what will tiny / young neon gobies eat?

[CTaylor]

Hi,
I just got two sharknose gobies (just like neon, but with yellow head). They are about 2/3", TINY!. I'm a little not happy with the tiny size from LA, but they are healthy. But they will not eat what I offer. I tried crushed up rod's reef food, and tiny frozen hikari mysis. The also new red neon gobies I got munch up the frozen mysis. The reds are tiny, but still 3x the mass of the sharknoses! lol.

One of the sharknoses attempts to eat the hikari, but spits it out. I know I have lots of pods in the tank, but the sharknoses are not fattened, though not emmaciated either. The only fish in the tank are the 4 reds and the 2 sharknoses. It was a seahorse tank (they died a few months ago, I kept the tank going). I see pods in the tank, and I'm sure they are populated in my 'fuge filled with chaeto. I do not want to grow baby brine shrimp. It will break my stress level right now to add something else to be responsible for
BTW I have adult sharknoses in my main reef, and they eat whatever!

Please advise
TY

 

[CTaylor]

^ . Now they just ignore everything, they won't even try to eat something and spit it out. They are getting skinnier. But they look healthy. Should I get a bottle of pods? I'm sure the tank has a ton, though. The little red neon, though, gobies literally eat everything lol.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Try the tiny New Life Spectrum pellets.

 

[pisanoal]

You could try a "fresh" baby brine shrimp, like Instant Baby Brine Shrimp that come in a jar. If that doesnt work, baby shrimp are incredibly easy to hatch. Im right there with you on not wanting to add responsibility and i dont mind hatching baby brine. If thats all they eat, then you should be able to quickly transition them to the instant baby brine using the live.

Literally just put some brine shrimp eggs in salt water at room temp and very lightly aerate. Baby brine in 24hrs.

 

[CTaylor]

You could try a "fresh" baby brine shrimp, like Instant Baby Brine Shrimp that come in a jar. If that doesnt work, baby shrimp are incredibly easy to hatch. Im right there with you on not wanting to add responsibility and i dont mind hatching baby brine. If thats all they eat, then you should be able to quickly transition them to the instant baby brine using the live.

Literally just put some brine shrimp eggs in salt water at room temp and very lightly aerate. Baby brine in 24hrs.

Thank you for that. I was probably going to make that too complicated with the bs hatchery I have -- when I tried to raise baby sea horses (TRIED ). It makes sense to make that more simple though just mix it up and boom add airstone.
**But it looks like at least one of them is getting weened onto frozen hikari mysis. Coincidentally it happened after I added a pair of yellow lined neon gobies. The next day I saw the smallest of the sharknoses swallow a mysis. HAppy day lol. I still see the other one (slightly bigger) just spit it out. But I think it will get there also. There must be enough pods in the tank now since neither is emmaciated. Just skinny. And side note, after adding the yellow lines, the two sharknoses when from agressor/agressee to a pair :-D

TY!

Edit.. actually the the one snose is still agressive, maybe little less.. and the one that ate a mysis spits them out again.. but he tried a LOT of them now, rather than just a few sometimes

 

[CTaylor]

update. I fed them once every few days with pods I got from LFS. It was a pretty dense populated bottle of pods btw. That was after I seeded the tank and the 'fuge with them. They now eat small mysis and other tiny sized foods. Often spitting it out still, but often swalloing also . It's been 7 weeks, so they must be getting nutrition somehow with the bit of food they swallow and the pods in tank I guess! they are still skinny but not quite concave