How do you support your less aggressive eaters?

[argiBK]

I've finally been able to get my Copperband Butterfly to accept freeze-dried Blackworms and flake, and, have trained him to come to the corner of the tank to eat floating food at the surface. However, I have a number of very aggressive feeders in my tank that muscle him out of the way to also get to his food. Namely my Mimic Tang, Masked Swallowtail Angel and Quoyi Parrot are able to compete with each other, but the little CB just ends up sitting back and watching them eat his food :mad:!

I've tried separate feeding spots which worked for a couple days before the rest of the fish figured out easy food was coming from CB's feeding corner. This happens when I feed both dry and frozen.

I want to figure out a way to ensure that the butterfly has a reliable way of eating if I go out of town for more than few days.

So reefers, how do you ensure that your less aggressive eaters get their fair share of food during feed times? Thanks!

 

[Fudsey]

Masstick pushed into the rockwork or on the glass in different places. You can mix in the other stuff if you like as well. From personal experience, don't use the premixed stuff. Get the powdered one and mix it yourself. I mix in some LRS into the food as well.

 

[afboundguy]

I overfeed the crap out of my tank. It feeds my corals and my CUC. I threw in about 20 mini brittle stars and now I probably have 100s and everytime I feed my tank their tentacles poke out so I'm not worried about the extra food going to waste and my CUC is much slower than even my slowest eating fish!

 

[jcates]

My CB was also very shy when I got it. It's usually an early riser though up and moving before the other fish so I would feed it mysis before the others were out and about.

I also have good luck with the IM gourmet defroster and that's what I use now. I only used the top half and my CB will reach up and grab through the holes and pull LRS out. The other fish have caught on and standby to cleanup the excess he pulls through.

Kinda long winded but I hope it helps

 

[v3v3]

I had succes with CB offering food (mysis, chopped mussels) from glass pipette or with small chunks of food with a tweezer under the water surface. It takes a while to get used to, but after that no problem.

 

[argiBK]

Thanks all for the advice, I appreciate it! Am definitely using the pipette. Unfortunately, mass stick is just something he didn't respond to in the early days, but I may try again now that he more settled.

It does look like the CB is starting to understand he needs to muscle in to get his fair share and is beginning to assert himself.

That, and I just need to wake up earlier than the fish (or adjust my light schedule)!

 

[jaxteller007]

Our CBB just gave up the ghost after about 3 months and stopped eating and died this was a few months ago. I'm not going to try again as I think our tank is just far too aggressive when it comes to feeding time for a CBB to handle it.
We have probably a full grown Lt tang, then a vlaminigi tang, 2 yellows, flame, blue hippo, magnificent foxface, coral beauty, some anthias, chromis, melanarus wrasse, a few others.

 

[Fezbearer]

I squirt food into the tank in two areas. First I shoot some near my wrasse's favorite hole. After he gets his initial fill, I shoot some on the other side of the tank for the clowns.

 

[DarthSimon]

I have always used Garlic and soaked my wet foods with Garlic Extreme, and that usually gets picky eaters going.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

I just posted this in another thread but figured it could do some good here as well.

When I first got mine, he was a picky shy eater. Although I saw him eat in the LFS when he was with other CBBs, he was a little intimidated at first in my DT. I used to rotate different types of food for my other fish but found that the only thing he would eat was Mysis shrimp. Trying to feed him, and only him, with Mysis shrimp was impossible. The others would just swarm in and take it all. Well that just wasn't going to do. How do you take a vacation with fish that won't eat flakes and pellets out of an automatic feeder?
So to make sure he got his fair share of food I made a typical CBB feeder out of a clear closed bottom plastic tube that has several small holes melted through it (soldering iron for no sharp edges) just big enough that only he can get into the feeder. Then I mixed all the different fish foods I had (frozen, flake, pellet, Masstick,) along with some fresh chopped up mixed seafood (which included clams, squid, shrimp, mussels, oysters, scallops)..... just anything I could think of. I even put in some Reef Roids, Reef Chili and other coral foods for good measure. Ground it up into small enough bite sized pieces for the CBB and froze it into cubes.
Now when I drop one of these into the feeding tube the other fish know they have to wait for the CBB to come pull it from the tube. So now he's everyone's best friend.;Drool The best part is that now he will eat flakes from an automatic feeder. So vacation here I come....(DANG you Covid!;Mask)... well maybe not yet.

Awaiting the "Lord and Master" to arise from the deep.

"May we have another bite sir?"