Clownfish will not eat!!

[doggfish]

I baught 2 percula clowns 4 days ago, and from the start they didn't really like anything fed them. I bought some marine fish food for them, and they ate a few peices. After that when i put it in, they just watch it float around in the tank, so I tried some tropical flakes (which my Damsels love). they didn't eat that either. Finally I tried Goldfish flakes with some doubt, and ofcourse that failed as well.
Last night I looked in my aquarium, and the clowns were not acting normal, the big one was just sitting on the bottom. She was slow moving, I put my hand in the tank close to her and she hardly moved at all. I was thinking maybe it is the water, so I took them out and put them in my smaller tank with the damsels (which have been alive and health for over a month now. This morning my clowns are still acting the same.
any help would be awsome

 

[chandler04]

Dude, get em some Mysid Shrimp, formula one food, brine, seaweed, anything. They wont survive on flakefood man. Go and grab some frozen shrimp from the store and a littel bit of dired seaweed. Mine love the seaweed, they chomp at it and mysid shrimp is a superb diet for em. Lol, dont starve yer fish man

 

[pacopetty]

are they eating yet?

 

[tsname]

I agree on the mysis too, every once in a while I'll put some mysis shrimp in my tank, and my Ocelaris goes crazy! I have some algae growing in my tank, and she eats some of the thick stuff too, which is cool.

 

[shawnhardy]

I experienced something similar. Sometimes, they don't eat until they get used to the tank. I was also concerned with their lack of eating but today they ate very well. I gave them frozen mysis and some spirulina flake. They pretty much ignored everything until today. I gave them mysis yesterday and they didn't really eat that. But like I said, today they liked it. Mine are on day 6 today. You should see them come around in the next day or so.

 

[fmelindy]

Or maybe they won;t come around and maybe there's something really wrong with your tank that you just don't know about. I had the same thing happen to two pairs of percs in the last two months. They were listless, wouldn't eat and swam strangely. They eventually all died. The guy at my LFS postulates that they may have had velvet and now my display tank is "colonized" with it but I don;t know enough about it to know. All I know is that there is somehting very wrong with 4 percs dying in my tank in such a short period of time and I'm not putting any more fish in there until I figure out what it is. Maybe you and I have a similar problem.

 

[dragonboy]

Percs clowns are very senstive to the change in water and they usually take long time for them to get use to a new tank. But once they come around get establish they do fine but its usually the begiing where it gets difficult when you first introduce them to your tank.

 

[mr. tuna]

I feed mine formula one, formula reef, krill, mysis shrimp,
and out of that... they love the formula one the most!
I have been feeding them live brine before.. but it has no nutrition.

 

[tsname]

Mr. Tuna, is that true? My brother used to feed his tank with brine as a treat, didn't know it wasn't nutritious. I take it that feeding mysis is a touch better?

 

[shawnhardy]

I have heard people say this but I always questioned it. Given that brine shrimp are living cells, they must be a source of protein at least. Anyone have any clue on this? I just don't understand how it has 0 nutritional value. Maybe minimal but doesn't seem possible to be 0.

 

[mr. tuna]

They do have some nutrition, but now enough to keep a fish
fat and healthy. I have lost a clown from feeding once only brine, and it died from getting so skinny. I have a clown now with was fat when i got him, and when i fed him brine, he got skinnier, so when i moved on to krill and especially formula
one, he grew, fatter, and much healthier. Also it enhances color, which it says, and some people believe is not true, but from what i can see, it really does. :yes:

 

[shawnhardy]

Thanks for clearing that up. Now I understand what people mean when they say that.