I bought a barbouri from a fish store who had it for about a month. It was eating a bit at the fish store so I picked him up. But he hasn't been eating in my tank and I've had him for a couple of days now. He'll stare at the mysis but won't go for it. Any tips on getting this guy to eat frozen mysis? (I may have to buy some ghost shrimps if he's still not eating).
Tips on getting a wild caught to eat frozen mysis
- Thread starter BuddaMonk
- Start date
sugartooth
Reef bully
A couple of tips that have worked for me:
- try different sizes of mysis. PE is large and Hikari is smaller, that may help if he's hesitating.
- After initial feeding, blow the food using a baster about every 10 minutes to induce interest again.
- If he absolutely won't eat frozen, load him up with live at first. Then offer freshly killed shrimp until he snaps them up without hesitation. Slowly add in frozen and wean him onto frozen.
Without a doubt, he needs to eat constantly. So, if you try to starve him a little to get him to switch over, I wouldn't starve him for more than 1-2 days.
Good luck!
- try different sizes of mysis. PE is large and Hikari is smaller, that may help if he's hesitating.
- After initial feeding, blow the food using a baster about every 10 minutes to induce interest again.
- If he absolutely won't eat frozen, load him up with live at first. Then offer freshly killed shrimp until he snaps them up without hesitation. Slowly add in frozen and wean him onto frozen.
Without a doubt, he needs to eat constantly. So, if you try to starve him a little to get him to switch over, I wouldn't starve him for more than 1-2 days.
Good luck!
ann83
New member
I'd get him eating now, even if it takes live shrimp. De-worm him (which you need live shrimp to do anyway), and then start training him to frozen. He shouldn't go more than 4 days without food (it could be deadly), so get him fattened up a bit and used to being full all the time before you try to train him to frozen. Then, when you train, you can feed him frozen in the morning (using the tips sugartooth suggested) and live at night for a few days... if that doesn't work, get him fattened up on live again and try going a day without food and then feed frozen, but like sugartooth said, don't let him go more than a day or two without a good couple days of eating.
Also, do you have him in a bare bottom quarantine tank? If you don't, you'll want to put him in one because it will make it easier to see what he is eating (and what he is pooping), it will prevent him from turning up his nose at mysis to hunt copepods (which won't be a sustainable source of food anyway), and it will allow you to deworm him without killing any inverts you have in your display.
Also, do you have him in a bare bottom quarantine tank? If you don't, you'll want to put him in one because it will make it easier to see what he is eating (and what he is pooping), it will prevent him from turning up his nose at mysis to hunt copepods (which won't be a sustainable source of food anyway), and it will allow you to deworm him without killing any inverts you have in your display.
Thanks for all the tips! I've been using Hikari but I can pickup PE too. I turn the pumps off when I'm feeding him so that the food doesn't float away from him, but once it lands onto the bottom, he loses interest again so I turn the pumps back on and the food flys away.
I'm thinking about putting him into a breeder's net to decrease his surrounding and therefore he'll be able to locate the food more easily. (that's the technic I used when I had lionfish).
I'll definitely pickup some ghost shrimps after work.
I'm thinking about putting him into a breeder's net to decrease his surrounding and therefore he'll be able to locate the food more easily. (that's the technic I used when I had lionfish).
I'll definitely pickup some ghost shrimps after work.
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