Eat, fish

[trk1616]

I got a new percula clown this weekend and he hasn't eaten yet. He shows little interest in the flake food I've been feeding the rest of my fish. I've also got shrimp I'll try tomorrow. Any tricks to get him to start eating?




On a side note, as soon as I moved him into the tank, my damsel was all over at him....nipping at his tail. I immediatly started moving rocks/decorations around to confuse the damsel. It worked like a charm...it almost seems like they hang out now. I read that tip on this board a while back and thought I'd share my success with it. I'll do the same thing every time I add a new fish from now on.

 

[scuba_steve]

is that all ya feed your fish ?!?!? id feed mysis raw shrimp clam what ever

 

[r95rdstr]

Try live brine.

It's also a good idea to feed several different types of foods at all times, to ensure complete nutrition.

 

[two11devan]

Not sure how long you have had it in the tank, but the since it is a new addition, it might just need some time to get comfy with its surroundings before it will eat. Mine took a day or two before they started devouring my food! I try to feed them a combination of marine flakes, formula 2 flakes and frozen mysis shrimp. When i first put the mysis in, they didn't touch the stuff....now they LOVE it!

 

[mansiz]

Hi all and trk1616, I got a new percula clown few days ago too, it looks crazy, swim around the tank the whole day without stopping, not even tired. It did'nt eat during the 1st few days too, I tried flakes, pellets, freeze blood worms, it just simply ignore it. But when I try freeze brine shrimp, it started to eat, I was really happy when I saw him eating. After his 1st brine shrimp, he eats whatever I fed, blood worms, flakes. But he still reject pellets.

 

[cj10488]

On a side note, as soon as I moved him into the tank, my damsel was all over at him....nipping at his tail.

My Yellow Tail Damsel was attacking my arm the other day when I was pulling something out of the tank.. He would not leave it alone.. I am glad that he doesnt have teeth big enough to hurt me lol.. He leaves my fish alone but does not like me in the tank lol..

If feeding Frozen brine to get him started to feed would be ok.. I would not plan on feeding him frozen brine long term as it is not very healthy for them.. Mine seem to love Flake Food and Frozen Krill..

HTH,
James

 

[notmuffy]

If your new percula is tank-raised, IMO it should be eating the flakes without a problem. (my tank-raised tomato clown will eat flakes, frozen krill, live brine shrimp, live mosquito larvae, anemone poop, small nudibranchs... you get the idea) If it is wild-caught though, it probably will be pickier.

Also to add to something James wrote, you can get "enriched" (live & frozen) brine shrimp, which apparently the shrimp are fed huge doses of vitamins. This is the staple diet of my copapod-eating dragonet, as he has wiped out all the 'pods 8O in the tank.