Getting difficult fish to eat...how do you do it?

[Daniel@R2R]

Recently, we've had a copperband butterfly we've been trying to encourage to eat, and our method was variety and feeding throughout the day. He seems to be responding.

There are a number of fish that tend to be pretty finisky in the hobby (some species are known for it, and other times, maybe it's a specific specimen that gives you trouble). What have been the methods you've found to help finicky fish start eating in your tank? Tell us what has worked for you!

 

[exnisstech]

CBB are probably the only difficult to get to eat fish I have worked with. I isolate the fish in a more natural setting vs pvc pipe and no rock. Currently I'm using a tote sitting on top of my stock tank. Live rock, coral, and aiptasia (the latter already gone yay) Pump water up with a canister filter and it drains back into the stock tank through holes I drilled. Totally ghetto but by day 11 or so I had him eating live black worms pe mysis and earth worms. If I used glass I would black it out, fish seem more relaxed vs clear glass all around. I do not treat unless a fish shows signs of illness but if I did copper it would not be untill I completed this step, which is get the fish fat and healthy first. Too many people put them strait into QT with copper or other medication and fish die. IMO that should be that last step unless illness is known to be present.

He is already swimming up and greeting me because he knows I am the food giver.

He likes earthworms

 

[Daniel@R2R]

That's cool! And, yes! I completely agree that with fish that are known to be tough to get eating, any treatment should be reserved until after they're eating and healthy. Where do you get your earthworms? I hadn't thought to try those with him.

 

[vlangel]

I have found live food to be helpful to get them over the hump of acclimating to a new environment. Soaking in garlic has also helped.

 

[exnisstech]

That's cool! And, yes! I completely agree that with fish that are known to be tough to get eating, any treatment should be reserved until after they're eating and healthy. Where do you get your earthworms? I hadn't thought to try those with him.

I just pick them up under rocks or logs on our property. I'm in a rural area and not too concerned with chemical run off or anything of that nature. Not sure if I would buy them to feed not knowing how they had been raised.

 

[Mark Goode]

I only have the one fish with a reputation as a difficult feeder, and that's my Singapore angelfish, Boo. I wasn't aware of their reputation, so I just asked the girl in the LFS if she was feeding alright (I didn't even ask to see). My tank had only been set up for a couple of months and I was eager to see some fish in there. After a drip acclimatisation (I'm English, that's how we say it) I put her in the tank where she vanished into the gloom.

At feeding time the next morning she was happily eating mysis, and continued to do so. My only concern was that she would only eat mysis, and I worried she wasn't getting the right diet. Since then her tastes have expanded, and she'll eat most things (expensive coral a particular favourite I was soon to discover).

It was only later that I learned of their reputation as difficult fish. I hear on this forum of people who have never seen one actually feeding; I saw an old post by Jay Hemdall that he has never heard of anyone keeping one for more than a year. Well, 2 years and a couple of months on, and she's still looking good.

My point, somewhere in this waffling post, is that I think so much depends on the individual fish. If a beginner like me could have success with a fish like this in a new tank, then I must have purchased a healthy and rather resilient specimen (It helped that the girl who ran the marine section at the LFS both knew and cared about the fish she stocked). I wonder what percentage, of each species of fish imported, are sturdy enough to cope with tank life easily compared to those who are not. In some species it clearly high (especially in those fish you regret buying), and in others - the dream fish - I guess it's sadly quite low.

That all made sense when I was writing it, now I'm not so sure...

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

I have found live food to be helpful to get them over the hump of acclimating to a new environment. Soaking in garlic has also helped.

This is the way. My wife rescued a tiny porcupine puffer that was in very bad shape. Very skinny, his tail was almost completely gone from finrot, then flukes and ich. He was very difficult to get to eat. He finally started eating live brine, then live blackworks, then graduated to live ghost shrimp. Those are difficult for me to get my hands on, but thankfully he graduated to easier to get stuff. Now he gets a whole clam (i buy them from a seafood market down the street that im at regularly anyway) every 2 or 3 days. He'll eat frozen mysis buts he's not enthusiastic about it, and frozen krill is like crack to him but he only gets it as an occasional treat.