How to intiate feeding

[jonathansruelas]

HEY everyone I just got a purple tang and lawnmower blenny, currently in my 55 G QT. So far thy aren't eating. I tried mysis, pellets, and formula 2 flakes... What could i do to get them to eat? It's been 1 and a half days.. Am i worrying too much? :sad1:

Please give me your advice.

[MaxxedMan]

Nori?

[Denbf58]

dry sea weed sheets soaked with garlic

[Psirex]

feed nori and add garlic supp to tank (will stimulate appetite)

[tylersarah]

My fish usually eat after day 3, just keep it dark in the qt so they can get over their shyness.

[Shoryureppa]

Let them settle in, Then will live quite a bit without eating. Imagine being put in a bag and shaken up for a while. Those fish are not hard to feed. Just give them time :D

[jonathansruelas]

Well the nori with garlic didn't work .. :/ .. The lawnmower bleny just stays there in his PVC but the purple tang is swimming and seems good. I did a water change and added carbon to take out some of the prazi pro I added..

[hollister]

Many fish are omnivores and like meat and veggie. I feed flake in the morning and frozen mysis shrimp at night. No more then they can eat in 2 min.

The tang would like nori so placing some on a clip 1 time weekly would be plenty. And a few pellets a month would be more then enough. Over feeding very unwanted , and a well balanced diet are important.

[jonathansruelas]

Yea I know what they eat, I'm just trying to get them to start eating . I tried in the morning but again no cigar. I put a couple drops of garlic hopefully they start eating soon :(

[Dr Colliebreath]

Keep soaking all of the food in garlic. Try rubberbanding the nori to a piece of rock so it looks more natural. Try Rod's food also. I wouldn't worry unless they don't eat for more than a week.

[sporto0]

3 simple words, Live Brine Shrimp. However I do agree they probably just need time to acclimate, if they truly won't eat, live brine will work far better than garlic soaked foods, I have found in my experience that if the fish won't eat brine shrimp, they do not make it in captivity, once they begin eating, they usually will eat whatever you feed them.

[joekidwell]

Give it time, they will eat when they want to.

[jonathansruelas]

3 simple words, Live Brine Shrimp. However I do agree they probably just need time to acclimate, if they truly won't eat, live brine will work far better than garlic soaked foods, I have found in my experience that if the fish won't eat brine shrimp, they do not make it in captivity, once they begin eating, they usually will eat whatever you feed them.

Ok so I tried the live brine shrimp and still neither fish ate a single one... :(. I don't know what to do... I will keep trying tomorrow , I haven't tried the nori on a rock but we'll see. I bought them tuesday morning around 10 am they were in QT tomorrow will be a full 3 day so hopefully they don't reach that whole 7 days

[jonathansruelas]

TTt

[doctormario777]

How does garlic stimulate their appetites?

[jonathansruelas]

5 days now :(

[jerpa]

I've had fish take a whole week to eat. If you are still medicating you should stop as it can suppress their appetite. Most wait until the fish is eating before starting any treatment. Are you siphoning out all the un-eaten food? My kole tang wouldn't touch anything for the first week. I started leaving pellets on the bottom and it started picking at them. I didn't actually see the fish eat for several weeks. After I transferred him to the DT he quit eating for a week again.

[Shellyfish]

My Naso tang took 7 days, I got him to eat by cutting Nori up into small squares, then he could grab them as they floated by. He now is a huge pig :)

[jonathansruelas]

I've had fish take a whole week to eat. If you are still medicating you should stop as it can suppress their appetite. Most wait until the fish is eating before starting any treatment. Are you siphoning out all the un-eaten food? My kole tang wouldn't touch anything for the first week. I started leaving pellets on the bottom and it started picking at them. I didn't actually see the fish eat for several weeks. After I transferred him to the DT he quit eating for a week again.

I hope what happened with your kole happens to my purple tang.. That's a goo idea I'm going to leave some pellets in there bc I been siphoning all the unearth foo bc I didn't want nitrites to flare up or anything..

I'm going to try cut up nori tomorrow.. Both fish dont even awknoledge the food, I seen some fish at least get a bite and spit it out, but these guys don't even awknoledge its passing in front of their faces

[00Warpig00]

Just a few random thoughts/questions... are they hiding from you when you go near the tank too? You mention you are vacuuming out un eaten food. How often are you going into the tank? If they are very skittish and you keep going into the tank with a big scary vacuum you may be prolonging their hunger strike. They may still be VERY scared, and it seems a scared fish is a fish that won't eat. Is your QT cycled? if so I would ignore uneaten food and let your filter do it's job for now at least until after you get a meal or two into them. Do an ammonia test every other day or so taking the test water out of the tank when the lights are off and the fish are hiding anyway. be minimally invasive. I have a fish that wouldnt eat because he was scared imo. I would pull my ammonia test water out with an eyedropper when lights were out and the fish was already hiding as to not scare him into hiding. Even better put an ammonia badge in the tank but try to stay out of the tank as much as possible I literally would only open the lid to feed. Dont worry about nitrite/nitrate for now worry about ammonia and letting the fish get comfortable and getting a meal into them. I have a 29 gal QT tank running as we speak that has two sizeable Krill rotting in it and it shows 0 ammonia. (no fish, just keeping bacteria busy for my next fish) My point is. your filter is your friend if your QT tank is cycled.

Nick

[jonathansruelas]

Hey warpig.. My purple tang seems fine in terms of stress, when I go by the tank he's swimming within the current of the powerhead and doesn't get shy when I Stand there and watch him. The blenny just chills all day going from rock to rock..
I had put a couple rocks from my DT into the QT so it could help with the waste of the fish b4 I put the fish inside..
As for siphoning out the food I only did it twice when I did water changes.. I only did one of the water changes at night . A far as feeding I don't stick my hand either I only put it by water flow of the filter so it can be distributed throughout the tank

[jonathansruelas]

They are skittish when I do sudden unexpected movements toward the tank but that's the same for my DT and my Cichlid tank .

[jonathansruelas]

Dang it! Should I just accept that they won't make it? Its been 6 and a half days and still no bites from either the blenny or purple tang, damn it sucks . I always wondered why fish ignore the basic need of survival by not eating. :(
I understand the first initial days are very stressful and can see why they won't eat for a couple days but I would think they their basic instincts of suvival will take over realize if they don't eat they will die..

[hollister]

Regular marine flake food and frozen brine shrimp.If they dont eat this then theres another problem.

Whats used for water flow in the 150 gallon?

[hscoert]

dry sea weed sheets soaked with garlic

thats what I do with all of mine

[00Warpig00]

Hey warpig.. My purple tang seems fine in terms of stress, when I go by the tank he's swimming within the current of the powerhead and doesn't get shy when I Stand there and watch him. The blenny just chills all day going from rock to rock..
I had put a couple rocks from my DT into the QT so it could help with the waste of the fish b4 I put the fish inside..
As for siphoning out the food I only did it twice when I did water changes.. I only did one of the water changes at night . A far as feeding I don't stick my hand either I only put it by water flow of the filter so it can be distributed throughout the tank

Doesnt sound like your Purple is near as skittish as my Yellow Belly Hippo Tang. Thats good. just wanted to put the idea out there that sometimes people are too worried about how "clean" everything is even sometimes to the point that they spend so much time cleaning things and with their arms in the QT tank that it could scare a very timid fish away from eating even longer. Just one more reason I use a cycled QT tank. I dont have to worry as much about being in the tank for housekeeping (ammonia) and can allow the fish to settle in. If you saw the fish eat at the LFS it should only be a matter of time before it gets hungry enough to eat. Keep trying different foods.

a couple more questions? When you feed the tank do they keep swimming around? or do they hide. If they stay out are they tasting food and spitting it out? or not touching any of it? If hiding maybe they are shy of you watching them eat. Sounds strange and it's hard to know if they are eating if you feed the tank and leave. Do you have a webcam or a way to monitor them if you were to feed the tank and then immediately go away to let them do their thing? If they are spitting it out they want to eat but it sounds like you have not found what they like yet.


Nick

[00Warpig00]

I also would try some Rod's food. It's a mix of everything a fish could want to eat. This way he can pick and choose the morsels he might like. It's pricey but worth a try. much less expensive than a Purple Tang ;) .Get a small bag of it. Try NLS too. I was surprised how much my Hippo Tang likes NLS. My Hippo was shy about eating at first too. he actually prefers NLS pellet over Nori. I am convinced that spending money on different types of food is NEVER a waste. Always good to have a great variety around. I probably have 8-10 different foods here right now.

Nick

[jonathansruelas]

Thanks nick for the help. Well when I feed them the purple tang keeps swimming around but ignores the food I only seen him once pick at nlis pellets when they were on the floor but he didn't eat it.. The blenny hardly ever swims, but every time I go the qt he's in a different place. I have not tried rod's yet. I might try that out. Is it only available online? My lfs doesn't have any .
As far as watching them eat I guess I could do that a little bit more but I do leave nori sheets rubber banded to a rock so he can eat when ever he wants.

[Dr Colliebreath]

Continue trying live brine, mysis and the nori on the rock soaked in garlic. As said above, if they won't eat live brine, they probably aren't going to make it.

Assuming you don't have an ammonia problem, the fish can go quite a while longer without eating so keep at it.

You pulled the PraziPro with water changes and carbon, and you don't have any other meds in the tank, right?

Keep any tank lights off and just use ambient light from the room.

[Dr Colliebreath]

3 simple words, Live Brine Shrimp. However I do agree they probably just need time to acclimate, if they truly won't eat, live brine will work far better than garlic soaked foods, I have found in my experience that if the fish won't eat brine shrimp, they do not make it in captivity, once they begin eating, they usually will eat whatever you feed them.

Agree.

[Dr Colliebreath]

How does garlic stimulate their appetites?

I am not sure but I guess it creates a scent that is similar to something they like to eat or occurs when or where they eat. Also, it probably enhances whatever taste the food has so they keep eating once they try a bite (this could be part taste and part scent).

[00Warpig00]

Continue trying live brine, mysis and the nori on the rock soaked in garlic. As said above, if they won't eat live brine, they probably aren't going to make it.

Assuming you don't have an ammonia problem, the fish can go quite a while longer without eating so keep at it.

You pulled the PraziPro with water changes and carbon, and you don't have any other meds in the tank, right?

Keep any tank lights off and just use ambient light from the room.

^-- +1

Thanks nick for the help. Well when I feed them the purple tang keeps swimming around but ignores the food I only seen him once pick at nlis pellets when they were on the floor but he didn't eat it.. The blenny hardly ever swims, but every time I go the qt he's in a different place. I have not tried rod's yet. I might try that out. Is it only available online? My lfs doesn't have any .
As far as watching them eat I guess I could do that a little bit more but I do leave nori sheets rubber banded to a rock so he can eat when ever he wants.

If you have anyone local to you like reef club members etc. you could probably ask one of them for a small bit of rods food. I'm sure most would be happy to give you a small bit of it, doesnt take much to feed two fish and you would know if they like it.

Keep at it. Dont give up!

Nick

[Dr Colliebreath]

It is odd that both fish have stayed on a hunger strike this long. Leave 4-5 NLS pellets on the bottom of the tank for a couple of hours in case they will eat when you aren't around.

Do the fish have a place to hide? I like to use a couple of pieces of pvc tubing (a 3" T and a 4" elbow provide good places to hide). You also might try covering 3 sides of the QT (taping dark pieces of construction paper on the sides will suffice).

Are you sure there are not white spots on either of the fish or are they breathing heavily or quickly? Do you see anything on their gills?

Is the tang spending a lot of time swimming into the flow of the powerhead (which might indicate trouble getting enough oxygen).

[Cstaricansrfer1]

Before you
Give up, throw 6 green chromis in there. I had a kole
Tang That I about gave up on. They act as "dither fish" to encourage them to eat. 5 minutes after I threw them in I fed pellets and my tang went right up and gobbled
It down. Before that he wouldn't come out
Of the rocks for anything.

[00Warpig00]

Before you
Give up, throw 6 green chromis in there. I had a kole
Tang That I about gave up on. They act as "dither fish" to encourage them to eat. 5 minutes after I threw them in I fed pellets and my tang went right up and gobbled
It down. Before that he wouldn't come out
Of the rocks for anything.


My YB Hippo Tang was extremely skittish and spent much of his time hiding while in QT. By the second day of being in the big tank with the other fish he was a completely different fish.

Nick

[Cstaricansrfer1]

My YB Hippo Tang was extremely skittish and spent much of his time hiding while in QT. By the second day of being in the big tank with the other fish he was a completely different fish.

Nick

I was amazed on how instantly my tang's personality changed. When I threw the chromis in there, he was instantly competing with them for food.
Before that, I had tried everything with garlic and rods and it was a week or two since I had watched him eat. I thought he was a gonner.

[maroun.c]

Some have had good luck with Entice for finicky fish added. you can never tell if it was the entice added to the food that pushed the fish to eat or if it was just ready to eat by the time they tried it...
Some finicky fish are more prone to eat blackworms, they have to be soaked in vitamins as they have little nutritional value. Tehn you start adding some mysie to them to get the fish to eat that.

[jonathansruelas]

Thanks guys for all the advice . So I got an update..
The lawnmower blenny didn't make it , he died yesterday .
As for the purple tang I had some success! I would leave nori sheets rubberbanded to a rock and when I would get home from work I would notice it would be gone so I kept doing that and soaked the sheets with garlic . He is only eating nori, I keep trying other things but still no bites. I haven't noticed any ich signs but im going to keep him in QT for another 2 weeks and use copper o make sure he has no ich.. with the nori he doesn't take big pieces he just nibbles on it like a rabbit eating lettuce

[00Warpig00]

Sorry about your blenny, but it sounds like your tang is coming around. that's great to hear.

Nick

[jonathansruelas]

Thanks for the help nick. Yea the purple tang was alot more expensive than the blenny he cost me a 3rd of what I got my whole tank set up for lol. The purple tang also doesn't like to eat when I'm directly looking at him, so I pretend to look at something else and in the corner of my eye I see him look at me then eat some nori. :/

[Dr Colliebreath]

The purple will become a bolder eater over time. It probably hasn't had too many people watch it eat during its life. Maybe it was eating when it was caught.

[00Warpig00]

Thanks for the help nick. Yea the purple tang was alot more expensive than the blenny he cost me a 3rd of what I got my whole tank set up for lol. The purple tang also doesn't like to eat when I'm directly looking at him, so I pretend to look at something else and in the corner of my eye I see him look at me then eat some nori. :/

My YB Hippo did the exact same thing. Would refuse to eat if I was looking at him. if i was looking away he was fine. If i turned my head and looked at him he would hide. Thats when i started watching him eat through my webcam that is on my QT tank. I would feed the tank and log into the webcam and make sure he was eating. Kinda comical really but I guess from his point of view I can understand him being afraid of a big ugly man staring at him lol.

Nick

[jonathansruelas]

Haha yea sounds like mine.
I just got even luckier ! I fed the purple tang spiraling flakes an he ate !!! :)
Then I put some nls pellets and he ate :). Makes me happy!!
I got a spotted hawkfish and put into qt but the purple tang was really territorial when I put him in, so I put him in a plastic jar inside the tank so the tang can get us to him

[00Warpig00]

Haha yea sounds like mine.
I just got even luckier ! I fed the purple tang spiraling flakes an he ate !!! :)
Then I put some nls pellets and he ate :). Makes me happy!!


Sweet!