How to feed shy fish?

[coralgazer]

My tank has been up 4 months and is well cycled. Have lots of snails, hermit crabs, 2 feather dusters and one hammer coral which is doing great so far. I put my first fish in there about 4 days ago, a timid little firefish. He ate sporadically in QT, although darted into his PVC hidey-hole whenever you walked up to the tank. Now that he is in my DT, he has it all to himself, with plenty of hiding spaces among the rocks. I can't get him to stay out long enough to eat. I turn the pumps off well ahead, and slowly approach the tank and dribble in brine shrimp, Mysis shrimp, even Flake food. I have tried my " Julian's thing" however, that scares the hell out of him.

I am afraid he's going to starve to death if he doesn't stay out for feeding. All the shrimp eventually drop to the bottom with him nowhere in sight. Any ideas on how to feed this critter? His name is twitchy, which you will understand if you've ever had a fire fish

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T= 79F
SG= 1.024
pH=8.2
Ammonia= 0
Nitrates= 0
Nitrites= 0
Alkalinity= 11 dKh
Calcium= 460
Magnesium= 1320
Phosphates= 0

36 gallon bowfront with 15 gallon sump; Coralife lamp: (2) HO T5 10,000K + (2) Actinic Blue HO75; Total 124 watts; (2) Koralia 550 wavemakers; Bubble Magus NAC 3.5 skimmer, filter sock, PhosBan and activ carbon bags in sump

Livestock:
CUC turbo snails and hermit crabs
2 large feather dusters
1 large hammer coral
1 firefish

 

[_Alex_]

thats just the way some of those fish are... im sure he is probably eatign a little.. might try come cyclopeese, or black jack reef crack or rods food. also new life spectrum small fish pellets are really good, all the new life spectrum food brand is good.


but i have had fish do this for weeks and then when i finally add a second fish they come out a bit more. we had a jaw fish that we would barely see, when was in the tank by itself. we added a couple clowns and it started coming out more and more! maybe confused being the only one in the tnak? thinking a predator is around not seeing any other fish?

 

[Dixie_reefer]

Try to feed him at night when the moonlights are on. Turn off the lights in your house so he can't see you coming. sit by the tank and wait for him to come out and then drop some food in there. Also, try to get another fish in there that isn't prone to hiding so much, like a clown. They will feel more safe in the tank if they see another fish swimming out in the open.

 

[Isoprene]

I had this problem with my clowns hanging out at the top of my tank and my possums wrasse hiding like hell. Think about it this way...if your a fish on a reef and you don't see ANYONE, somethings up..there is a predator somewhere so HIDE! I put 2 green chromis in my tank because they are free swimming fish, they love the water column, just to get my others to come out. Behold 2 days later I have clowns, an possum wrasse, and a chromis all swimming frigging everywhere non-stop. They gotta feel comfortable that no one else is getting eaten, so they wont get eaten, they have natural instincts to hide already and not seeing one other fish is scary for them if they naturally see a ton (on a reef). IME having one fish in tank, unless its a large predatory or free swimming fish, it will hide constantly.

 

[11purewater]

Something that worked for me in the past is "chumming" the water with a bit of coral frenzy 15 minutes before feeding it seems to stimulate the appetite of even the most timid of fish.

 

[reef boy]

I agree 100% it makes a ton of sense. Also I'm not sure if this will help, but you could try putting the garlic supplements in the food. I know this helps with fish that just won't eat, but not sure about shy? I think they might smell the garlic??? I think a couple chromis would be perfect.

I had this problem with my clowns hanging out at the top of my tank and my possums wrasse hiding like hell. Think about it this way...if your a fish on a reef and you don't see ANYONE, somethings up..there is a predator somewhere so HIDE! I put 2 green chromis in my tank because they are free swimming fish, they love the water column, just to get my others to come out. Behold 2 days later I have clowns, an possum wrasse, and a chromis all swimming frigging everywhere non-stop. They gotta feel comfortable that no one else is getting eaten, so they wont get eaten, they have natural instincts to hide already and not seeing one other fish is scary for them if they naturally see a ton (on a reef). IME having one fish in tank, unless its a large predatory or free swimming fish, it will hide constantly.

 

[Swine]

I have the same sort of problem with my cardinal fish... Its a big chicken when im trying to feed it this yummy thawed out mysis... its in a pretty good spot (water column?) where if i drop it in the food usually makes its way back towards it. I hate doing that because of excess nutrients but I rather it eat and live and I have to do one more water change.. I think it just hasnt got a hang of a turkey baster or feeding tweezers by its face. I was trying to think of a good way to make a "feeding" station. Like a jar I could put in there for a few minutes but it wont eat food off the ground.

I had this problem with my clowns hanging out at the top of my tank and my possums wrasse hiding like hell. Think about it this way...if your a fish on a reef and you don't see ANYONE, somethings up..there is a predator somewhere so HIDE! I put 2 green chromis in my tank because they are free swimming fish, they love the water column, just to get my others to come out. Behold 2 days later I have clowns, an possum wrasse, and a chromis all swimming frigging everywhere non-stop. They gotta feel comfortable that no one else is getting eaten, so they wont get eaten, they have natural instincts to hide already and not seeing one other fish is scary for them if they naturally see a ton (on a reef). IME having one fish in tank, unless its a large predatory or free swimming fish, it will hide constantly.

This sounds like a good idea and gives me an excuse to get some chromis I wanted. I might look into some wrasse as well.