Reef Journey
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2026
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- England
- What state or country do you live in
- United Kingdom
Hi - as a new reefer I’m posting this in case it helps anybody.
In the last week I bought a Copperband Butterfly, choosing one that was brave and was actively feeding alongside other fish. I’ve heard they can be tricky eaters.
Got him home and not eating for 3 days so looked on the forum. Shop said food had garlic in; forum said garlic can make food more appetising, but not clear to me (scared of killing fish) exactly what to do.
Here’s what I did: I’ve got one of those circular containers about 5 cm diameter with a mesh at the bottom (but you could manage without) so I put a block of frozen mysis in there, thawed it out and poured away the liquid (somebody told me it adds nitrates … but that’s not the point of this thread). Then I got a piece of raw garlic (about 5mm square) and added that and some pure RO back into the container. Swirled it around a bit (10-20 seconds? - sorry, can’t remember, but long enough to feel like it flavoured the water). Then I removed the garlic and put the mysis and RO into my usual feeder.
Turned my wavemakers off, squirted the liquid in and hey presto my wait was over and my beautiful fish ate. (Well, today anyway!).
Hope that helps someone. I was struggling with what ‘garlic juice’ was (in the forum) and whether pure garlic would kill the fish). I’m in the UK so perhaps it all made sense elsewhere.
In the last week I bought a Copperband Butterfly, choosing one that was brave and was actively feeding alongside other fish. I’ve heard they can be tricky eaters.
Got him home and not eating for 3 days so looked on the forum. Shop said food had garlic in; forum said garlic can make food more appetising, but not clear to me (scared of killing fish) exactly what to do.
Here’s what I did: I’ve got one of those circular containers about 5 cm diameter with a mesh at the bottom (but you could manage without) so I put a block of frozen mysis in there, thawed it out and poured away the liquid (somebody told me it adds nitrates … but that’s not the point of this thread). Then I got a piece of raw garlic (about 5mm square) and added that and some pure RO back into the container. Swirled it around a bit (10-20 seconds? - sorry, can’t remember, but long enough to feel like it flavoured the water). Then I removed the garlic and put the mysis and RO into my usual feeder.
Turned my wavemakers off, squirted the liquid in and hey presto my wait was over and my beautiful fish ate. (Well, today anyway!).
Hope that helps someone. I was struggling with what ‘garlic juice’ was (in the forum) and whether pure garlic would kill the fish). I’m in the UK so perhaps it all made sense elsewhere.
