Help! O. Clowns Won't Eat

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Hey all,

Relatively new to the hobby. I've had some experience with freshwater, but this is my first foray into saltwater. I have a 75g tank with a 40g sump I built, running a protein skimmer and gfo/carbon reactor. 75 pounds of live rock, and a deep live sand substrate. Water is 78 degrees, ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0, and nitrate at 5ppm. Salinity is a tad high at 1.026 if the cheap swing arm is accurate. My tank has been fully cycled and reading 0 for just over a month. I currently have a 6 line wrasse, starry blenny, 2 o. Clowns, and a foxface. All are juvenille, and we're added about 1 per week after the cycle. The clowns are captive bred, and have been in the tank 5 days, and I can not get them to eat anything! I see no signs of aggression between anyone, and everyone, the clowns included,
are showing no other signs of stress, but they WILL NOT EAT. I've attempted frozen LRS reef frenzy nano, frozen mysis, frozen fish eggs, and all three after soaking in seachem garlic guard. Everyone else is eating just fine. Any other suggestions? I don't want to be the cause of their demise, but I am trying everything I can think of. When I feed, they swim around frantically like they know it's feeding time, but when they get to the food, they just turn their nose up at it. Help! I'm running out of ideas.

helen ann · Oct 16, 2016

Hello!

Sorry about your clowns, can you call the place you got them from and ask what they were feeding them?

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Forgot to mention, I have a cleaning crew of snails and crabs, all of which seem fine as well.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Supposedly the same things I've tried, but I did find out I got them the day after they arrived. I wonder if I could get the LFS to contact their distributor to find out what they feed.

helen ann said:
Hello!

Sorry about your clowns, can you call the place you got them from and ask what they were feeding them?

Duke4Life · Oct 16, 2016

Any of these quarantined?

helen ann · Oct 16, 2016

TheREALDaddyJ said:
Supposedly the same things I've tried, but I did find out I got them the day after they arrived. I wonder if I could get the LFS to contact their distributor to find out what they feed.

Did you QT them?
You can also try some live brine shrimp, not really good for long term but might at least get them started on eating.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Nope, I'm a noob and did not QT. I need to setup a QT after reading up about it. I never QTd in my freshwater and never had problems, but I'm realizing I need to get one set up after reading up more on the forums.

Duke4Life · Oct 16, 2016

helen ann said:
Did you QT them?
You can also try some live brine shrimp, not really good for long term but might at least get them started on eating.

You could always gut load the brine shrimp to make them a more nutritional meal.

Duke4Life · Oct 16, 2016

TheREALDaddyJ said:
Nope, I'm a noob and did not QT. I need to setup a QT after reading up about it. I never QTd in my freshwater and never had problems, but I'm realizing I need to get one set up after reading up more on the forums.

A good quarantine system is one of the most invaluable things you can do in this Hobby as it could save you a lot of headaches and heartache and money. Many fish are coming in with a lot of bad diseases nowadays from the suppliers.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Duke4Life said:
You could always gut load the brine shrimp to make them a more nutritional meal.

How do I go about doing that? Again, complete noob. I have all the knowledge I have from asking questions at the LFS.

Duke4Life · Oct 16, 2016

TheREALDaddyJ said:
How do I go about doing that? Again, complete noob. I have all the knowledge I have from asking questions at the LFS.

I like to add vitamins and either LRS or Mysis to the shrimp so that they eat that. Whatever you feed them can then be transferred to your other fish by feeding the shrimp to your fish. I would not suggest using brine all the time, mine get them as a live treat once a month.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Duke4Life said:
A good quarantine system is one of the most invaluable things you can do in this Hobby as it could save you a lot of headaches and heartache and money. Many fish are coming in with a lot of bad diseases nowadays from the suppliers.

I think I'm learning this lesson the hard way. I'm going to have to get one set up.

Duke4Life · Oct 16, 2016

TheREALDaddyJ said:
How do I go about doing that? Again, complete noob. I have all the knowledge I have from asking questions at the LFS.

Don't hesitate to ask questions on here as we are not trying to sell you anything just help.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Duke4Life said:
I like to add vitamins and either LRS or Mysis to the shrimp so that they eat that. Whatever you feed them can then be transferred to your other fish by feeding the shrimp to your fish. I would not suggest using brine all the time, mine get them as a live treat once a month.

I'll give it a try. Can't hurt. I'll try anything at this point.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Thanks all. I'll try the brine shrimp!

helen ann · Oct 16, 2016

Duke4Life said:
Don't hesitate to ask questions on here as we are not trying to sell you anything just help.

+1 ... Ask a ton of questions many of wonderful people here to help!

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Can't find any place local with live brine shrimp. Ugh.

DeniseAndy · Oct 16, 2016

If you can find out what they were eating, that would help maybe. I am thinking maybe a parasite is making them miserable. Do you have any prazipro? Any corals in the tank? I would run a treatment of this to see if it helps. Captive bred clowns are many times fed flakes and pellets from my experience with at least one breeder.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Any flakes or pelets you would recommend trying? Getting desperate. Don't want these little guys to starve.

DeniseAndy said:
If you can find out what they were eating, that would help maybe. I am thinking maybe a parasite is making them miserable. Do you have any prazipro? Any corals in the tank? I would run a treatment of this to see if it helps. Captive bred clowns are many times fed flakes and pellets from my experience with at least one breeder.

TheREALDaddyJ · Oct 16, 2016

Any flakes or pelets you would recommend trying? Getting desperate. Don't want these little guys to starve.

DeniseAndy said:
If you can find out what they were eating, that would help maybe. I am thinking maybe a parasite is making them miserable. Do you have any prazipro? Any corals in the tank? I would run a treatment of this to see if it helps. Captive bred clowns are many times fed flakes and pellets from my experience with at least one breeder.