Banggai Cardinals - Help!

[BigMack]

I just picked up a nice pair of Banggai Cardinals. Currently they are residing in a CPR aquatics in-tank refugium so they can get used to their new neighbors... It's been 2 days now, and the little buggers won't eat. Since they are inside the refugium, competition for food is not the problem. They seem to acknowledge that what I am giving them is food - they show interest when it is introduced, the swim up to it, they just won't eat it! I've tried spirulina brine, mysis, pellets, flake food... what is it that these finicky fish eat???

 

[Diesel]

Mmmm.......... Did you tried to a few drops of Garlic extreme to soak your food with?
In most cases that trigger them to eat as it taste like candy to the fish........... now that "taste like candy" is hearsay but it works for me all the time.

 

[mikester]

They would eat fish eggs I feed mines and they are trained to eat algae sheets and flakes

 

[redfishbluefish]

I hadve their cousins....pajama's....and when I first introduced them they were very picky and only ate either table shrimp finely chopped or mysis. They now sort of eat anything I put in there, but still prefer shrimp.

 

[NanaReefer]

Mine would never touch the food you're offering. Try Reef Frenzy or Rods.

 

[mikester]

Rods

 

[dmh41532]

I had two, both captive bred, the one started eating frozen after a week. The second one would only eat live brine shrimp. I had to call the vendor to find out that was fed live food, and i took 7 months of live food before i stsrted to eat frozen.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Sometimes getting the food in a high flow area elicits a chase response and can get them to eat.

 

[Mike in CT]

In my opinion if they are not eating frozen mysis then they are just stressed and will eat once they acclimate. The only other food I can think of you can try are live black worms if you can get them.

 

[BigMack]

Sorry to wait so long on the reply... But Mike was right... After keeping them in the in-tank refugium to make sure they weren't picked on, they eventually started eating... and these guys are no slouches - when it's feeding time and they're hungry, they make SURE they get fed! They will aggressively go after all the foods they previously turned their noses up at. I've tried a couple times before and they just starved out - the difference this time was first and foremost selection. I bought larger specimens that looked extremely well fed. They thinned out a bit in the week they didn't eat, but once they started eating they bounced right back.