Picky...slooooooow eating fish! Tips for feeding these fish?

[Jowieg]

My yellow tang goes mad whenever I put garlic enriched nori in, even my 6 line eats it.

I believe it helps because nearly ALL of my fish respond to garlic nori. Usually only the tang and angelfish eat nori. I switched to garlic nori and I have clowns and goby trying to get some.

 

[Jowieg]

I have a yellow clown goby that was placed in my nano tank. He was the only fish and would only hide without eating. I bought a fire fish as a dither fish and my clown goby has slowly started coming out to eat. I feed 2-3 times a day to give him an opportunity to at least feed once.

 

[hans4811]

My six line wrasse I had in my observation tank turns his nose up on a lot of food, tried many...then I threw in some live white worms.....GAME ON !!

 

[Katrina71]

I leave flow on to elicit a natural feeding response. I will pipette feed more delicate eaters. I find it offers a distraction to the more eager feeders.

 

[Dbasileccim]

I had two yellow tangs in my 144 and of course one of them was very aggressive to the other. To keep the bully away, I started feeding frozen mysis directly to the hiding tang with a long "turkey baster" and it worked great. The bully is now in tang jail in the sump and the other one still likes to eat directly from the end of the turkey baster.. My clown figured it out also so every time the turkey baster goes in the tank I have both the tang and the clown sitting at the end of the baster waiting for another mysis to show up... of course, without aggression from the jailed tang, everyone is eaten great on their own.

 

[JoshB94]

My marine betta is slow and only eats large chunks of frozen. I feed it with tongs now but even then the other fish sometimes grab it or ot melts before he gets it. I love feeding him though, he inhales then goes back to his cave.

 

[Tired]

If you have a fish that's eating, but easily outcompeted, train it to come into a safe space. A cup, a breeder box on its side, that sort of thing. Somewhere other fish can't come and commit theft.

 

[NJDragonet]

I got an impossible one Orange Spotted Filefish he is very slow but still eats mysis and brine and sometimes a bit of nuri. All that matters to me is that he can eat other things they are the hardest fish to keep with only 1% surviving in tanks for more than 2 weeks I have had him for about 3 months

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

My smaller clown is super timid. As soon as food hits the water and everyone swarms he hides at the back glass under the hob and waits for something to come near. So 3 months ago I started dropping a cloud in the front and then a drop or two at a time in the output of the filter. It falls right in his face and the undertow holds it there for a few extra seconds. Finally starting to see some growth in him almost 9 months later.

 

[Todd1white]

CBB wouldn’t eat, so I tried all the grocery store fresh seafood, he went for the clams. Now he eats LRS, selectively. Feminus wrasse never looks like she’s eating, but she is fat and happy, been seeding lots of, and a variety of pods. 6 new juvi lyre tail Anthias, I’m watching them go for, and then spit out, the real variety of food, flakes, pellets, frozen, so I’ve been trying cyclops, Arctic-pods, oyster eggs. Been close to a month and they’re still with me, so they must be eating something.
it’s enough to make my hair grey!

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

I got an impossible one Orange Spotted Filefish he is very slow but still eats mysis and brine and sometimes a bit of nuri. All that matters to me is that he can eat other things they are the hardest fish to keep with only 1% surviving in tanks for more than 2 weeks I have had him for about 3 months

I love that majestic angel in your pic. Mine (named Mystic) is my favorite tank inhabitant.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I've had mostly clowns and damsels and angels; never a problem with slow, picky eaters. Had a Mandarin once; it thrived on detritus worms.

 

[Brian W]

My filefish is a slow eater. I usually shoot food towards him first with the turkey basket and then feed my clowns piece by piece. The clowns will stay near the turkey baster longer, the file fish just stats secluded in his cloud of LRS lol.

 

[Miller535]

While this doesn't really answer your question, I think it best to put fish in a tank that have similar feeding aggression. Really timid fish just generally don't fare well with more aggressive eaters. With that said, it can be done, it just takes more work. For instance I have a 125 gallon tank full of very active eaters, then I have a court jester gogy who is very passive. The court Jester Goby tends to hang near his hidey hole on the right side of the tank, so I feed the food on the left side of the tank and all of the other fish go over there, then I quickly a little of the gobies preferred food while the rest of the gang it not looking. And this allows the goby to get his.

 

[NJDragonet]

I love that majestic angel in your pic. Mine (named Mystic) is my favorite tank inhabitant.

I love the breed hands down my favorite angelfish

 

[Nhjmc]

Can we talk about picky, slow eating fish today?

I have one and it takes forever to fatten him up and patience to keep him a good weight! I have this power blue tang who will grab up a bite of frozen fish food but then will chew on it for a while and then come back for more. Problem is that he misses out on more food because the other fish are gobbling it up as soon as it hits the water. So I have to use a turkey baster and slowly release food to him as he is ready.

Do any of you have slow eating and picky eating fish?

What are some tips for making sure these picky fish get enough food?


Image via ximanamix from FishLore.com

omgggg loveee this pic! aweee!

 

[Nhjmc]

Everything in my tank loves loves loves fish eggs EXCEPT my file fish he/she will only eat brine or mysis shrimp (was eating pellets but I stopped with those cause read they can create alot of phosphates). The file fish also will come after small chunks of shrimp i.e. I cut up a frozen shrimp stick a lil pc. on a wooden bbq skewer to feed/when I go to feed my nems and sexy shrimp.

 

[BighohoReef]

I've had success with picky eaters in quarantine by soaking foods in Selcon.

I might give give this a try... have you seen any spikes in nitrates using this stuff?

 

[BighohoReef]

Our Hawaiian cleaner wrasse causes me to lose sleep at night. Pickiest little eater... It just started to get it to feed on a mixture of oysterfeast, phytofest, mysis, cyclopods, spiralina, benepets and crushed flakes and just for good measure I've seeded the tank with live rodifers and tigerpods. Today I finally noticed it eating the cyclopods and flakes and it's constantly pecking at the rocks and wall. The other fish and CuC love it, it's like a buffet of foods, we also just added a clam and the skimmer is going nuts to combat the bioload.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Timely subject! I just recently moved the last of my fish from my old system to my new system and my gobies just don't seem to be eating. They are behaving completely normal in all other ways. Active and alert, accompanying their shrimp everywhere, and generally appear to be well settled in. Just not chasing down food they way they did before. The fish look good so they must be eating something but when I feed them they let food drift right past their faces. I have a pretty solid copepod population so I can only guess they might be filling up on those? It still feels concerning to not see them get excited for anything that I send down to them.

In the past I've had luck feeding picky guys by shrinking food down. When my clowns were giving me trouble they had their appetites kick started with coral food. They enjoyed 0.8mm pellets after that (1mm was too big) and now eat anything that will fit in their mouths (and sometimes stuff that wont)!