Feeding Question

[Jib]

I bought a Clownfish for my tank on Saturday. This is my first fish in the tank. He hasn't eaten since I brought him home. I bought the same food they feed him in the store. New Life Spectrum pellets and frozen brine shrimp. Hasn't gone after either. Assuming he's still a little stressed from the move but had a couple of feeding questions.

• Should I turn the return pump off to feed?
• Approximately how much should a mid-sized clown fish eat? Trying not to overfeed the tank but also want to put in enough that he see's it.
• The pellets float, unless I give them a little tap then they sink into the water. Will the clownfish eat off the top? If I see he's not going to eat, would make it easier to scoop the uneaten food out.

Any tips to get the Clown to start eating would be appreciated.

-Jib

 

[Dbichler]

Sometimes they take a couple days even a couple weeks for some fish not typical of clowns. Just watch it’s belly if he starts to look skinny then it’s time to venture into live foods.

 

[brmreefer]

First, congrats on the new addition.

• I would turn off the return pump during feeding.
• Not a lot. At the moment trying to get it to eat is that challenge thus far, so I would focus on that.
• I use a small container to put the pellets in to soak a quick second, so when added they will immediately sink. Use a tiny amount, so there is not a lot of uneaten food to remove.
• Most fish will eat off the surface, but sometimes makes it difficult. Sinking them would be better.
• I would switch over to frozen mysis for a little better nutritional value than the brine shrimp.
• If that does not work, try putting a "tiny" drop of Selcon or equivalent to put an enticing scent to the food during pre-soaking.

Hope that helps and best of luck.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Yeah give it time, I use an old Salifert testing kit tube and 2ml syringe with air hose on it to feed my tank. Like @brmreefer said I soak it for a little bit in tank water and then put it in after I turn the pump off. A small amount goes a long way.

Look into making your own frozen food also, I made a batch in Feb for about $20 and I have only gone through 1/4 of it. There are tons of recipes on this forum.

 

[BlennyTime]

Yeah, it’s normal for new fish to not eat (and hide). They make partially submerged holders that mount to the side of the tank, that you can dump food in to and it will sink as it saturated with water, if you don’t want to pre-soak.

 

[Jib]

First, congrats on the new addition.

• I would turn off the return pump during feeding.
• Not a lot. At the moment trying to get it to eat is that challenge thus far, so I would focus on that.
• I use a small container to put the pellets in to soak a quick second, so when added they will immediately sink. Use a tiny amount, so there is not a lot of uneaten food to remove.
• Most fish will eat off the surface, but sometimes makes it difficult. Sinking them would be better.
• I would switch over to frozen mysis for a little better nutritional value than the brine shrimp.
• If that does not work, try putting a "tiny" drop of Selcon or equivalent to put an enticing scent to the food during pre-soaking.

Hope that helps and best of luck.

Appreciate the thoughts here. I'll try what you suggested.

 

[Jib]

Look into making your own frozen food also, I made a batch in Feb for about $20 and I have only gone through 1/4 of it. There are tons of recipes on this forum.

I'll take a look into making my own food. I bought these food since thats what the Clown was eating at the store. Was hoping it would be easier to get him eating.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

@Jib thats exactly what I did, and a good practice.

 

[Oropher]

Fish is still adjusting with the new environment.
Maintain your chores. Let the fish get used to them.

 

[Jib]

Update: Fish still isn't eating. I dropped a pellet right in front of him with a pipette, and he went for it, but spit it out. Also tried shrimp again with no success. I have some Selcon being delivered tomorrow per a reccomendation in this thread.

One thing I noticed is a long, white, stringy "poop" hanging off of him (getting a picture is proving difficult). I search this forum and found it could likely be a parasite, so I just dosed PraziPro. Hopefully this will get rid of any parasites and get him eating...

Any suggestions welcomed.

 

[TheXpander]

Update: Fish still isn't eating. I dropped a pellet right in front of him with a pipette, and he went for it, but spit it out. Also tried shrimp again with no success. I have some Selcon being delivered tomorrow per a reccomendation in this thread.

One thing I noticed is a long, white, stringy "poop" hanging off of him (getting a picture is proving difficult). I search this forum and found it could likely be a parasite, so I just dosed PraziPro. Hopefully this will get rid of any parasites and get him eating...

Any suggestions welcomed.

Hi, I hope you got your Clown treated and feeding in the end. Im in a similar position just now, how did things work out in the end?

 

[Reef.]

Try different frozen food, my clowns don’t like either pellets or mysis, they love lobster eggs, brine shrimp, cyclops, pods, mussels, scallops etc so many different foods out there to try.
If he spat it out seems he wants to eat, just doesn’t like what you are offering, if he was off his food for awhile, he may holdout for the good stuff now, he has gotten used to not eating.

 

[Jib]

Hi, I hope you got your Clown treated and feeding in the end. Im in a similar position just now, how did things work out in the end?

Thankfully things worked out great. Of all things, it was flake food that got him eating and still his preferred food choice today.
Try lots different foods to get him eating. I almost didn’t try flake because I had “better” foods to try and feed him. Ended up flake was the best because that what he likes to eat. Now he will eat frozen and pellets, but doesn’t go after it nearly as aggressively as flake foods.

 

[TheXpander]

Thankfully things worked out great. Of all things, it was flake food that got him eating and still his preferred food choice today.
Try lots different foods to get him eating. I almost didn’t try flake because I had “better” foods to try and feed him. Ended up flake was the best because that what he likes to eat. Now he will eat frozen and pellets, but doesn’t go after it nearly as aggressively as flake foods.

Wow that’s really interesting as I didn’t even entertain flake for the same reasons as yourself.
It’s not even been 48 hours yet so I’ll try again tonight and see how they go. Thanks for the update!

 

[fowler279]

My clowns are the same. Have tried multiple foods and they prefer flake over everything else. They will eat other things such as TDS and Frozen but they go nuts over flake for some reason.

 

[TheXpander]

Update!
They took some sinking pellets yesterday. Did try flake but they didn’t look at it, hopefully it was a settling in period and all will be well now. Thanks everyone!