Spotted sweetlips not eating!

[Jacob64]

Recently added a sweetlips in my 150gal tank. He hasn't been eating anything, have tried krill, brine shrimp and a mix of different frozen foods even soaked them in garlic. Added him with a small v-tail grouper rock hind grouper and foxface who all eat no problem. It's been 5 days now Any suggestions?

 

[TerraFerma]

Its a tough fish and they really only eat live food. Depending on how big he is - go get some black worms, feeder (ghost) shrimp, or something along those lines. Maybe live brine too. If he ends up going along with that program you will need to start gut loading the feeders and/or soaking them in fish vitamins.

 

[Jacob64]

Its a tough fish and they really only eat live food. Depending on how big he is - go get some black worms, feeder (ghost) shrimp, or something along those lines. Maybe live brine too. If he ends up going along with that program you will need to start gut loading the feeders and/or soaking them in fish vitamins.

Ok thank you i will go do that tomorrow hopefully he will eat, is there a way to get them turned onto frozen foods?

 

[Synodontis]

Hi Jacob,

If your spotted sweetlips is a juvenile, getting them to eat is the hardest thing to do. Try soaking small pieces of raw green Prawn in garlic then feeding. They wont touch frozen food if it has been thawed, they need "chunky meaty" raw seafood. Anything like worms or brine shrimp are just to small. You will need to work out what size chunk your sweetlips is happy with, to big it gets spat out, to small it gets ignored. Once they reach adult size they will need feeding 2 - 3 times a week. They will also suck Turbo's out of the shell if hungry

Jen has to shop at the fish monger to feed ours a diet of Salmon, Sword fish, Oysters, raw Mussels, Prawns, Barramundi & Tuna. They are very messy eaters & will take their time chewing their food. Feeding oysters will also feed the whole tank with the mess they make. Scallops are to tough for them, they will be chewed & spat out. You know how big these fish get? up to 2ft long. An old pic of ours below with a large adult cleaner wrasse.

 

[Jacob64]

Sadly he died this morning, I wasn't aware they were so difficult to feed. I was told he'd eat the frozen shrimp I was feeding my groupers but clearly this wasn't the case. Thank you for the help!