Adding CBB to tank

[Gtinnel]

I will tell you what has worked for me both times Ive had a CBB to get it eating.

Step one. You have its interest in food, now you have to convince it to eat. They love wiggly food worms are part of their natural diet, along with anemones of course. Blood worms are a good place to start, with high flow going to push them around. If you HAVE to get it to eat something Live Brine almost always works.

Step two. Once it is actually eating something, even live brine shrimp, you are getting somewhere. Start to mix in some bloodworm or even better, mysis shrimp with live brine. This will help getting it to attempt to peck at mysis. This could take several days. A community feeding response is best to get it to eat the mysis. CBB are voracious eaters when they are comfy and happy, and they legit get jealous when the see all the other fish eating what you put in. This feeding response has been crucial in my experience.

Step two and a half.
If it still will not eat mysis, try frozen angel and butterfly food. That also helped mixed with Live brine. Also take a clam on the halfshell and rubberband or wedge it into a rock, this will let them peck at something naturally.

Step three. you can buy live or frozen black worms to mix into whatever food you desire, this ususally works. After the above steps with mixing live brine into frozen it usually take only a day or two and they will eat frozen.

Now if there is aggression going on at feeding time, then the feeding response part is null and void, and I believe this is the single most important part.

Some things you can try right off the bat if you have access, just to get it to eat, beside live brine are live black worms or white worms, both will do. Also you can take masstick and stuff it into a rock crevice.

He eats live white worms very well and he is not on the verge of death from lack of nutrition. He is actually getting kinda plump. I’ve tried mixing frozen mysis and brine with the white worms and he is very careful about which ones he actually eats. I’ve also tried masstick and fresh mussle/clams without any luck.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Maybe It’s based on region, or possibly I’ve just overlooked them. I will double check.

So ive been through charleston WV and yeah im inclined to believe you LOL. But each petco and petsmart has a frozen cooler where they have the mice and stuff at. At a minimum they will have frozen bloodworms and Mysis shrimp by sanfransico bay company. Its not the best brand but there is nothing wrong with it.

 

[Bucs20fan]

He eats live white worms very well and he is not on the verge of death from lack of nutrition. He is actually getting kinda plump. I’ve tried mixing frozen mysis and brine with the white worms and he is very careful about which ones he actually eats. I’ve also tried masstick and fresh mussle/clams without any luck.

Do you have high flow going though? High flow is important because it makes the mysis tumble and jerk like its alive. And its not an overnight process, it could take a few weeks even, The big thing is that it is at least eating something and for that you have time!!!

 

[Bucs20fan]

I will say though, Ive done this with three CBB total, two of my own and one my neighbor has, and it worked inside two weeks each time.

 

[Bucs20fan]

You will not regret going through these hoops for this fish though. It is by far one of the smartest fish in the hobby and it Will recognize you. And before too long you will have the good ole CBB tail wiggle for food that we all know. An added piece, Seachem Garlic Guard will help as well to entice it to eat frozen.

 

[Gtinnel]

Do you have high flow going though? High flow is important because it makes the mysis tumble and jerk like its alive. And its not an overnight process, it could take a few weeks even, The big thing is that it is at least eating something and for that you have time!!!

It not as much flow as my display but the qt has enough that the mysis are moving around the water column and not stagnant in one place.
The only brand I’ve seen in the frozen section of any local store is the San Francisco Bay. I have been considering making my own frozen food for a while now, so I may try finding some stuff at the store this weekend and make my own.

If that fails the closest lfs to me is about a 3 hour round trip and I may try to go in a few weeks. It really sucks not having a lfs nearby.

 

[Gtinnel]

You will not regret going through these hoops for this fish though. It is by far one of the smartest fish in the hobby and it Will recognize you. And before too long you will have the good ole CBB tail wiggle for food that we all know. An added piece, Seachem Garlic Guard will help as well to entice it to eat frozen.

I’ve not used garlic guard but I have added Kent’s garlic extreme. I never saw any added interest from using the garlic extract though. I assume they’re probably essentially the same thing.

 

[Bucs20fan]

It not as much flow as my display but the qt has enough that the mysis are moving around the water column and not stagnant in one place.
The only brand I’ve seen in the frozen section of any local store is the San Francisco Bay. I have been considering making my own frozen food for a while now, so I may try finding some stuff at the store this weekend and make my own.

If that fails the closest lfs to me is about a 3 hour round trip and I may try to go in a few weeks. It really sucks not having a lfs nearby.

The san fran stuff is fine trust me, you can jump to other like LRS which is very nice food, at a later date.

Yes the garlic stuff is the same for sure.

 

[Gtinnel]

As much as I want to move it over I guess the consensus is that moving it over before eating prepared foods is a mistake. So I guess I will hold off for however long it takes.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I would have thought there might be one in charleston. Guess not. That means WV probably doesnt have any then LOL. Only other things in WV are coal mines, power plants and shut down steel mills.

 

[Bucs20fan]

As much as I want to move it over I guess the consensus is that moving it over before eating prepared foods is a mistake. So I guess I will hold off for however long it takes.

This could take some time. Unless you remove the purple to fish jail, but that wouldnt be fun to catch for sure.

 

[Gtinnel]

The san fran stuff is fine trust me, you can jump to other like LRS which is very nice food, at a later date.

Yes the garlic stuff is the same for sure.

Everything else that I have eats it readily.

I will try making my own frozen food. I actually bought the little cube silicone molds a few weeks ago but never got around to buying the seafood to make it.

 

[Gtinnel]

I would have thought there might be one in charleston. Guess not. That means WV probably doesnt have any then LOL. Only other things in WV are coal mines, power plants and shut down steel mills.

There is one little local pet store that sells some saltwater fish, called inland reef. The name is misleading though since they only get a shipment of about a dozen fish once every month or so, and they don’t do anything with coral. That is actually where I got the CBB from and in the last 2.5 months I think they’ve gotten two shipments. Their prices are great though on the occasion that they get something. I think I paid $30 for the CBB.

The owner actually wants to quit selling saltwater fish but said he won’t because of the name of the store.

I actually just remembered they sale frozen food. I think all they have is the San Francisco Bay brand as well but I may call to find out. If all else fails I will just place an order for some.

 

[Bucs20fan]

There is one little local pet store that sells some saltwater fish, called inland reef. The name is misleading though since they only get a shipment of about a dozen fish once every month or so, and they don’t do anything with coral. That is actually where I got the CBB from and in the last 2.5 months I think they’ve gotten two shipments. Their prices are great though on the occasion that they get something. I think I paid $30 for the CBB.

The owner actually wants to quit selling saltwater fish but said he won’t because of the name of the store.

I actually just remembered they sale frozen food. I think all they have is the San Francisco Bay brand as well but I may call to find out. If all else fails I will just place an order for some.

Sounds like a good plan. I have confidence you will get it all worked out soon enough.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Sounds like a good plan. I have confidence you will get it all worked out soon enough.

Dont hesitate to reach out if you need more help with the CBB!

 

[Gtinnel]

Dont hesitate to reach out if you need more help with the CBB!

Thanks.

 

[situationlol]

To echo what some others have said, I would try to get it to eat other stuff before moving it. I've only had my CBB for about a month and for the first 3 weeks he refused to eat anything that didn't land on a rock. He suddenly decided last week that he would finally start eating stuff as soon as I put it in the tank. They are very dumb fish. Keep at it.

 

[Gtinnel]

To echo what some others have said, I would try to get it to eat other stuff before moving it. I've only had my CBB for about a month and for the first 3 weeks he refused to eat anything that didn't land on a rock. He suddenly decided last week that he would finally start eating stuff as soon as I put it in the tank. They are very dumb fish. Keep at it.

Mine will eat food from the water…as long as it’s live worms. He actually pretty aggressively eats live worms that are floating in the water.