Cardinal fish not eating in QT

hannernanner · Mar 8, 2021

I've got a pair of Bangaii cardinals in a QT tank. This is their 5th day in the tank, and while they seem to go after food when I put it in, they've been spitting out everything! I've tried frozen brine, mysis, and some Rod's food. Is this normal? I figured captive bred fish wouldn't have issues with eating. Anything else I can try?

threebuoys · Mar 8, 2021

For grins, try some dry food too. Mine have been eating small pellets (1 - 1.5 mm) since the day I got em. They like frozen brine too, but they get more nutrition from the dry.

wishnewfish · Mar 8, 2021

there are a lot of factors here,
1. if the fish has been captive bred, you need to know what exact brand and type of food they were fed. (ask the fish store you bought them at).
2. If they are not captive bred, you have to train then to eat by mixing their most preferred food which is live food (pods with frozen brine or mysis), the main key is that they have to eat something so you can train.
You can experiment with fish eggs, live worms, or even frozen pods like cyclops or even reefroids. its a hit an miss and you end up overfeeding your tank.

I had them eat pods and introduced them to my display tank which has pods. but no matter how many pods you have they will end up dying if they dont switch to frozen food or pellets eventually.

Dousing your food in garlic can help trigger their feeding response but most likely they will spit out any frozen food initially.