Flame hawk eating question

[Tremolo]

I noticed today when feeding my tank that my flame hawk stopped eating mysis shrimp. That used to be all he would eat. I mix feed the tank with mysis and prime reef flake food and after putting in the mysis he just kinda sat there looking around. When i put in the flakes he took off like a mad man. Is it ok if he only eats flakes?? I thought that they should eat a variety of food.
By the way he looks very healthy.


Thanks

Vince

[Tremolo]

no one knows whats going on with him or if it is normal.

[Melody]

You are correct, they do need a wide variety of foods to keep them healthy. Get some frozen shrimp from your grocery, uncooked & unseasoned. Cut it up into tiny bits while still frozen (easier). Add it to the tank and the hawk will love it. Also, try some scallop, clams...ect, just basically seafood. Eventually the hawk will be eating everything like a pig.

Flakes are ok every now and then but definitely not a staple food. Good luck with your flame, they're the coolest little fish. :)

[KyleP]

Be careful with any reef shrimp you may put in you tank. There is a high probability your hawk will kill any you put in.

[Tremolo]

well he used to eat the bristle(sp?) worms when I first got him but now he leaves them alone... I added 10 scarlet hermits and he has left them alone too. I still don't get why he stopped eating the mysis shrimp. I do ever once in a while throw a small peices of raw shrimp from the grocery store in for the nassarius snails because I don't think they eat enough and he will not touch it. Maybe I need to just stop the flake food until he starts eating right again. Kind of force feed it if there is nothing else there...but then again he might start eating my scarlet hermits.

[Melody]

LOL...You never can tell about hawks.

I've had mine 5 yrs and she's never bothered inverts, with the exception being, cleaner & peppermint shrimp. That was an expen$ive lesson learned. I did see her hit a bristleworm several yrs ago and had those bristles stuck all around her mouth. I never saw her bother another.:D If I pick up a coral or rock and they are squirming around she'll run to look but not touch. I keep a count of my scarlets and their numbers haven't decreased. That's not to say hawks won't eat them but it hasn't happened IME. Yours may decide to sample the scarlets (let's hope not). They all have different quirks.

About the food: Have you tried soaking food in garlic juice to stimulate the hawks appetite? Sometimes this help.

However, I believe once it gets hungry enough, then it'll accept most anything, that was our situation in the beginning. Now anything hits the water she's off and running.