white banded possum wrasse wont eat

[mndfreeze]

I got him about 3 days ago. I had the store feed him in front of me so I could be sure he ate and he did. They used the hakari mixed food that has like a bit of everything. I saw him eat the bloodworms out of it.

I have since tried custom made flake that has spirulina, mysis, brine, algae and some other stuff in it.

Various pellets.

Bloodworms both by themselves and mixed in with some other reef frozen food.

Reef stew (live locally made stuff of multiple copepods, 4 phytoplanktons, and brine shrimp)

I haven't seen him eat once. He chases food around as my pumps move it, but just eyeballs it and never eats it. I see him hover around the rocks nonstop eyeballing it, but never picks anything off it.

How many more days until I need to worry about him? I know he's new to the tank and all, but I've never had a fish not eat before.

 

[Cliving1]

What else is in the tank? My possum is a super slow and deliberate eater. I can watch him/her eyeing a piece for 10 seconds before it makes a move. It may be a good idea to kill the pumps so it can track the food in the water

 

[kizanne]

Have you tried hakari mixed food? If he ate that at the store....

Do you have any large agressive fish like a tang that maybe scaring him?

Most fish you can tell when to worry cause they get skinny or skeletal. Though I always worry from day 1 until they start eating and/or looking fat.

 

[Trigger Tough]

Try LRS or Rods Foods soaked in a garlic additive

 

[suta4242]

If he has problems chasing the food then turn down the wavemakers during feeding. With substrate pickers it can take some practise before they become adept at chasing down food in the water column. HTH.

:wave:

 

[joecc]

Do any of your LFS's carry live black worms?

 

[mndfreeze]

So this is a 24G aquapod AIO tank. Its more of an invert focus'd tank (eventually) and the only other livestock at this point is

Juvie Blue spotted yellow watchman goby and Juvie tiger pistol. Fish is about 1 1/2 inch and the pistol is about an inch.

Fire shrimp.

Red reef hermits, blue legged hermits, one left handed hermit. All small still. Not close to full grown and they are small even then.

A few frags of various SPS, a small hammer frag, some pavona and leptoseris.

I do turn the flow off when I feed. I've also tried keeping just my nano korellia on but turning off the pumps and skimmer just so there is still a tiny bit of flow in the tank.

The reef frozen food I mentioned was a mixed like the hakari, just a different brand. The stores near me don't seem to carry the hakari mixed for some reason or its named different. Also because I have such limited livestock and tiny fish, where as the LFS was using a big mix of everything for all sizes of fish, it seems wasteful and bad for my wate quality to be throwing stuff in nothing in my tank can eat except my CUC.

Im hoping he is just eating stuff when I'm not in the room and he can't see me. Seems like any time I go near the tank he gets skurred and hangs out in my rock. I can still see him just fine but he won't be out at the glass or anything unless I'm no where near the tank. Even when I've tried to be sneaky watching him from around the corner I never see him actually eat anything though.

I'll track down some rods food and try that next. I'm not sure if any stores carry love black or blood worms but I'll try to find out. I live in phoenix and we do have a LOT of LFS's here, but they all vary widely on what they carry and cater to it seems.

 

[Dean Ladd]

I have never keep a possum wrasse. Give it some time. I experienced this with a recent addition to my tank. I purchased a healthy Juv. Mimic Lemon Peel Tang from my LFS. While in my QT it refused to eat for a week. I tried every food I could think of. I even tried Seachem Garlic Guard nothing worked. I went out of town for 3 days and just decided by the time I returned it would be hungry enough to eat. Sure enough it eats like a pig now. Patience!

 

[mndfreeze]

I can't decide (or can't make myself) on if I should stop trying to feed completely or not. My watchman never comes out of his hole now since adding the wrasse, and the wrasse is always going up and down in the corner of the forward part of the tank like he's trying to swim out of it lol. (there is a glass cover so he can't jump at least).

I've been putting food in every day. I just did a 10% water change this morning as well. I don't see skeleton or anything on him but I can't tell very well on these juvenile smaller fish if they are skinny or normal. Definitely not fat though.


Once my work week is over and my paycheck hits I'm going to go buy a few different additional foods and additives. The tank he was in at the LFS had a bunch of other same sized fish in it and they all went crazy for the mixed food. I guess I should plan on just super over feeding for a while until I figure out what it is he wants to eat.

 

[norfolkgarden]

I can't decide (or can't make myself) on if I should stop trying to feed completely or not. My watchman never comes out of his hole now since adding the wrasse, and the wrasse is always going up and down in the corner of the forward part of the tank like he's trying to swim out of it lol. (there is a glass cover so he can't jump at least).

I've been putting food in every day. I just did a 10% water change this morning as well. I don't see skeleton or anything on him but I can't tell very well on these juvenile smaller fish if they are skinny or normal. Definitely not fat though.


Once my work week is over and my paycheck hits I'm going to go buy a few different additional foods and additives. The tank he was in at the LFS had a bunch of other same sized fish in it and they all went crazy for the mixed food. I guess I should plan on just super over feeding for a while until I figure out what it is he wants to eat.

Love this wrasse. Never kept one. Good luck and keep us updated.

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[nereefpat]

Live brine would be another thing to try.

Call around and see if you can find some. It may be at a freshwater store.

 

[mndfreeze]

I've already tried live brine. First thing I got was reef stew which is locally made live brine shrimp, copepods of variouis species, and 4 types of phytoplankton.

 

[norfolkgarden]

I've already tried live brine. First thing I got was reef stew which is locally made live brine shrimp, copepods of variouis species, and 4 types of phytoplankton.

Nice!

Are the bugs all still swimming around or is it a frozen product?

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[mndfreeze]

Reef stew is all live everything. Its cultured by a local who sells it to all our fish stores. Most of the pods have died out at this point, the tank was crawling with them at first.

The stores were pretty low on it when I got some a few days ago, which generally means a lot of the stuff in it is dying out. If they have restocked with fresh stuff I'll probably get another cup and try again. I only have the 2 small fish in this tank though so its definitely overkill getting a bunch of reef stew for it, but if thats what it takes to get this damn wrasse to eat lolol.

I'm having a hard time telling if he is 'skinny' or not. I'm sure he is finding little pods and stuff here and there but the tank is pretty new so even with my seeding life into it, its not long time established or anything and I know he'll starve eventually if I can;'t get him to take normal food.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Reef stew is all live everything. Its cultured by a local who sells it to all our fish stores. Most of the pods have died out at this point,

I'm having a hard time telling if he is 'skinny' or not. I'm sure he is finding little pods and stuff here and there but the tank is pretty new so even with my seeding life into it, its not long time established or anything and I know he'll starve eventually if I can;'t get him to take normal food.

If the top of the head has a 'neck' behind it you need to get it to eat something soon.
Fish should never look like they have a neck.

You can see it in starved anthias easily.

Whenever determining if any of your new fish are fat or just good, look at the top of the body. The belly can be full (finally!) and that is a good thing!
But the fish has not finished recovering all of it's proper weight until the top of the body is also plump.

Learned this from someone talking about going on youtube and looking at tabgs in the wild.
Vs tangs you see first brought into a tank environment.

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[mndfreeze]

ok thanks. I've seen starved yellow tangs where you can literally see their stomach area caved in and stuff, and he isn't bad like that or anything, but I wasn't sure if I needed to look near his anal fin or stomach or head or what. This is my first wrasse as is.

Thanks! If anyone has any good videos/resources they can link that'd be awesome too. A little visual representation goes a long way. I assume its mostly the same for most fish? Like a starved anthia is similar to a starved wrasse or whatever?

 

[Bret61081]

Mine hunts pods most of the time...rarely comes out at feeding time. I wouldnt worry about it unless you start seeing it get skinny. You may want to add some pods though. That will give it something to hunt!

 

[mndfreeze]

Yeah, he still looks healthy based on what you guys said about where to look at his fat stores n stuff. He has started picking around the tank now. I've seen him follow my hermit crabs around as they dig in the substrate, eyeballing them sideways, then picks stuff out of the mess they make. Its pretty comical.

He is still scared of me mostly, hides in the rocks when I get near the tank most of the time. He does act hungry when I put food in the tank and does chase bits around but never really eats it.

I've switched to an every other day feeding schedule and that seems to have helped some. I also took went back to using the mixed frozen food, then I add a little flake to it and some dried bloodworms, though I dont think he ever eats the bloodworms, at least not when I'm looking.

He also doesn't sleep the entire night like my other fish does. He stucks himself into a tight little nook of a rock, sleeps half the night, then wakes up and hunts around the tank then goes back to bed. I guess he likes midnight snacks?

Hopefully at some point I'll actually get him obviously eating the food I'm putting in. Right now I feel like I'm playing a guessing game and over feeding to compensate.

I don't really have much of an amphipod population yet. Did have lots of copepods but they mostly disappeared. I probably should find a way to get some more.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Yeah, he still looks healthy based on what you guys said about where to look at his fat stores n stuff. He has started picking around the tank now. I've seen him follow my hermit crabs around as they dig in the substrate, eyeballing them sideways, then picks stuff out of the mess they make. Its pretty comical.

He is still scared of me mostly, hides in the rocks when I get near the tank most of the time. He does act hungry when I put food in the tank and does chase bits around but never really eats it.

I've switched to an every other day feeding schedule and that seems to have helped some. I also took went back to using the mixed frozen food, then I add a little flake to it and some dried bloodworms, though I dont think he ever eats the bloodworms, at least not when I'm looking.

He also doesn't sleep the entire night like my other fish does. He stucks himself into a tight little nook of a rock, sleeps half the night, then wakes up and hunts around the tank then goes back to bed. I guess he likes midnight snacks?

Hopefully at some point I'll actually get him obviously eating the food I'm putting in. Right now I feel like I'm playing a guessing game and over feeding to compensate.

I don't really have much of an amphipod population yet. Did have lots of copepods but they mostly disappeared. I probably should find a way to get some more.

Glad it is still doing well.

You may want to start a 5 gallon pod tank.
Pods get expensive from the store and they are easy to maintain.

I think the possum wrasse is mostly nocturnal?

Glad it is doing well.

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[mndfreeze]

Mine is definitely not mostly nocturnal. He seems to sleep in segments throughout the day and night, but definitely awake more during the day with like a 2 hours disappearance nap time in the middle of my light cycle.

I saw him try to suck down a brine shrimp yesterday bit then he just spit it back out. That was the first actual food I've SEEN him try to take. I already ordered more pods to seed again with plan on picking up some reef stew again tomorrow.