My fish don't like mysis shrimp?

[Trever]

I have two immature clowns and a young royal gramma.

These guys pig out on the TDO Chroma Boost small that I feed them.

But when I thaw out some frozen San Francisco Bay mysis shrimp, they attack the first one that goes by, eat it, then stop. The tank becomes a small storm of the shrimp swirling around, because after eating one (maybe two) they don't eat more. I have ended up pulling out the excess with a net.

Is my fish's apparent lack of interest in the mysis shrimp normal? I would have thought they would prefer it to pellet food.

Or am I misunderstanding something? Is one or two of the mysis shrimp all a fish can eat? Relative to their mouths the mysis shrimp are large, but I have assumed it's all "fluff" and empty space for the most part- that it's like cotton candy, meaning they would have space for a bunch. Am I wrong about that?

Is the brand of shrimp I'm using sucky? It certainly stinks! Pew!

 

[stanleo]

Do you feed the entire cube? With just three small fish I would only feed a third or less of a cube at a time. Just break it up and thaw a little at a time. You can save the rest for the following days. Do you have a CUC that can handle eating most of the rest that the fish don't eat?

 

[Trever]

@stanleo no CUC yet, they would starve (~40 days running).

Nope- don't feed the entire cube! That would make for a lot of me-as-CUC work. I give a small corner of a cube.

The point is I can see what the fish eat. It's one or two pieces. Whereas they eat the TDO Chroma Boost like it's crack cocaine. I am surprised by this.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Try adding some garlic extract to it which entices fish to eat
Seachem ENTICE is a good product to get finicky fish to eat also

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Have you tried any live foods IE copepods or brine?
~Shaun K

 

[Trever]

@AlgaeBarn I "dosed" the tank with some Reef Nutrition tigger pods, LFS said they would reproduce, after I said I thought they wouldn't without a proper habitat/culture whatever.

The fish went after the pods, especially the clowns. Turned off pumps and the lights, but just before I hit the lights I saw the clowns snarfing 'em down.

Haven't seen a pod since. :mad:

Felt like I got scammed but it would be good to know how to do that right, because clearly the fish love them and a mandarin goby is something I want to get down the line.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

@AlgaeBarn I "dosed" the tank with some Reef Nutrition tigger pods, LFS said they would reproduce, after I said I thought they wouldn't without a proper habitat/culture whatever.

The fish went after the pods, especially the clowns. Turned off pumps and the lights, but just before I hit the lights I saw the clowns snarfing 'em down.

Haven't seen a pod since. :mad:

Felt like I got scammed but it would be good to know how to do that right, because clearly the fish love them and a mandarin goby is something I want to get down the line.

so i always say shut off lights, any flow/pumps, remove any filter media for like an hour when adding pods. If you have a sump or rear chamber fuge i would do half in display and half in the other section. So 4 jars= two in display and two in fuge/sump. You could also try brine shrimp ~Shaun K

 

[takitaj]

Similar here. My tank is pretty "new" as well. I have 2 tiny 1-1/2" clowns and they don't even look at the mysis but they go after the pellets like a kid to candy! The pellets have pretty varied ingredients like mysis, seaweed, vitamins, etc. so they are still getting a varied diet. I have a cleaner shrimp as well so I'm sure it's cleaning up some of the missed opportunities.

 

[j.falk]

My clowns refused to eat mysis when they were little. I eventually got them to start eating it by soaking the mysis in water with some minced garlic.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Well...how much TDO chroma boost do the fish eat? Like, how many pellets? I like to think of frozen food as vegetables, and pellets as mashed potatoes. There's a bit of fiber (chitin), and a lot of water content. Eating 4 ounces of celery is going to be different from eating 4 ounces of plain mashed potatoes. First of all, I hate celery, and love mashed potatoes. Second of all, all of that fiber and water content is going to fill a person up more than just the starches in mashed potatoes. See where I'm going here?

Have you tried using something smaller than mysis, like, say, frozen copepods (PE calanus, Cyclop-eeze, Hikari Cyclopods, etc.)? You might have better success with them nomming on something that's not super big.

As for pods, it'll take a bit for the population to get established. Give it a few months, and you'll probably have a great population going.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Another issue with only sending out the "large pods you can see" is those are more towards the end of their life cycle and are usually a quick easy meal for the fish so they have a harder time of actually seeding your tank. ~Shaun K

 

[Trever]

so i always say shut off lights, any flow/pumps, remove any filter media for like an hour when adding pods. If you have a sump or rear chamber fuge i would do half in display and half in the other section. So 4 jars= two in display and two in fuge/sump. You could also try brine shrimp ~Shaun K

@AlgaeBarn thanks.

I have Julian's Thing, basically a fancy turkey baster. I was wondering if I "injected" the pods into the holes in my pukani rock (there's tons) if that would work?

I have a single piece of pukani rock and an unused sponge filter in my sump, no refugium (sponge filter is so I have something "cycled" I can throw in my hospital/QT tank). The sump does have chambers (4), and the rock is in a separate chamber from the return pump. I could also inject the rock in the sump?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

@AlgaeBarn thanks.

I have Julian's Thing, basically a fancy turkey baster. I was wondering if I "injected" the pods into the holes in my pukani rock (there's tons) if that would work?

I have a single piece of pukani rock and an unused sponge filter in my sump, no refugium (sponge filter is so I have something "cycled" I can throw in my hospital/QT tank). The sump does have chambers (4), and the rock is in a separate chamber from the return pump. I could also inject the rock in the sump?

If the flow is off and you can pour the pods "into" the rock they should naturally try to hide inside of it ~Shaun K

 

[AlgaeBarn]

@AlgaeBarn thanks.

I have Julian's Thing, basically a fancy turkey baster. I was wondering if I "injected" the pods into the holes in my pukani rock (there's tons) if that would work?

I have a single piece of pukani rock and an unused sponge filter in my sump, no refugium (sponge filter is so I have something "cycled" I can throw in my hospital/QT tank). The sump does have chambers (4), and the rock is in a separate chamber from the return pump. I could also inject the rock in the sump?

oh oh oh! We also have two products on our site called Dragon Roe and ZooMed can o cyclops. The cyclops are pods in a "gel" so you use the included spoon and they unfurl in the water and the Dragon Roe are highly nutritious fish eggs. The dragon roe cause in the freezer but it never freezes solid while the cyclops goes in the fridge. I haven't seen any fish refuse either of these. ~Shaun K

 

[Trever]

@AlgaeBarn and @ichthyogeek I should say that my LFS is highly regarded, so I was surprised to feel like what she told me was bunk.

And it may not be bunk... per what you're saying... The fish have started to nip at the rocks (they never did that before). So I wonder what might be going on there that I can't see. But that could be related to other things growing/incubating. I don't have any visible anything. It's just the carib sea sand, the pukani, air bubbles from the skimmer that drive me a little nuts by now (2+ weeks of this), and the 3 little fishes. Kind of a pretty desert...

 

[Trever]

Also, I don't understand what would be keeping the PODS alive... what do they eat? I'm behind on my biology research... I thought they eat algae and maybe I have that in the water column but it isn't visible or growing anywhere (my lights are still off).

 

[AlgaeBarn]

@AlgaeBarn and @ichthyogeek I should say that my LFS is highly regarded, so I was surprised to feel like what she told me was bunk.

And it may not be bunk... per what you're saying... The fish have started to nip at the rocks (they never did that before). So I wonder what might be going on there that I can't see. But that could be related to other things growing/incubating. I don't have any visible anything. It's just the carib sea sand, the pukani, air bubbles from the skimmer that drive me a little nuts by now (2+ weeks of this), and the 3 little fishes. Kind of a pretty desert...

Check the tank at night with a flashlight. Once the population takes off you should be able to see them on the glass like i see in all my tanks with lights on. ~Shaun K

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Also, I don't understand what would be keeping the PODS alive... what do they eat? I'm behind on my biology research... I thought they eat algae and maybe I have that in the water column but it isn't visible or growing anywhere (my lights are still off).

phyto plankton

my clowns don't eat Mysis either, even with entice so I just stick to pellets that they eat like crack. Ill sometimes throw in a little bit of mysis for any corals that might like it or my CUC that love them.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Also, I don't understand what would be keeping the PODS alive... what do they eat? I'm behind on my biology research... I thought they eat algae and maybe I have that in the water column but it isn't visible or growing anywhere (my lights are still off).

They eat micro algaes and phytoplankton. ~Shaun K

 

[lba4590]

I have 5 very small fish and the only two that will eat mysis are the yasha goby and the firefish - I assume because their mouths are bigger. My tiny clownfish and anthias pick at them but ultimately mysis are too big for them, I feed them frozen plankton and cyclops which they LOVE.