a life maximizer with anti-oxidants. The white fleck that was on the fish that wasn't eating actually came off after I dosed this stuff last night. The other now has a bulging eye that doesn't look good at all, I noticed this before dosing the Marine-Max.

They both still swim strong.

I really feel like I need to treat this tank but don't know what to use and don't really trust the LFS.
 
I'm definitely doing the QT for quite a while. What's up with the bulging eye? It looks really bad :(

What do you guys think about the Marine-Max that I put in the tank. Is there something else I should be putting in there given the symptoms I have described?

Help is really appreciated because as I said, I don't really trust the LFS.
 
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