Raccoon Butterfly

[Mmun]

I got a raccoon butterfly from live aquaria divers den. I have had him for two days. I have tried frozen LRS food, angel butterfly frozen food, pellets, and nori with no luck of him eating. I tried one feeding with lights out and still nothing.
Any suggestions

 

[Pbh-reef]

Two days is still early.

Can you get live black worms or white worms at any LFS? Those often entice feeding.

Try clams - you can buy them at the supermarket and freeze them and shave small pieces off with a knife or open them and see if the butterfly will pick on them.

You can also try hatching baby brine shrimp.

 

[JMM744]

This is good advice. I might add, watch it for infections . Be familiar with the qt procedures and have your meds on hand already just in case.

Two days is still early.

Can you get live black worms or white worms at any LFS? Those often entice feeding.

Try clams - you can buy them at the supermarket and freeze them and shave small pieces off with a knife or open them and see if the butterfly will pick on them.

You can also try hatching baby brine shrimp.

 

[scriptmonkey]

I happen to have one, he will only eat live blackworms and frozen blood worms. If you have coral watch him, they like to nip. I have to rehome mine because of it.

 

[Mmun]

Its now been a week. I have no access to live black worms. I have tried oysters on the half shell and live brine shrimp with no luck , and yes everything I have tried has been soaked in garlic as well. I have spent a lot of money on extra food. Its getting frustrating. I have read to try and get a small anemone???? Lets say he eats or picks at that, I still have to get him to switch over to something else. Whether he makes it or not, this will be my last butterfly attempt.

 

[JMM744]

Frustrating for sure. Is the fish swimming around and looking healthy? What size is it? What about mastick placed on a rock? Have any live rock with aptasia on it or someone local to you who has the same?
It’s a crap shoot for sure trying to get one eating but raccoons are usually a hardier fish. I keep a colony of white worms on hand and use them in place of black worms to try getting the finicky eaters engaged. I have lots of aptasia in my sump and can place a rock covered with it in my butterfly tank and they will clean it in just a couple hours. Hope you can get it eating.
Jim

 

[Mmun]

He is swimming. He seems bashful though. Stays in one half of the tank. Havent seen anyone chase him. I don't believe my rock has any of that on it. I could check the lfs. Its pretty good. What is a mastic? I can get frozen blood worms at LFS. They don't have live black worms.

 

[Mmun]

Forgot to answer, he is about 4.5 inches

 

[User1]

You mentioned Garlic. Unless you are trying to keep away fish vampires maybe stop and try feeding the food naturally and only a little at a time. Frozen but thawed mysis or bring shrimp, LRS frenzy, blood worms, dry pellet new life spectrum, etc. Always just a little bit at a time if it is the only fish in the tank.

If you are concerned or worried about something (because you noted garlic) Selcon is a good choice but not mandatory.

 

[JMM744]

Here is what it is. You can add types of food to it as well. Add some to a piece of rock or to the glass side of your tank. White worm cultures are available thru mail order as well but take time to get going as a steady source of food.
His size is an advantage as he has more meat on him so can survive without eating a bit. Watch for red spots though which can be infection.

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Reefs-M...ick+fish+food&qid=1556721936&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

[Pbh-reef]

A week isn’t great but it can take some
fish time to settle in. The other possibility is that the butterfly has an internal parasite or a disease like gill Flukes that makes eating uncomfortable. Consider preparing for this possibility by reading about internal parasites treatment and fluke treatment on the disease forum. Ich and velvet are also possibilities but with no other symptoms are less likely.

 

[Montiman]

When I worked at an LFS we fed frozen blood worms regularly specifically because it was the only thing butterflys would eat. It is worth a shot.

 

[hanas]

Have you tried Masstick? It's a powder you can mash into a ball and stick it onto glass. I recently had a Copperband Butterfly who wouldn't eat in QT (which was surprising cause I've always had luck with PE Mysis) and he loved it. This was after not eating anything for over a week. You can buy it on Amazon and don't make the whole pack, just do a little and see what happens.

FWIW, I recently bought a Multibar from DD and knew how finicky they can be about eating. He refused everything (and I mean everything) for the first 3 weeks, but now is accepting Mysis on daily basis. He's still in QT and will be for at least a month to add more weight before going into the display.

Also, have you treated with Praizpro for flukes? They can often impact feeding and I've received fish from DD with flukes. Keep in mind, Prazi itself will also suppress the appetite of most fish (from my observation), so do a water change (and add carbon) after 48 hours to clear it from the tank.

 

[drstardust]

+1 for Masstick. It's fantastick (womp lol). Seriously, though, I'd give it a shot.

 

[hanas]

It's great for butterfly fish since their natural eating habit is to pick at things. So stick some of this onto a piece of rock in your QT, or the bottom corner of the glass tank (which I what I did) and see what happens. Then after a few days, mix some Mysis or Brine shrimp into it and they'll start realizing this is food also and eat from the water column.

I've been a huge supporter of DD and most of my fish come from either there or LA, but feel lately they are just putting DD fish up without any general conditioning and cherry picking the healthy (essentially fat) fish that come into QM and selling them on DD before they are eating. My Multibar was so fat, and for it to not accept anything if it was supposedly eating at DD doesn't make sense to me. Turned down live clams, black worms, every frozen option available for 3 weeks.

 

[WMR]

Try the worms, black worms, white worms, I’ve used frozen bloodworms, I’ve also used frozen mosquito larvae. Hikari has frozen tubifex worms & there’s frozen polychaete worms.

 

[mborn]

I’ve had my raccoon butterfly for over 5 years. I feed frozen Piscine Mysis. He loves them and eats until his stomach is fat. Interestingly, he won’t touch Rod’s pacific plankton and holds out for the Piscine. He’s been a perfect reef tank citizen, never has touched a coral (SPS/LPS) or clam, or sea anemone and gets along with the other fish. I initially got him to go after aiptasia, but he won’t touch those either. The only thing he ever nipped was a feather duster worm.

 

[scriptmonkey]

Throw some coral in, mine seems to like that as well