Rainfordi

I have a piece of oyster I bought last Friday.
Will unfreeze it and try to feed tomorrow.


one of them tried the pellet and spit it out again.


Bluezoo recommended live food.

I might try to hatch brine eggs from ebay if the oyster doesn't work.
 
Oyster has been ignored.

I have ordered brine shrimp eggs.

Are they really this hard to get eating?
Feels harder than meyeri and larvatus which will often at least eat clams.

Did bluezoo feed them something that is so delicious that they would rather starve for?

They arrived plump so they are still not skinny.

Should I tube feed?
 
Do you have plenty of pods in the tank they are in? They should be picking at those all day.

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Oyster has been ignored.

I have ordered brine shrimp eggs.

Are they really this hard to get eating?
Feels harder than meyeri and larvatus which will often at least eat clams.

Did bluezoo feed them something that is so delicious that they would rather starve for?

They arrived plump so they are still not skinny.

Should I tube feed?

Try the clam or oyster still alive. My rainfordi was difficult to get eating at first. They are not an easy fish.

Do you have any LRS frozen food? Try slightly thawing that out and then packing it in an empty clamshell. Then refreeze it and feed that to them.

I'm not concerned about the absence of pods, I quarantined a multibar and venustus Angels in barren quarantine tanks with no issues.

They key on the clams and oyster is that they are still alive/not been frozen.
 
Hi,

Yes, still have LRS which have been ignored after bits of it being tasted.

Will try unfrozen oyster.

I bought live clams and oyster but froze them to kill parasites.

I guess I will have to take that risk.
 
Caribfan,

did you ever buy another rainfordi?
I ask because its no longer on their website.

If you did, please let me know how you get him eating.
 
Still not eating.

The small one tried to clean the large one and then gets chased.

They signal to each other and occasionally chase. It seems like the small one taunts the big one and the other small one.

I am awaiting brine shrimp eggs.

Also, their fins became cloudy, so I dosed kanamycin and did a 90% water change. Another water change will be performed later today.
 
Juvenile butterflys often act as cleaners, both to other fish and to larger butterflys. Have watched this behaviour when they come in fresh from the importer / collector at the LFS.

Do they have parasites? Just that if they do, it can affect their appetite. Rainfords are usually not hard to get feeding, at least locally.

:wave:
 
their fins are a bit clody but I don't see any parasites per say. Have treated with antibacterial but it seems like they may have a bit of lympho.

What do you use to get them feeding? Please share.

I have tried mixed sea foods, clams, oyster, mysis and pellets.
 
Pacific oyster, live blackworms, finely shredded inner squid membrane.

If they're healthy you just need one to get really interested, then like similar fish it's monkey see monkey do. I'm wondering if yours haven't really recovered from shipping stress??? Maybe that has something to do with it.

HTH and GL
:wave:
 
Caribfan,

did you ever buy another rainfordi?
I ask because its no longer on their website.

If you did, please let me know how you get him eating.

Hello, I did not buy the other Rainfordi.

Do you have a skimmer on this tank? One of the best purchases I made for my QT was a little reef octopus skimmer. I didn't have any proof of it, but it seemed like the fish just did better with the skimmer on. I'm guessing higher DO.

It might make sense to separate these guys at this point. I've seen where fish will be so interested in chasing or scrapping with each other that they won't pay attention to food.

Clams and oyster will for sure cloud up the water. I'm not a huge fan of kanamyacin, I think that's what killed my Arabian that I worked so hard on.

If it was me, I'd stick with the clams or oyster. Feed it, and back away from the tank and see if they pick at it. I'd leave it in there for no more than 4 hours, especially without a skimmer.

Hope they eat soon.
 
Completely agree with Matt's comment. High water quality is really important IMO. That and disease management seem to affect their appetite.

:wave:
 
If I'm feeding a lot, I'll do small 20 or 30 percent water changes every day or every other day.

Water quality is tough to keep up with when you are feeding a lot of foods.
 
water is good.

I fed oyster and scallops.
No interest in either.

They just keep swimming around.

It seems like I need to get my brine shrimp tomorrow and hatch it.

Should I buy live small shrimps?
 
Had an ammonia spike in quarantine and 1 rainfordi died.

Changed 100% water. still not eating but very minimal weight loss.
I ordered a skimmer for the quarantine.

I also dropped brine shrimp eggs in the tank. Hopefully they will eat them when they hatch.

Bluezoo insist that they must be enticed to eat with live food first before they will eat.
 
Try herring or capelin eggs. That is what I used to get my baronessa butterfly eating. Just go to any Asian food store (or superstore), and buy whole female capelin and herring. Thaw them, cut open, and extract fresh eggs. They are fish crack.
 
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