FoxFace not eating

[jnels]

Strangest thing, I cant get this new one spot Foxface to eat anything. Had him a 3-4 days. He was a CHONKY boy at the LFS and looked like he had been eating well. I don't have any truly 'aggressive' fish in my system currently and hes the only Rabbitfish. He shows signs of being stressed intermittently but is otherwise freely swimming while hanging out with my CBB. Other tank buddies are two clowns, azure damsel, 4 anthias and a marine betta. I've had a foxface in every tank i've had, this is the first time i've had this issue with this fish.

So far I have tried Mysis, brine, nori on a rock and on a clip and LRS. All with and without garlic. Tried the mysis and spit it out. Thats the only thing i've seen him try.

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

Is there any visible damage on the fish, I.e. nipped fins, marks, cuts? I am surprised usually they are pretty good with eating. Was the brine live, that could be something you may want to try. If the fish made an attempt at the mysis maybe try feeding that again with a longer soak in garlic. It is also possible this fish just needs some more time to assimilate into the tank. Some fish take forever to get comfortable but then become the biggest pigs.

 

[jnels]

Is there any visible damage on the fish, I.e. nipped fins, marks, cuts? I am surprised usually they are pretty good with eating. Was the brine live, that could be something you may want to try. If the fish made an attempt at the mysis maybe try feeding that again with a longer soak in garlic. It is also possible this fish just needs some more time to assimilate into the tank. Some fish take forever to get comfortable but then become the biggest pigs.

No visible damage. He looks great. Hopefully you're right and he just needs some more time.
T

 

[doubleshot00]

Does he hide when you feed or is he just not eating at all? How are you feeding?

FF are weird fish. Give him time.

 

[Gtinnel]

Does he seems to be stressed when you approach the tank, if so he may not be willing to eat with you near.
I had a one spot in qt that when I first got him he would hide when I approached the tank and wouldn’t eat. I eventually set up a camera facing the tank and as long as I dropped the food in and left he ate like a pig.

 

[doubleshot00]

Does he seems to be stressed when you approach the tank, if so he may not be willing to eat with you near.
I had a one spot in qt that when I first got him he would hide when I approached the tank and wouldn’t eat. I eventually set up a camera facing the tank and as long as I dropped the food in and left he ate like a pig.

THIS. I have my scopus in QT right now (used to be in my display and never hid) and if he can see me he wont eat. I drop food in then hide or walk out of the room.

 

[TheBear78]

The classic response would be to ask what the LFS was feeding. I would not expect this to be particularly expensive or unique.
FWIW, mine eats all of the above plus Red Plankton, Krill and nibbles the rocks looking for algae.

 

[jnels]

I really appreciate everyone's ideas and thoughts. After about a week and a half he just decided to eat EVERYTHING i put in the tank. haha.

One day i woke up and my duncan coral was retracted and I got worried that he would only eat coral. But when i feed the tank he started competing with the anthias for feed. He's skinny still, so im overfeeding for a bit to compensate, but I will give it some time.

Thanks again everyone,