Ideas for Coral Beauty that wont eat?

[flanque]

I purchased him two days ago and since then he hasn't eaten. The food is a mixture (read: mashed) up set of fish, shrimp, muscles, etc.

He's a rather large coral beauty, probably full size to be honest. I'm thinking of trying live food or mysis shrimp to see how that goes.

Any other suggestions? Could it just be the settling in blues?

 

[austinsdad]

Soak the food in Garlic Guard or something similar. Should be able to find it at the LFS.

Also, it's not uncommon for a new fish not to eat for a few days, but garlic soaked food often can stimulate them. Helps with the immune system also.

 

[steve r]

live brine gut loaded with selcon or phyto is how i have gotten all my fish to start eating. i then switch to garlic soaked mysis and flake food crunched up pretty small. it has worked everytime

steve r

 

[roka64]

I go with garlic, as well. What was he eating at the LFS?

 

[flanque]

Well I've never had any fish not eat so I haven't asked to see the fish eat, including this one. Perhaps now I've been burnt.

I'll have to try the garlic and get some mysis shrimp. Perhaps that will get him eating.

 

[angelscrx]

Give him a couple of days. Feed with the garlic and wait and see. If he doesn't look emaciated then he is not starving. If you got a healthy fish from the store then the move from the LFS to your tank may have stressed him out a little. He needs to get comfortable in his new surroundings.

 

[flanque]

I think this may be true. He's rather easily startled whenever I move anything quicker than a snail he dashes behind the rocks like a bat out of hell.

I'll try the garlic and mysis and see how it goes. He's a really good healthy specimin so I don't want to loose him.

 

[afilter]

Give him a couple of days. Feed with the garlic and wait and see. If he doesn't look emaciated then he is not starving. If you got a healthy fish from the store then the move from the LFS to your tank may have stressed him out a little. He needs to get comfortable in his new surroundings.

Good advice, also try a vegetable matter such as nori/dried seaweed or green life line. CB like mysis and other meaty foods, but mine goes nuts for vetetarian selections as well.

Did you ask the LFS what they were feeding?

HTH,

 

[flanque]

I'm pretty sure what I'm feeding is what they've been fed. They were only in the store for about three days so I'm not entirely sure.. I'll have to check with them I think. I purchased the food I have from the same store and if I recall, they did mention once that is all they used.

 

[afilter]

Give it time, I have only had one fish that I could not get to eat and that was a very small dwarf lion.

It is not uncommon for a fish to not noticebly eat for 3-5 days after the stress of shipping/moving. Also, if there is LR/any algea in the tank it many be eating without you noticing since they are great at picking LR, which is why I recommend a vegetarian selection.

 

[flanque]

Yeah there's quite a lot of live rock with algae all over certain places. I did see him nip at the rocks once so hopefully this is where he'll get some nutrition.


And since I'm not allowed to post within 12 hours following my last post...

I've picked up some mysis shrimp and will give that a shot. The LFS didn't have an garlic additives at the time but I'll pick that up tomorrow or the day after if needed. He did comment that he wasn't sure why they don't stock it given how much of a feeding frenzy it sends fish into, so that sounds promising.

I'll post an update here once I find out how he takes to it.

 

[angelscrx]

Wow the fish was only in the store for three days before you bought him? I would definitely say he is stressed then. I have always been advised to only buy fish that you have physically seen eating at a LFS. Most good stores won't even sell you a fish until they have been there at least a week to ensure health and diminish stress. Any way my previous post is still the same. Time, garlic, etc...

 

[flanque]

SUCCESS!

It's been almost two weeks but he's finally started eating.. and boy is he a pig! I've found that these marine pellets are just gold for him, so I'm exceptionally happy about this!

Thx for the advice!

 

[Feron]

They live off the algae on the rocks no prob.. had a potter's angel that didn't eat offered foods for quite a while... he was just doing what they do naturally and eating algae..

In the future, one could also take algae sheet and tie it to a chunk of live rock with fishing line to somewhat simulate natural growth..
It helps the fish get used to the taste of the food while presenting it in a less alien fashion then a clip on a glass wall with a human staring at it

Glad he is eating, be sure to get it on something besides the pellets tho, he'll need a well rounded diet (of sorts).
Garlic is a great thing, Selcon is a great thing, Zoe is a great thing. Getting that angel to eat something soaked in 2 of the 3 (I've never mixed selcon and zoe at the same time, afraid it'd be overkill) would be an awesome thing that'd bring out it's color and keep it happy and healthy.

(my now-not-shy potters angel that will eat from my hand and is strikingly gorgeous is a testament I'd think)...gl as always and ENJOY..

 

[flanque]

Yeah I'll have to try and add some variety in there over time..