Tough acclimation + not eating - Pearlscale Butterflyfish

WiscoFishNut · Jul 23, 2019

TL: DR - my newly acquired pearlscale butterflyfish won't eat

Here's the situation - I returned home on Saturday with the new fish to find my house without power. I was able to take a MP10 and battery backup that were still sitting in boxes for my new build and get it running in the tank for some flow. Fast forward to Sunday, was able to find a generator and get the aquarium gear on it. The tank was running with just the MP10 for around 30 hours I'd guess. The temp bottomed out just over 70 degrees. I've tried a few different pellet foods, frozen mysis shrimp, two varieties of Rod's frozen food (original & herbivore mix), and some dried seaweed, but the guy won't eat. I saw him eat maybe a couple pieces of the frozen at most. I also tried soaking the food in some garlic juice from a jar of minced garlic I have in the fridge. The water parameters were checked on Saturday before I went to the store and wall was good, with nitrates being at 5. I did acclimate him over about a 30-40 minute period before putting him the tank.

Any suggestions? My LFS isn't open until Friday, but I could get clams or mussels from the grocery store if those would be a good idea. I have a few more things in my arsenal I can try, but I don't want to overfeed the rest of the aquarium if I can help it. The fire shrimp certainly appreciated the extra food though lol.

Other stuff I have on hand :
dried brine shrimp
dried mysis shrimp
dried bloodworms
frozen bloodworms
a couple other different brands/flavors of pellets

Doctorgori · Jul 23, 2019

is his head fat when looking head on? ... often the thickness above the eyes gives you a good indication of the fishes fat reserves...
I also tried soaking the food in some garlic juice from a jar of minced garlic I have in the fridge.
personally I dunno about the garlic ....
70's a lil low, but my fish lived and ate in 72F for yrs

dried brine shrimp ... not a big favorite of mine
dried mysis shrimp .... a somewhat better choice, soakin selecon, et
dried bloodworms .... fw fish love these, not sure if it fits sw nutional needs
frozen bloodworms .. same

although live brine is basically potato chips nutritionally amongst other caveats, you could gutload some and see if it triggers a feeding response

you might be ok, give it a lil time

Nicholas Scelzi · Jul 23, 2019

Mussel or clam on the half shell from the grocery store is how I got my butterfly to start eating. Soaked it in garlic and angelixir before dropping it to the bottom of the tank.

Wrangy · Jul 23, 2019

First couple of things I'd recommend is getting your hands on some love brine/copepods or anything live to begin with and secondly it's clams or mussels and finally, definitely try flake. I've found even some really picky fish will start with flake. Hikari do clams on the half shell which my butterflies adore! I've attached a video of everyone in my tank going banana's over them. The little prognathodes marcellae butterfly doesn't eat pellets or flake but loves frozen and live food, so I feel your pain.

LesPoissons · Jul 23, 2019

Sounds like hes stressed and hopefully just needs time. Fresh clam from grocery store works too. Mine are everything and then started in on the corals. Did you qt? Did you treat?

WiscoFishNut · Jul 24, 2019

Doctorgori said:
is his head fat when looking head on? ... often the thickness above the eyes gives you a good indication of the fishes fat reserves...
I also tried soaking the food in some garlic juice from a jar of minced garlic I have in the fridge.
personally I dunno about the garlic ....
70's a lil low, but my fish lived and ate in 72F for yrs

dried brine shrimp ... not a big favorite of mine
dried mysis shrimp .... a somewhat better choice, soakin selecon, et
dried bloodworms .... fw fish love these, not sure if it fits sw nutional needs
frozen bloodworms .. same

although live brine is basically potato chips nutritionally amongst other caveats, you could gutload some and see if it triggers a feeding response

you might be ok, give it a lil time

Nicholas Scelzi said:
Mussel or clam on the half shell from the grocery store is how I got my butterfly to start eating. Soaked it in garlic and angelixir before dropping it to the bottom of the tank.

Wrangy said:
First couple of things I'd recommend is getting your hands on some love brine/copepods or anything live to begin with and secondly it's clams or mussels and finally, definitely try flake. I've found even some really picky fish will start with flake. Hikari do clams on the half shell which my butterflies adore! I've attached a video of everyone in my tank going banana's over them. The little prognathodes marcellae butterfly doesn't eat pellets or flake but loves frozen and live food, so I feel your pain.

Maya Ybry-Yagy said:
Sounds like hes stressed and hopefully just needs time. Fresh clam from grocery store works too. Mine are everything and then started in on the corals. Did you qt? Did you treat?

Thanks for all the suggestions folks! I finally caught him grazing on some leftover food last night thankfully

I really hope he'll take to pellets since I won't be able to feed frozen when I go on vacations. I'll have to ask my LFS if they can stock the Hikari clam on a half shell food, didn't know they made that.

67chevellemalibu2 · Jul 24, 2019

WiscoFishNut said:
Thanks for all the suggestions folks! I finally caught him grazing on some leftover food last night thankfully I really hope he'll take to pellets since I won't be able to feed frozen when I go on vacations. I'll have to ask my LFS if they can stock the Hikari clam on a half shell food, didn't know they made that.

You can get fresh clams from your local grocery store.