Get em to eat

[gravismaximus]

i have a lyretail and a blue hippo in the QT, got them on wendsday. besides watching the hippo swimm out of the water (other recent post) i havent seen either one eat anything and starting to get worried. in fact i still see pellets, and krill on the bottom of the tank (have feed them flake, mysid, bloodworm and romaine lettce strip also)from feeding them and dont want the nitrite levels to go up so what should i do, 1. leave the food there and let them eat it if they choose to (its in there diet)or 2. take it out and try more flake/mysid/etc. i dont think there eating the flake or mysid either, i just dont see it resting on the sand bottom (dissolved over time). the fish are not fighting, they hide under a rock side by side most of the time. any suggestions?

 

[life~reefer]

I would not leave uneaten food on the bottom if you don't have a CUC. You need to add some nori to the tangs diet because most tangs don't eat romaine lettuce. I don't think it gives them much nutritional value either. You can get any color (green, red, or even purple) but try getting it from the international section of the grocery store because it will be cheaper. You may want to add some vitamins to your food such as vitachem or selcon. I have always been against bloodworms but that is just my opinion. Hope this helps you! It is great that you have a QT!! Good Luck!

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by Life~Reefer
http:///forum/post/3241875
I would not leave uneaten food on the bottom if you don't have a CUC. You need to add some nori to the tangs diet because most tangs don't eat romaine lettuce. I don't think it gives them much nutritional value either. You can get any color (green, red, or even purple) but try getting it from the international section of the grocery store because it will be cheaper. You may want to add some vitamins to your food such as vitachem or selcon. I have always been against bloodworms but that is just my opinion. Hope this helps you! It is great that you have a QT!! Good Luck!
+1

I also do not like Bloodworms, in fact, none of my fish eat them or flakes and pellets.
As for the Nori sheets (aka Seaweed), this is where I disagree. Try to get Ocean Nutrition Red Algae or Brown Algae sheets with garlic added to them, I've never seen a tang turn these sheets down, even finicky eaters. I've gotten many finicky tangs to eat this when they refused everything else. Romain lettuce is a snack to tangs, if they'll even eat it.
Do you see these guys eat at the LFS?
Try soaking the food you're feeding in some garlic and vitamins, this usually will entice finicky eaters.

 

[gravismaximus]

they were mail ordered, so no on watching them eat. i will try the nori (seaweed), but why did you say you recomend not using blood worms? if they eat it isnt that a good thing? or did you mean just from a nutritional value or can they hurt the fish? (like live feeders can to other fish).

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by gravismaximus
http:///forum/post/3241899
they were mail ordered, so no on watching them eat. i will try the nori (seaweed), but why did you say you recomend not using blood worms? if they eat it isnt that a good thing? or did you mean just from a nutritional value or can they hurt the fish? (like live feeders can to other fish).
I do not recommend blood worms. I don't think they have much nutritional value, if any for salt water fish and usually just make a mess of the tank. They're not going to harm your fish, but won't help much either. It's like feeding a kid nothing but candy. I definitely would not use them in a QT w/o a CUC as they can make water parameters go out of whack.

 

[stanlalee]

I had one anthias that wouldn't eat in QT for a week...bought 3 more and they ALL went ape shyt as soon as food touched the water. hippo's are shy yet greedy, if its healthy sooner or later it should get brave enough in the qt surroundings to eat. if not well thats what QT is for to weed out the healthy from the aint going to make its. i guess all fish are different. I ordred my old hippo size 3/4-1" and it ate within 30 minutes of taking out the bag. singular anthias can be very finniky before settling in, dont think its abnormal at all.