troubles with longnose butterfly

[Mac11]

I bought a longnose butterfly from my lfs the other day and he seems to be acting strange in my tank. Ive tried feeding him raw shrimp (no success), sea-food medley w/ shrimp mussel clam etc. from the grocery store (no success), flake (no success). He doesnt even seem to take notice to it floating by him. My Dottyback and inverts all love it.

Also he seems to just do laps around the tank or stay in one corner and go after the glass. Kind of like pecking. Today i came home from work and it looked like he hurt his mouth maybe by hitting into the glass. ANy idea of whats going on???

Im posting a video along with this, maybe it will help.

 

[carey]

Unfortunately, those fish are extremely hard to get eating. :-((

What i would do is get some live brine and try that for a few days, then slowly add in frozen brine with the live and he will switch over. thats the only way I have gotten those fish to eat.

Good luck!

 

[Mac11]

cool ill give it a try, thank you!

 

[PB_Smith]

You picked one of the hardest fish to keep.
What size is the tank? From the video it looks as if that tank is far too small for any type of butterfly or tangs as they need lots of swimming room.

Any chance of being able to return it and get something more hardy/suitable?

otherwise you can also try sticking the bits of food into the coral/rocks so they can pick at it like they would naturally.

 

[Mac11]

Its a 55. Ive heard from multiple people that he should be fine in there. Is that true? Theres no other large fish in there, just inverts and nano fish like my dotty. thats a good idea too!