New 4-6" Coral Cat Shark not eating

[Austin’s Reefing]

Hi,
This morning is day 5 of getting my shark and I haven't seen him eat yet. When I got him he was active during acclimation and the following morning at 4am. I've tried feeding him around 10 pm and 0500 am when lights are off, but he hasn't eaten anything. I've tried frozen krill, what the LFS was feeding, mysis, and scallops, but no luck. The last couple days I haven't seen him come out from under the rocks, seen him change positions, but not swimming around around 0400-0500. Ammonia and nitrates a good. Going to try and get squid to try to feed early tomorrow morning.

Is this normal or is there anything I can do?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

What is the actual ammonia reading, and what are you using to test it?

Are there other animals in the same tank? How are they doing?

Is the food cut up into an appropriate size?

 

[Austin’s Reefing]

What is the actual ammonia reading, and what are you using to test it?

Are there other animals in the same tank? How are they doing?

Is the food cut up into an appropriate size?

Ammoina 0.5 Nitrates 5. Using both Reef Master Kit and Freshwater Master Kit for more detail tests.

I have many fish and coral and all are doing great and eating.

I cut the scallops in small bite size pieces that are a little smaller than her mouth and krill and mysis food comes small.

She's keeps moving around under the rock and even had her head sticking out of the rock this morning. I changed the light settings to keep it darker to see if that would help too, but still need some light for the coral.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ammoina 0.5 Nitrates 5. Using both Reef Master Kit and Freshwater Master Kit for more detail tests.

I have many fish and coral and all are doing great and eating.

I cut the scallops in small bite size pieces that are a little smaller than her mouth and krill and mysis food comes small.

She's keeps moving around under the rock and even had her head sticking out of the rock this morning. I changed the light settings to keep it darker to see if that would help too, but still need some light for the coral.

These kits not recommended. I recommend two things:
- Get yourself better kits such as Salifert or Hanna brand
-
ake a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at
I will never trust a $7 badge or $25 master kit to sustain hundreds of dollars in livestock.

Its important to monitor and maintain both ammonia and nitrate as sharks are messy housekeepers. What method of filtration are you using and what type of tank ( Pictures?)
Scallop ok but offer squid, shrimp, crab meat

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

True 0.5 ppm ammonia could be high enough to be toxic (depending on high high your pH is). I always suggest that ammonia levels be below 0.25 ppm

If you have a thin broomstraw, or a piece of rigid nylon fishing line (like they use for leaders) you can try impaling a small bit of food to that, and then present it to the shark, near its mouth. A gentle movement of the food will sometimes bring on a feeding response.

 

[Austin’s Reefing]

Got some live shrimps for LFS and he ate some. Used my night vision goggles and fed him in the dark and it work.