Fish feeding

[cleaner_shrimp]

I consider myself an expert reefer but it’s time where my knowledge is just not enough. I need some super experts opinions. I have 2 things and I’m going to start with my first situation. So recently I picked up a banded pipefish, this is in a 13.5 gallon tank to grow him out as a baby, the tank is extremely mature being over 3 years old and home to my mandrin dragonette who has successfully been trained to eat frozen foods. But I’m trying to teach it to eat some sort of frozen to supplement his diet but he seems to ignore even my live pods. I grow my own pods at home and I have some tigger pods aswell to try to train him that the pipet means food. But so far he won’t even eat the live tiggers. He only wants the ones on the glass or just ignores food Al together. My chemistry is almost perfect and I’ve had no chemistry fluctuations for a long time. If anyone had any tips or experience with these little guys I’m open to all suggestions. My second situation is in my 40 gallon, in order to make space for the pipefish I moved over my yellow watchmen goby and he seems to like the space but he won’t eat anymore and I’ve had him in the 13.5 for 3 years. Idk if it’s just he needs to acclimate but he just ignores the food. The other part to the situation is regarding my starry blenny. He’s a massive dude being at 5.5 inches or around 5 I’ve never really measured but he seems to have gotten slimmer over time and he won’t accept foods. He spits out the spyirolina brine I give him and he has showed less interest in nori and algae wafers than he used to. He is breathing pretty fast and usually when I see this it means the fish is soon to pass but I want him to survive cause he’s a incredible specimen and he’s one of my favorite fish. If anyone knows how to help with these situations I’m open to all suggestions.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I consider myself an expert reefer but it’s time where my knowledge is just not enough. I need some super experts opinions. I have 2 things and I’m going to start with my first situation. So recently I picked up a banded pipefish, this is in a 13.5 gallon tank to grow him out as a baby, the tank is extremely mature being over 3 years old and home to my mandrin dragonette who has successfully been trained to eat frozen foods. But I’m trying to teach it to eat some sort of frozen to supplement his diet but he seems to ignore even my live pods. I grow my own pods at home and I have some tigger pods aswell to try to train him that the pipet means food. But so far he won’t even eat the live tiggers. He only wants the ones on the glass or just ignores food Al together. My chemistry is almost perfect and I’ve had no chemistry fluctuations for a long time. If anyone had any tips or experience with these little guys I’m open to all suggestions. My second situation is in my 40 gallon, in order to make space for the pipefish I moved over my yellow watchmen goby and he seems to like the space but he won’t eat anymore and I’ve had him in the 13.5 for 3 years. Idk if it’s just he needs to acclimate but he just ignores the food. The other part to the situation is regarding my starry blenny. He’s a massive dude being at 5.5 inches or around 5 I’ve never really measured but he seems to have gotten slimmer over time and he won’t accept foods. He spits out the spyirolina brine I give him and he has showed less interest in nori and algae wafers than he used to. He is breathing pretty fast and usually when I see this it means the fish is soon to pass but I want him to survive cause he’s a incredible specimen and he’s one of my favorite fish. If anyone knows how to help with these situations I’m open to all suggestions.

Did you acclimate watchman to new tank? A change in chemistry- light -flow will require adjustment
For pipefish, live rotifiers and baby brine shrimp are enticers then wean to frozen

 

[CoralB]

Baby brine shrimp soaked in vitachem then weaned on frozen like vetteguy mentioned . If you also soak the frozen in vitachem it makes it easier to wean . Just my two cents

 

[vetteguy53081]

I consider myself an expert reefer but it’s time where my knowledge is just not enough. I need some super experts opinions. I have 2 things and I’m going to start with my first situation. So recently I picked up a banded pipefish, this is in a 13.5 gallon tank to grow him out as a baby, the tank is extremely mature being over 3 years old and home to my mandrin dragonette who has successfully been trained to eat frozen foods. But I’m trying to teach it to eat some sort of frozen to supplement his diet but he seems to ignore even my live pods. I grow my own pods at home and I have some tigger pods aswell to try to train him that the pipet means food. But so far he won’t even eat the live tiggers. He only wants the ones on the glass or just ignores food Al together. My chemistry is almost perfect and I’ve had no chemistry fluctuations for a long time. If anyone had any tips or experience with these little guys I’m open to all suggestions. My second situation is in my 40 gallon, in order to make space for the pipefish I moved over my yellow watchmen goby and he seems to like the space but he won’t eat anymore and I’ve had him in the 13.5 for 3 years. Idk if it’s just he needs to acclimate but he just ignores the food. The other part to the situation is regarding my starry blenny. He’s a massive dude being at 5.5 inches or around 5 I’ve never really measured but he seems to have gotten slimmer over time and he won’t accept foods. He spits out the spyirolina brine I give him and he has showed less interest in nori and algae wafers than he used to. He is breathing pretty fast and usually when I see this it means the fish is soon to pass but I want him to survive cause he’s a incredible specimen and he’s one of my favorite fish. If anyone knows how to help with these situations I’m open to all suggestions.

Another food - baby guppies

 

[cleaner_shrimp]

Did you acclimate watchman to new tank? A change in chemistry- light -flow will require adjustment
For pipefish, live rotifiers and baby brine shrimp are enticers then wean to frozen

I didn’t have time to acclimate him I basically just plopped him in there and left the lights off for a couple hours to let him get used to it, as far as chemistry the chemistry was almost indentical at that time because I had to make adjustments to my dosing but he had been in my fluval for 3 years and he doesn’t seem to mind his new tank mates, he’s been way less agressive and more open to sharing his cave but he literally ignores his favorite food when I put it right in front of him. Ive had multiple deaths in this 40 from just random stuff and I’m thinking about doing a icp cause I’ve had a yellow coris be perfectly healthy and just die the next day same thing for a cleaner wrasse and a fairy wrasse.

 

[cleaner_shrimp]

Baby brine shrimp soaked in vitachem then weaned on frozen like vetteguy mentioned . If you also soak the frozen in vitachem it makes it easier to wean . Just my two cents

I’ve never heard of vitacheam, I’m definitely going to try it out but I’ve been using small amounts of some garlic and that made it super easy for the mandrin cause he absolutely devours some brine / mysis with garlic. But imma see about some baby brine. I might actually buy some eggs and use my second copepodculture that crashed to retry with the brine to see how they do.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve never heard of vitacheam, I’m definitely going to try it out but I’ve been using small amounts of some garlic and that made it super easy for the mandrin cause he absolutely devours some brine / mysis with garlic. But imma see about some baby brine. I might actually buy some eggs and use my second copepodculture that crashed to retry with the brine to see how they do.

Vitachem is similar to Selcon as its a vitamin supplement. Before Selcon, this was the only choice.