Clown Fish - Food

[chris348]

I am slowly pulling my hair out here..

Tried feeding the following:
Artemia
Krill Pacifica
Fine Cockles
Fine Mussels
Tropical Mix
Mysis

The clowns dont seem interested in any of them. I have even tried to lace the feed with fresh garlic, but still they wont eat. As a treat i fed them some live brineshrimp and they lapped it up, the whole tank did. So my question is, what is considered one of the best feeds out there.

 

[mr oscar]

try frozen brine shrimp in garlic, works every time

 

[Colin_T]

sounds like they might be wild caught clowns. Feed live brineshrimp each day for a couple of days then try frozen brineshrimp. If they take that then start adding other frozen foods. If they don't eat for a couple of days they won't starve so don't worry too much.

 

[chris348]

Brilliant guys, thanks for the info.

 

[SkiFletch]

agreed. They'll grow out of it eventually. Once you can ween them onto frozen brine, next start lacing the brine with garlic. Then they'll develop a taste for garlic. At which point you can lace those other foods with garlic and they'll eat those

 

[chris348]

Garlic crusher in hand !!!!

The missus is going nuts, kitchen smells like something from a French Film.

Your doing what? Feeding garlic to the fish? You sure they are not taking you for a ride

I told her, not to fret, we are in safe hands

Going to get some live shrimp this afternoon, as i have just ordered a few online. Take it from there.

If they were not eating well, would this make them start getting white spot?

 

[Colin_T]

fish not eating won't cause whitespot.
Whitespot is caused by stress, quite often a sudden drop in temperature or the introduction of an agressive fish. Poor water quality can bring it on as well but is much less common than the two other reasons.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yes, but wouldn't you be stressed if you were living on an empty stomach .

Malnourishment can lead to a comprimised immune system and thus the opening for diseases both in fish and in humans...

 

[chris348]

fish not eating won't cause whitespot.
Whitespot is caused by stress, quite often a sudden drop in temperature or the introduction of an agressive fish. Poor water quality can bring it on as well but is much less common than the two other reasons.

Can confirm that the water temps are solid and no fish have been introduced for a while now. Wanted to get the whole system settled down with what we have. Only water issues i have been having is the low PH, but managed to get it upto 8.2 over 2 days, only to find it is back to 7.8 ??? Just bought another Hydro to add to the water movement, intention is to have one pointing to the surface agitating, the other square onto the LR see if that creates some nice water movement.

The feeding issue is really a hard one. I have placed an order for some live brineshrimp and should be collecting tomorrow. Understand i should lace this with garlic, then attempt to feed frozen brineshrimp a few days later. Just want the little guys to get eating again.

 

[Colin_T]

no need to lace the live brineshrimp with garlic. It is too hard to do. Just try them on the live stuff and then lace the frozen.

 

[chris348]

Thanks guys, trying to get some live this morning as the live food i put in last week they lapped up !!!!

Sad news this morning, one of the Clowns is dead

 

[Colin_T]

sorry to hear that. It's a bit disappointing.
It might however, explain why it didn't want to eat frozen food.

 

[chris348]

Well returned from the LFS, stood waiting in the shop for 3 hours until the delivery came. It takes about 45 minutes to get to them and obviously 45 back.

Armed with 15 small packets of live Brineshrimp and they gulp the whole lot up. Did one feed as live, second as frozen with a smidge of garlic, nothing. Finished off the feed this evening with live, but will hold back during the day tomorrow and wait to see if they want frozen or not.

Its like having kids all over again. Have to admit being better with kids than fish,,, does that sound ethical ?

 

[Colin_T]

yeah but when the kids upset you, you can't sell them or give them away. If the fish upset you they can go back to the shop

just give the fish time to adjust to the tank. As long as the water quality is fine they should start to take other food soon. Don't give them live brineshrimp for too long tho, just a couple of days to stimulate their appetite. Then start offering small amounts of other food. Keep offering them offer food for 3 or 4 days and then if they haven't eaten anything, add some live brineshrimp for 1 feed. Then go back to the frozen stuff.
Most marine fish take frozen brineshrimp straight away.
Perhaps in future when you go to buy new fish, ask the shop to feed the fish with some frozen brineshrimp just to make sure they are eating. If the fish don't eat in the shop then don't buy it. Ask the shop to hold it for a few days and then come back and see if it eats a couple of days later. Most shops will do that for their regular customers.
If they won't feed them in front of you then go somewhere else.

 

[chris348]

Top reply colin and thanks for that.