Clownfish now refuses to eat anything but pods

[Saltysocks]

In a 20 gallon with 2 clowns. One of the clowns eats virtually whatever I out in the tank. For the past month the other clown will bite the food then spit It out. I had left earlier in August for about 8 days, and had ordered copepods just to make sure there was something in the tank for them, well problem being is now one of the clowns will not eat anything but pods now! I had been considering qt the fish, bit for the past 3 days I have watched her eat pods off the glass and searching around the sand bed for them. Mind you I have seen her take food once in the past month. The tank has plenty of pods. Is there a way to break this behavior or am I screwed? Better way to accommodate her rather than just watching her scavenge? She has become thin because as I said she refuses anything that isn't a pod. Could some kind of sickness turned her off to mysis, pellets and etc?

 

[Spare time]

Not sure if this helps, but you could try this food. Its not alive but they are pods so maybe this will help. What foods have you tried? Was the clown wild caught by any chance?

ARCTI-PODS®

Arcti Pods® are large, nutrition-packed copepods harvested from pristine artic waters. Naturally rich in carotenoids, HUFAs & wax esters for growth. Irresistible to most fish including finicky fish like Mandarins, plus LPS Corals and other invertebrates. Never pasteurized. Particle size 3000...

reefnutrition.com

 

[Alaeriel]

If he really likes pods, try feeding these! Perhaps by mixing these with your other frozen foods, you can get him to snack on something else

 

[Spare time]

This might also work

TIGGER-FEAST™

Reef Nutrition Tigger Feast™ is a highly concentrated, refrigerated form of the same copepods found in live Tigger-Pods® (Tigriopus californicus). This product is 100% aquacultured. Now available year-round!

reefnutrition.com

 

[Saltysocks]

Not sure if this helps, but you could try this food. Its not alive but they are pods so maybe this will help. What foods have you tried? Was the clown wild caught by any chance?

ARCTI-PODS®

Arcti Pods® are large, nutrition-packed copepods harvested from pristine artic waters. Naturally rich in carotenoids, HUFAs & wax esters for growth. Irresistible to most fish including finicky fish like Mandarins, plus LPS Corals and other invertebrates. Never pasteurized. Particle size 3000...

reefnutrition.com

I'll definitely look into that. As far as food I've tried: TDO chroma boost pellets, omgea one pellets, cobalt aquatics pellets, I've tired PE mysis, ocean nutrition frozen combo, frozen krill, and gvc mix flakes. At best the clown nips. As far as wild or captive I am not sure, I bought her from my lfs about a year and half ago and she's never exhibited such picky behavior UNTIL I added pods. I don't want to mistake her pickyness for illness but she really shows no signs so I'm trying to make connections.

 

[Saltysocks]

If he really likes pods, try feeding these! Perhaps by mixing these with your other frozen foods, you can get him to snack on something else

I wish I could find this! Never at my lfs sadly

 

[PokeFish]

I'll definitely look into that. As far as food I've tried: TDO chroma boost pellets, omgea one pellets, cobalt aquatics pellets, I've tired PE mysis, ocean nutrition frozen combo, frozen krill, and gvc mix flakes. At best the clown nips. As far as wild or captive I am not sure, I bought her from my lfs about a year and half ago and she's never exhibited such picky behavior UNTIL I added pods. I don't want to mistake her pickyness for illness but she really shows no signs so I'm trying to make connections.

yeah those are very good

 

[Alaeriel]

I wish I could find this! Never at my lfs sadly

LiveAquaria usually has these in stock! If you buy bulk live foods, you can get free shipping, I think!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

you can try frozen cyclops, or can-o-cyclops, which are pods. You can also try hatching live baby brine shrimp, maybe its live food that it wants.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Also try frozen fish eggs— they come in blister backs (cubes) and are hard for fish to resist.

 

[Saltysocks]

you can try frozen cyclops, or can-o-cyclops, which are pods. You can also try hatching live baby brine shrimp, maybe its live food that it wants.

That's kind of what I'm thinking too

 

[Alaeriel]

That's kind of what I'm thinking too

Bbs hatcheries are next to free and simple to run (we feed our dwarf seahorses out of the bbs setup that's literally a mason jar with an air pump and tubing rubber banded in place), so if you don't mind making a bit of extra water, everything eats bbs. We run two alternating setups and restart the culture every other day or so. They've got extremely low nutritional value, so we supplement with pods.

 

[Saltysocks]

Bbs hatcheries are next to free and simple to run (we feed our dwarf seahorses out of the bbs setup that's literally a mason jar with an air pump and tubing rubber banded in place), so if you don't mind making a bit of extra water, everything eats bbs. We run two alternating setups and restart the culture every other day or so. They've got extremely low nutritional value, so we supplement with pods.

That sounds great gonna check out some YouTube videos on that one

 

[Alaeriel]

That sounds great gonna check out some YouTube videos on that one

You can find some really slick setups on YouTube (I'm working on getting an imverted hatchery set up with plastic bottles, but I'm having a hard time keeping the airline tubing connections in the caps watertight with silicone.) Here's ours just before we added the eggs today. Desklamp with an incandescent light for heat, airline tube and pump, and the rubber band holds the tube in place around the mouth of the jar.

 

[Jekyl]

Get some real food! I saw a list of like 6 different kinds of pellets, some flakes, and mysis. Gets some Rods brand fish only and eggs or some LRS. Mine don't like mysis either and the freeze dried stuff is meh.

 

[Jekyl]

Get some of these and watch your fish turn into piranhas.

 

[Spare time]

I'll definitely look into that. As far as food I've tried: TDO chroma boost pellets, omgea one pellets, cobalt aquatics pellets, I've tired PE mysis, ocean nutrition frozen combo, frozen krill, and gvc mix flakes. At best the clown nips. As far as wild or captive I am not sure, I bought her from my lfs about a year and half ago and she's never exhibited such picky behavior UNTIL I added pods. I don't want to mistake her pickyness for illness but she really shows no signs so I'm trying to make connections.

Funny enough, a clownfish of someone's did a similar thing once it started eating my home made food. It refused anything but my food