Best food to get wrasse eating.

grady15 · May 31, 2020

Hey guys, I am looking to get some wrasse and in the past I have had problems getting them to eat when in quarantine. I do not have access to frozen food. I can get anything else though. Preferably it would just be a way to get them on to pellet food like the rest of my fish. I have been looking at decapsulated brine shrimp eggs maybe some freeze dried blood worms. would that work? Thank you for everyone's input.

edit: I am currently looking at a melanarus wrasse and a red fin wrasse

dohc97 · May 31, 2020

What wrasses did you have trouble with? I have never had issues with wrasses eating nls or pemysis pellets, only ones that have given me trouble a couple times are leopard wrasses and sick wrasses.

Mmun · May 31, 2020

grady15 said:
Hey guys, I am looking to get some wrasse and in the past I have had problems getting them to eat when in quarantine. I do not have access to frozen food. I can get anything else though. Preferably it would just be a way to get them on to pellet food like the rest of my fish. I have been looking at decapsulated brine shrimp eggs maybe some freeze dried blood worms. would that work? Thank you for everyone's input.

Live brine shrimp, frozen is the best option, nls pellets, prime reef flakes

C. Eymann · May 31, 2020

Are you using prazi or copper in QT ? because wrasse's appetite seems to be impacted by these more than other fish.

My go-tos are always blood worms or fresh clams on the half shell, depending on type of wrasse of course.

andrewey · May 31, 2020

This might be a little out there, but I recently fed a mix of whiteworms with my regular foods for my picky fish in QT. The wiggling of the worms meant everyone ate instantly and I was able to make sure they were eating well before transitioning them slowly to pellets and frozen food. It might not be your cup of tea, but it's worth considering as they're really easy to grow. If you're interested, check Paul B's posts. That being said, most of my wrasses have been food pigs. Only one leopard wrasse was a bit tricky to get feeding.

SCReef'n · May 31, 2020

Not having access to frozen food can be a problem for wrasse. Fresh meaty foods are a staple in their diet. Can you get live foods like black or white worms? Many will accept pellets or flake but quarantine is stressful and as you’ve seen can cause issues.

grady15 · May 31, 2020

dohc97 said:
What wrasses did you have trouble with? I have never had issues with wrasses eating nls or pemysis pellets, only ones that have given me trouble a couple times are leopard wrasses and sick wrasses.

They were christmas wrasse (Halichoeres claudia) They just never ate and slowly faded. I tried V20 pellets, TDO Chromaboost, NLS and no response.

grady15 · May 31, 2020

C. Eymann said:
Are you using prazi or copper in QT ? because wrasse's appetite seems to be impacted by these more than other fish.

My go-tos are always blood worms or fresh clams on the half shell, depending on type of wrasse of course.

No treatments were used. I tried fresh fish but nothing.

C. Eymann · May 31, 2020

grady15 said:
No treatments were used. I tried fresh fish but nothing.

If you cant get live white/blackworms try to get them to take frozen bloodworms, or tubifex worms if you can find them.

mattzang · May 31, 2020

The best thing is live worms of some sort, those are wrasse crack. But if u can’t get frozen I’m not sure what universe were in where live is attainable. I’ve never tried freeze dried worms, but that’s be high on my list of things to try for halichoeres wrasses

rkpetersen · May 31, 2020

grady15 said:
They were christmas wrasse (Halichoeres claudia) They just never ate and slowly faded. I tried V20 pellets, TDO Chromaboost, NLS and no response.

Perhaps they were already ill when you got them, but weren't showing any signs yet?
Halichoeres wrasses are typically very aggressive feeders, they'll eat almost anything.
Also, did you have a sand bed in your QT? These wrasses need to be able to dive into the sand to sleep at night.

grady15 · May 31, 2020

rkpetersen said:
Perhaps they were already ill when you got them, but weren't showing any signs yet?
Halichoeres wrasses are typically very aggressive feeders, they'll eat almost anything.
Also, did you have a sand bed in your QT? These wrasses need to be able to dive into the sand to sleep at night.

Perhaps, but they had no signs maybe they had something internal. I had 2 Tupperware containers of sand on the bottom of the QT.

grady15 · May 31, 2020

Follow-up question- Has anyone used freeze-dried blood worms to ween them onto pellet?

rkpetersen · May 31, 2020

grady15 said:
Perhaps, but they had no signs maybe they had something internal. I had 2 Tupperware containers of sand on the bottom of the QT.

Where were they from? Perhaps they already had liver or other organ damage from how they were captured or transported. Just thinking of possibilities, because these wrasses should be pretty hardy. At least that's been my experience, and I've had more than a few other fish species die in qt.

Also, if they had no signs, did you consider flukes? I've had fish mysteriously die, and many times, it's been flukes. When they're moribund or actually dead, putting them in freshwater will make it obvious whether there are flukes there or no. Apologies if you already know this.

I was also wondering why you can't use frozen food. You don't need an lfs if that's the issue, you can order it online.