Percula Puzzle?

[gridley]

My wife and I are quite new to the hobby. We have previously placed some Royal Grammas in the tank and they are doing very good. Last Fri we purchased a One Spot Foxface Rabbitfish and a pair of captive bred Perculas. The smaller of the perculas seem to not be eating. Other than appearing to not eat it seems to be doing fine - swimming as well as the other, no visable signs of illness. It does sometimes take food in its mouth but seems to spit it out. We are feeding frozen Brine Shrimp. The Foxface and large Percula are doing fine.

Ideas, suggestions????

Thanks

 

[rssjsb]

I would try some other foods, like frozen mysis, small pellets (New Life Spectrum is good) or even flake food to see if you can get your clown fish to eat. Frozen brine has almost no nutritional value. Ordinarily, fish gobble it up, so it's a good first food to try if you're trying to get a picky eater used to taking food out of the water column. But that's really it's only useful purpose. Since your clown isn't going for it anyway, you should move on to something more substantial.

It's a little disconcerting because clowns ordinarily will eat just about anything. But maybe he'll settle down and try something else. He may be eating pods or something in the tank in lieu of prepared foods.

I'm guessing you didn't quarantine your fish before adding them to the display. Not to lecture (because I didn't start out doing this either), but QT is valuable for a lot of reasons. In addition to making sure that a fish is healthy and won't introduce parasites or diseases to your tank, it's also easier to get a new fish eating (including trying different foods and even target feeding) in a small quarantine before introducing it to your display tank.

For now, you'll just have to try different things, watch, and wait.

 

[gridley]

Thanks for the reply. I will see if I can get time today to head to the LFS and pick up a different food. I should have been a bit more clear on my original post - and I did think about it - the new fish are all in the QT. I fed again this morninig and again he did take a few pieces in his mouth but spit them out. Maybe he just has a sophisticated taste . . .

 

[rssjsb]

Ok, good. Sorry for assuming otherwise.

Good luck.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Do you have hiding places in QT? PVC elbows or tees are good. It might help to relieve stress on the picky eater.

Do you prophylactically treat for any diseases? If you can't see any signs of Ich, velvet or brooklynella I'd be worried about internal parasites.

 

[rssjsb]

I agree - since they're in QT anyway, it's probably a good idea to give them a prophyllactic prazi pro treatment if you haven't already. Also, how big is your QT? That's kind of a lot of fish.

 

[woodnaquanut]

OMG! I double posted!! Sorry...

 

[MrTuskfish]

I don't think its panic time. True, most home grown clowns eat quickly, but there is always the exception and its nowhere near time to worry about any health issues from not eating. Good move with the QT; it can save the hobby for you.

 

[gridley]

Thanks for the replies - the QT is 20 gallon - I need to clarify - and I see that I wasn't clear in my first post - we have had the Royal Grammas for close to 2 months and have all been moved to the DT. I appreciate the thoughts here. I did go buy some Mysis (sp?) Shrimp after work and I think he took some. For the most part he sucked it in and spit it out, but he may have eaten two small pieces. At what point do I need to start the treatment that has been suggested?

Thanks

 

[rssjsb]

I would give it a few more days to see if you can get him eating. Prazipro is a great non-toxic wormer, but it is reported to have some appetite suppressing effects. (I've never had that happen, but it's worth noting here.)

Good to hear he may have taken some mysis. You may want to try something more mundane, like flakes or pellets, to see if he'll eat it. Fish are weird that way.