Finicky eaters

[shaggydoo]

I read a lot of stories about what to feed notoriously hard to keep fish (e.g., butterflies, leopards, mandarins, etc.), and I have had my own successes and failures. What I want to hear about is your success stories. Have a hard to keep fish? What did you do to successfully keep an 'expert' fish?

I'll start. I have been able to get leopard wrasses eating prepared foods by a lot of trial/error. I tried every food I read about online (live, frozen, dry, the works), and with both my leopards I found the same trick.

The biggest obstacle with healthy leopard wrasses is getting their eyes off the rock-work and onto food in the water column. A healthy leopard should be constantly scouring the rocks for food, and this doesn't leave them with much focus on the water column. I kept getting frustrated because food was flying past the fish (at times nearly flying into the fish's mouth) and they showed 0 interest.

What worked for me was a food called cyclops. The small size of this meaty food seems to be perfect in enticing a new leopard to eat. Shortly after eating cyclops for a few days, their brains seem to realize that food can be on the rocks AND in the water. My leopards hunt all day, but during feeding time, rocks are forgotten and they pork out. Now they eat everything, pellets, nori, flake, mysis, small pebbles, you name it

I wish I had more success stories, but let me know what has worked for you all!

 

[Kamden Uelton]

I have 2 hard to keep fish, Both don't touch frozen food. Bluestripe Pipefish eats small pods (which my rocks are COVERED in) I also have a Hectors goby that eats Munnid Isopods and Amphipods in my tank. I have a very picky Barnacle Blenny which won't touch anything but Munnid Isopods and he won't go out the rock to hunt them... I have to catch them with a pipette and feed him every day 3x a day.

 

[shaggydoo]

I have 2 hard to keep fish, Both don't touch frozen food. Bluestripe Pipefish eats small pods (which my rocks are COVERED in) I also have a Hectors goby that eats Munnid Isopods and Amphipods in my tank. I have a very picky Barnacle Blenny which won't touch anything but Munnid Isopods and he won't go out the rock to hunt them... I have to catch them with a pipette and feed him every day 3x a day.

I didn't realize hector gobies were hard to keep. I have one of those but did nothing special for mine and I've had him for about 6 months. Hope all continued to go well. You really love your fish catching pods and hand feeding

 

[reefndude]

My leopard started off with Cyclops as well. Then took to ova and blood worms. Still in qt but is now eating all frozen I throw in the tank. Have yet to see her eat pellets.
I also have a tailspot blenny. Would not eat anything but algae. Was in qt for 4 weeks and I just gave up and put in dt. Now within the last two weeks for whatever reasons started going after frozen foods. That fish has been in the tank for 4 months now