Video of Chaetodon baronessa eating fresh mussels

[suta4242]

Hope this isn't against the rules, but this is a video posted by a local store on their FB page. Go to videos, it will be there.

As an aside the shop can only sell to locals, its illegal for them to export.

The fish seems to be eating vigorously...:eek1: not bad for an obligate corallivore. Unsure of long term success though.

https://www.facebook.com/hurstvilleaquarium/

 

[Dmorty217]

Thats somewhat encouraging. The fish will never survive long term on only mussels or clams though. They should try smashing New Life Spectrum pellets enriched in selcon in with the mussel and see if the butterfly will ingest the smashed pellets

 

[suta4242]

I think it was already eating pellets as I've seen this species before come in from an importer eating pellets, but haven't sustained the fish. My own view is that getting some of these guys to eat clam etc... is not that hard, but perhaps there is something in coral possibly aiding digestion that's absent in things like pellets, scallops, calimari etc... certain species when fresh are very easy to get eating eg Chaetodon plebius. The problem is they don't seem to get enough nutrition, despite eating voraciously several times a day. About six to eight months later you have a fish that's emaciated without muscle mass, but always has a fat stomach. Its not an internal worming problem IME, but possibly lack of appropriate bacteria etc to process this food in long intestinal tracts that can exceed those of tangs.