Getting herbivores to eat in QT

[starypotter]

Hi everyone,
How do you get your herbivores to eat in QT? I've tried nori from the human food store, Ocean Nutrition algae sheets with garlic, omega one herbivore flakes, and ocean nutrition formula 2 pellets. He doesn't seem interested in any of them. There is NO medication in my QT. QT is monitored with an ammonia alert badge.

I have an algae blenny that I got mid August, he started out in regular QT with the fish I also got at that time. But then he was being a bully so I moved him to a frag tank QT to hope he would 'reset' and stop bullying the other fish. He got nice and plump in there, and I'm assuming he was just eating the GHA even though I would put in the nori/algae sheets on occasion but I don't know if he ate them or they just disintegrated. I wanted to start the medication process so one week ago I moved him back to the fish QT to see how he'd get along with the fish this time and was prepared to take him to the store if needed. He's been getting along fine but while he used to have a very plump belly he's now lost that and is getting thin and I want to catch anything before it gets worse.

He seems to want to eat but never really appears to find anything that's 'worthy'. Today I improvised with garlic, microwaving a clove with some water and then squirt some of the water into a high flow area. The fish did seem to perk up and want to eat more, and so did the blenny but nothing he still didn't actually try to eat anything.

He swims around on occasion gliding from one spot to the other, and none of the fish in QT show any signs of disease and there's not really any conflict. His color is darker in this QT but I think it's because the dark background and dark decorations where in the frag tank it was still fairly white rock and very white sand so he was light in color. All of the other fish are carnivores and omnivores so they eat the Hiarki Marine S pellets, omega one flakes and pellets with garlic, and the ocean nutrition prime reef flakes.

 

[saltyhog]

How are you presenting the nori? If just on a clip, try using a rubber ban and a small piece of live rock rubble and set it near where he likes to hang out.

 

[starypotter]

How are you presenting the nori? If just on a clip, try using a rubber ban and a small piece of live rock rubble and set it near where he likes to hang out.

Thanks that was going to be my next step, I've been using a clip but I have also tried rubber banding it to PVC and it still wasn't really being eaten, I'll go back to that this time.

 

[rkpetersen]

Take dry nori and rub some Selcon on it until it's soft and almost tearable. Put that on a clip or a rock and see what happens. Works great on tangs but may or may not on a blenny.

 

[TessGlo]

I've had the most luck getting finicky eaters on Masstick food paste, you can rub it right onto your rock-work for the blenny to graze. While it is not an entirely veg food, it is meant for herbivore fish. I like to rub it on a rock outside the tank and then place it in the tank.

 

[starypotter]

Take dry nori and rub some Selcon on it until it's soft and almost tearable. Put that on a clip or a rock and see what happens. Works great on tangs but may or may not on a blenny.

Okay cool I'll try that too see if the VitaChem I've got works thanks!

I've had the most luck getting finicky eaters on Masstick food paste, you can rub it right onto your rock-work for the blenny to graze. While it is not an entirely veg food, it is meant for herbivore fish. I like to rub it on a rock outside the tank and then place it in the tank.

I've never heard of that before I'll have to look it up, the blenny does tend to try to graze on the PVC and things though I'm not sure there's actually anything there to eat so maybe that'll work.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Try some brine or mysis.

 

[starypotter]

Try some brine or mysis.

Really? I never would have thought to try to feed brine to a herbivore, I'll have to start hatching some then.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Yep it might get them eating then veggies will come.

Frozen herbivore mixes can work also.

 

[starypotter]

Yep it might get them eating then veggies will come.

Frozen herbivore mixes can work also.

I do have a package of frozen food that's supposed to be for herbivores as well that I forgot about, it has 4 different sorts in one package... only problem is I can't tell which cube is which ;Hilarious I guess I'll have to take a proper look to see what it might be.