Moon Wrasse not eating

[Crustoceous]

I have a recently added (10 days ago) moon wrasse (lunar wrasse, etc) that's pretty decent sized (about 5-6 inches) that seems to be doing fine except his feeding habits are a mystery to me. He shows zero interest in mysis shrimp when all the other fish are eating... he has a strange fascination with nori when I clip it in the tank but seems to be searching the nori for something else. The only feeding behavior I have witnessed is he will to go the edge of the tank and kind of attack the sand and get a mouthful, spit it out and do it again. He doesn't have any aggressive behavior, and no one is aggressive to him. He doesn't look like he's losing weight but it's a little unnerving that I don't see him eat. I think I've seen him eat mysis once.

He's very active and is always cruising around the tank, looking for new ways to travel through the rocks. I have a bunch of snails from top crown to nassarius, and a few hermits and he does not pay any of them any attention.

Should I try something else or just let him be?

 

[supernanoguy]

Any garlic guard? Fish can’t resist.

 

[JGT]

I have a recently added (10 days ago) moon wrasse (lunar wrasse, etc) that's pretty decent sized (about 5-6 inches) that seems to be doing fine except his feeding habits are a mystery to me. He shows zero interest in mysis shrimp when all the other fish are eating... he has a strange fascination with nori when I clip it in the tank but seems to be searching the nori for something else. The only feeding behavior I have witnessed is he will to go the edge of the tank and kind of attack the sand and get a mouthful, spit it out and do it again. He doesn't have any aggressive behavior, and no one is aggressive to him. He doesn't look like he's losing weight but it's a little unnerving that I don't see him eat. I think I've seen him eat mysis once.

He's very active and is always cruising around the tank, looking for new ways to travel through the rocks. I have a bunch of snails from top crown to nassarius, and a few hermits and he does not pay any of them any attention.

Should I try something else or just let him be?

Live brine shrimp.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have had mine about 3 years or more, and he is a good 6-7 inches. He will only very occasionally rest on the bottom (and for no more than about a minute), but other than that is a non-stop “go” machine until bedtime.

As you say, he will show a momentary curiosity anytime the nori clip is put in the tank, but I have never seen him actually take a bite. Also as you have noted, he is not a big fan of mysis. He will eat flake (pushed down into the water column) and loves pellets, but the meaty foods he like are cut-small pieces of shrimp or squid, and he will always attack a frozen cracked open mussel floating to the bottom. I hope this helps.

 

[Crustoceous]

Thanks for the tips! I actually saw him attack a chunk of nori, which only happened once. No interest in pellets... seems he's more interested in trying to dig something out of the sand bed.

 

[Crustoceous]

I got him some scallops and squid, he was interested and definitely ate some of the squid, but more so he kind of danced around it. Kind of weird but maybe that’s his thing. He snuggled up to it, swam all around it and eventually ripped a chunk off. So odd.

 

[Crustoceous]

Finally got him to be excited about food... he attacked a cracked open clam and ate the whole thing in one bite. He's also been eating Nori a lot... might have been because he wasn't getting what he needed.