Fish not eating

[gatorman543]

I have a problem i bought my percula clownfish on friday, and i can't get them to eat, or i haven't seen them eat. I have tried peas, O.S.I flake food, and even shrimp from the store, but they wont eat. Do they eat during night. Another question they for some reason are hanging up at the top of the water for some reason, is that normal, because in the store they were always at the bottem. The anemome doesn't come till wensday most likely could that be the problem?

 

[RayneBow]

are your water tested ok? Check your water, the pH and all of that.

I use pellets over flakes, and frozen brine shrimps. my guys love it.

 

[Navarre]

Clowns usually feed readily so im a little worried why they are not showing interest in food. Peas definately is not a natural food source, in fact clowns are carnivores and not herbivores so a diet of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp etc is more natural for htem.
Their behaviour of swimming in the top corner is completely natural as they will keep away from rockwork in fear of predators like mantis shrimps or moray eels etc. The addition of other fish usually makes them happier as they like to live within a community of fish. Im worried about the arrival of the anenome too. Do you have the right lighting? How old is the tank? (no anenome should be placed in a new setup), what type of anenome is is? is it captive bred (unlikely) or captured.

Anenomes are expert only creatures and nobody should purchase an anenome just because they have clown fish. Clowns will easily host in soft corals that are far easier and less dmenading to keep.

 

[steelhealr]

I agree with Navarre. My perc is a pig. Mine will take pellet and flake too. Did he eat at the lfs? My perc will flutter around the tank, especially at night, near the top. I had never seen this kind of swimming when I first started up my tank and thought the fish was sick/dying. An 'anorexic' perc is not a good sign..keep an eye on him. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do except to continue to encourage mysis/brine. If he is still not eating, maybe you can return him to the lfs. SH

 

[gatorman543]

alright. I canceled the order on the aneome fro the fish store, my tank is now 7 weeks old, and today they headed for the food but then drew back they almost are afriad of it. If i reaslly finely chopeed up shrimp woud they take that. I am also going to rearrgnae the tank in effort to keepa better eye on them. What coral with precs live in

 

[steelhealr]

Did you say what size tank you have? If it is small, you don't want an anemone in there. Clowns might host in torch, bubble coral and perhaps Navarre has some other thoughts. I had one try one time in my hammer coral. SH

 

[gatorman543]

alright thanks, unforutnally all the fish store i got them from isn't open on monday and tuesday for me to call. But when i saw them in the store, i waited a week and then bought them the next week to make sure they were alright, and they were. However now they will go for the food but then they just back off

Any Suggestions

 

[RayneBow]

Your tank is 7 weeks old!?! Yikes, its not mature enough! it took me like 4-5 months to get my tank stablized and anything to survive in it!

 

[Navarre]

try using food that the fish will recognise in real life. Frozen brine or mysis is a good food and they should recognise this.

Not sure how large your tank is but if you can house a sarcophyton then thisis ideal for clowns.

 

[JJ1234567]

I had the same problem with my most recent pair of clowns. Check the size of your food. Try the new life spectrum small fish formula, you can get it out of doctors foster and smith for 7.99 a jar. they took it readily. The other stuff was just too big for their tiny tiny mouths. so try a small fish food.

 

[Dragonscales]

It may pay to find out what they were eating in the store as well. If all else fails try feeding them the same thing before slowly weaning them onto whatever you want them to eat.

 

[gatorman543]

good news they began eating yesturday. I guess they were just adjusting i just crushed the flake in small pieces and they ate them, or one is. I guess i know which one is the female