Purple dottybacks: what do they eat?

[vessxpress1]

I just got another dottyback after I lost the last one to disease brought in by a newcomer that didn't make it either. This one is exactly like the other one.

It's small and a very picky eater. I have many different types of food but so far, all I've gotten it to eat is frozen brine shrimp and prime reef flakes. It doesn't really care for the flakes. Just wondering if anybody else out there has one and what you've found that they like to eat. It puts it's nose up to mysis shrimp. I'll have to try squid tomorrow. Search on this brought up nothing.

 

[vessxpress1]

Man, nobody has any ideas? Nobody else has one of these? This guy's still being picky. I don't know if he's eating things in the tank or what but it put it's nose up to the prime reef flakes today. Then I tried mysis and it ate one mysis shrimp, wouldn't touch the rest. Plankton, no. Cyclopeeze, no. He seems to be very healthy. Good color, and swims around a lot. The last one I had ate like it was starving every day. I can't just feed it brine shrimp.

 

[EdKruzel]

That species will eat just about anything meaty that will fit in their mouth.
Usually they eat soon after introduction to their new home, however some specimens need a day or two to acclimate.

Ed

 

[dirtyreefer]

Ya IME they're more "meat eaters" than anything

 

[ACBlinky]

My neon eats frozen foods, pellets, and anything with ten legs and an exoskeleton . Give your dotty a few days. Once he's settled in I'm willing to bed he'll take anything meaty; they're not picky fish IME.

 

[spoiledcats]

Are you talking about the orchid dottyback? If so, then mine definitely loves the frozen brine. It also eats the mysis, but doesn't seem to love the plankton. It's pretty fat, so it must be getting enough. I often wonder if it eats the pods in my tank at night. I don't know if they hunt at night, but he always seems to have a full belly. Unless that's just the way they look.