What to feed a tiny pink-streaked wrasse?

[djryan2000]

I ordered a "medium" pink-streaked wrasse from Live Aquaria. It came in the mail 20 minutes ago, and he's so tiny! It said medium so I expected close to an inch since they grow 2-2.5 inches, but this fish is less than a 1/4 inch. At first, I thought they shipped me an empty bag - that's how small he is. What can I feed a fish this big? I was planning on trying to feed Hikari frozen Mysis with metro but don't think that's feasible because the fish is the size of the shrimps. Should I just add some tonight/tomorrow morning regardless? I've never ordered a fish online before or bought one so small.

 

[PicassoClown04]

wow... that aint right! I'd feed pellet food made for fish fry, little tiny tiny pellets. Maybe try chopping the mysis as finely as possible then using a mortar and pestle on it to try to make sort of a paste? Mix with a little tank water for consistency and hopefully that's good. Id buy some pods real quick and dose your DT as well as your qt (if you have one) a little because the babies need frequent feedings. By putting in pods, you allow the fish to hunt for itself which means if he's hungry, he can eat. Good luck with the little guy, not cool of LA to label him as a medium!!

 

[djryan2000]

wow... that aint right! I'd feed pellet food made for fish fry, little tiny tiny pellets. Maybe try chopping the mysis as finely as possible then using a mortar and pestle on it to try to make sort of a paste? Mix with a little tank water for consistency and hopefully that's good. Id buy some pods real quick and dose your DT as well as your qt (if you have one) a little because the babies need frequent feedings. By putting in pods, you allow the fish to hunt for itself which means if he's hungry, he can eat. Good luck with the little guy, not cool of LA to label him as a medium!!

Thank you, I’ll give that a try!
He’s in my quarantine tank. I was considering pods but I wasn’t sure if the QT tank would actually support them or not.
I called LA and asked what they were feeding their wrasses and the associate told me they blend together a bunch of foods and drop them in the tank. I have a list of 10 foods to try. I also have a yellow wrasse coming in the mail from them.. hopefully he doesn’t decide to have a $70 meal in my QT tank.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Thank you, I’ll give that a try!
He’s in my quarantine tank. I was considering pods but I wasn’t sure if the QT tank would actually support them or not.
I called LA and asked what they were feeding their wrasses and the associate told me they blend together a bunch of foods and drop them in the tank. I have a list of 10 foods to try. I also have a yellow wrasse coming in the mail from them.. hopefully he doesn’t decide to have a $70 meal in my QT tank.

use netting to separate the fish if need be. if this is not a medicated qt, throw some live rock pebbles/ small pieces for the pods to hide and breed in, a cheato ball will also work for this purpose. Can we have a pic of the baby?

 

[djryan2000]

use netting to separate the fish if need be. if this is not a medicated qt, throw some live rock pebbles/ small pieces for the pods to hide and breed in, a cheato ball will also work for this purpose. Can we have a pic of the baby?

Thank you for the advice. My QT is actually set up like a normal display tank with sand, live rock, a HOB filter, and a skimmer. I’m slightly neurotic and didn’t want cycle issues.
Question - could adding pods cause an ammonia spike? While I do have prime at the ready, I would like to be careful.
Here’s a clip I got of the little guy, I didn’t think to take a photo while he was in the bag *facepalm*

if he comes out again I’ll definitely try to snap one!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Thank you for the advice. My QT is actually set up like a normal display tank with sand, live rock, a HOB filter, and a skimmer. I’m slightly neurotic and didn’t want cycle issues.
Question - could adding pods cause an ammonia spike? While I do have prime at the ready, I would like to be careful.
Here’s a clip I got of the little guy, I didn’t think to take a photo while he was in the bag *facepalm*

if he comes out again I’ll definitely try to snap one!

Pods wont cause an ammonia spike, it'll be fine. In a qt like that you'll be just fine! Pods are living critters so its not like you're putting in dead food that will just rot and cause ammonia. As long as its fully cycled (which it sounds like it is) adding pods wont cause a problem

 

[djryan2000]

Pods wont cause an ammonia spike, it'll be fine. In a qt like that you'll be just fine! Pods are living critters so its not like you're putting in dead food that will just rot and cause ammonia. As long as its fully cycled (which it sounds like it is) adding pods wont cause a problem

Great, thanks! My concern was if they died. Thank you for the help!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Great, thanks! My concern was if they died. Thank you for the help!

If you're overly concerned about the pods starving, add some phyto for them to eat. TheSpammailAccount is selling pod/phyto packs right now for really really cheap. My pods do just fine on the existing algae as well as fish waste and leftovers from messy eaters. I don't do anything special for them but then again, my tank is very established and I have more fish than a microscopic wrasse.

 

[djryan2000]

If you're overly concerned about the pods starving, add some phyto for them to eat. TheSpammailAccount is selling pod/phyto packs right now for really really cheap. My pods do just fine on the existing algae as well as fish waste and leftovers from messy eaters. I don't do anything special for them but then again, my tank is very established and I have more fish than a microscopic wrasse.

Great, thanks! I just ordered a brine shrimp hatchery too, so I'm hoping he'll eat that. I've been considering cultivating brine shrimp for either a dwarf seahorse or jellyfish tank and the possibility of feeding them to the little guy made up my mind.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Great, thanks! I just ordered a brine shrimp hatchery too, so I'm hoping he'll eat that. I've been considering cultivating brine shrimp for either a dwarf seahorse or jellyfish tank and the possibility of feeding them to the little guy made up my mind.

sounds good!

 

[wenliu51]

I agree with pods! So my Clowns have tiny mouths and I soak PE Mysis pellets with Selcon + garlic before feeding. The pellets are 1mm and perfect for tiny tiny fish

PE Pellets Saltwater Fish Food

A Nutritionally Complete Diet that Saltwater Fish Love! Made with Sustainably Harvested PE Mysis Packed with Omega Fatty Acids and Natural Color Enhancers Available in Three Pellet Sizes for All Fish Types PE Pellets are a palatable, highly digestible fish food specifically formulated to...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[lba4590]

My tiny fish (and corals) love frozen cyclops, even my larger wrasses do too! It’s not the easiest to find, I actually found some on Amazon from Zoomed that I froze into small cubes with Selcon added.

 

[flampton]

PE calanus is what I feed mine, but he's not that small, haha.

But truly the food is really small since it's a copepod

 

[djryan2000]

PE calanus is what I feed mine, but he's not that small, haha.

But truly the food is really small since it's a copepod

Thanks! Out of curiosity, how long did yours hide for?

I added live pods to the QT tank but the salinity may be too low for them - I have the tank at 1.019 to match live aquaria's salinity to try to reduce stress. Frozen pods sound like a great idea.

 

[flampton]

Thanks! Out of curiosity, how long did yours hide for?

I added live pods to the QT tank but the salinity may be too low for them - I have the tank at 1.019 to match live aquaria's salinity to try to reduce stress. Frozen pods sound like a great idea.

Mines about an 1 and 1/4 inch. Wait I just reread your post. What was the size of your fish? 1/4 inch is the size of a amphipod so I'm guessing yours is similar in size to mine.

Mine took about 3 weeks before it headed into the open much. Even then that is only for food and hunting and the rest of the time he's hiding. Once you get a good food setup you'll start coaxing the wrasse out a little more. Don't think it's ever going to be a fish that's always swimming up front though, lol

 

[djryan2000]

Mines about an 1 and 1/4 inch. Wait I just reread your post. What was the size of your fish? 1/4 inch is the size of a amphipod so I'm guessing yours is similar in size to mine.

Mine took about 3 weeks before it headed into the open much. Even then that is only for food and hunting and the rest of the time he's hiding. Once you get a good food setup you'll start coaxing the wrasse out a little more. Don't think it's ever going to be a fish that's always swimming up front though, lol

Thanks. Mine is tiny - but definitely not the size of an amphipod. If you've ever seen the Hikari Carnivore Blend frozen food, he's around the size of the Mysis shrimp included. I'm confident if I dropped him in my DT my hawkfish would consider him a $70 snack.

 

[flampton]

Oh wow, that's really too small for them to be selling them that way. I know there can be a lot of problems with really immature fish!

Yeah I would try the calanus but even then it might be too small. You might have to go with even smaller particle food. Like a hatchery diet. However PE calanus might be easier to find locally. I get mine from the only fish store in town and that's a Petco.

Good luck with him!

 

[djryan2000]

Oh wow, that's really too small for them to be selling them that way. I know there can be a lot of problems with really immature fish!

Yeah I would try the calanus but even then it might be too small. You might have to go with even smaller particle food. Like a hatchery diet. However PE calanus might be easier to find locally. I get mine from the only fish store in town and that's a Petco.

Good luck with him!

Thank you! I rush ordered a brine shrimp hatchery with eggs. I'm hoping I can feed him live brine shrimp. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that LA shipped a fish this small, but I digress.

 

[Roachbeef19]

Just try some mysis he looked big enough!!!!! Soak it in selcon and vitamins

 

[malacoda]

Mine wasn't much bigger than that when I got it (5 years ago from BlueZoo). It should be able to handle pellets that are 0.5 to 1.0 ... such as New Life Spectrum 1mm sinking pellets or Reef Nutrition TDO-B1,C1 or C2 Chroma Boost. It'll probably also suck down LRS Nano Frenzy like a champ. And it will continually peck at any copepods throughout the day.