Hectors Wrasse diet???

[peewee5779]

I bought 2 Hectors wrasses a month ago. They obviously were shy for a few days but are now part of the tank family. I noticed that they will only eat algae. No matter how hard I try, giving them all sorts of different foods directly in front of them, they won't eat it. Can they survive on just grazing algae?

 

[rayadog]

I think a mature mature system they could subsist off sifting the sand and picking the rock or glass. They should eat live brine if you can give them enough chance to eat it.

 

[rayadog]

^^ It wasn’t obvious but they also eat pods. They eat a lot it’s just a matter of getting them on prepared foods

 

[DaJMasta]

They go for copepods, they will pick at algae and sift sand to get food and in an established, well fed system that should be plenty.

That said, if you want to see them eat, hatch some artemia nauplii and feed them that. Haven't seen them go for a lot of free swimming copepods, but baby brine shrimp does the trick.

 

[peewee5779]

They go for copepods, they will pick at algae and sift sand to get food and in an established, well fed system that should be plenty.

That said, if you want to see them eat, hatch some artemia nauplii and feed them that. Haven't seen them go for a lot of free swimming copepods, but baby brine shrimp does the trick.

Ok great, I've done everything I can think of to get them to eat. I use several different frozen foods.

 

[JoJosReef]

Also, they aren't a type of wrasse. They are a type of goby.

Sometimes starting them on a varied live food diet can help transition to frozen/pellets. White worms almost always does the trick. Live brine and baby brine.

 

[DaJMasta]

Fwiw, your fish doesn't look underfed, and normally these fish show NO signs of interest in good, they just go on grazing like the excitement in the tank and the added food has nothing to do with them.

Artemis nauplii are the only food I have seen them actively pursue, but also definitely is not required for long term health, at least so long as you have a sand bed and some hair algae patches.

 

[peewee5779]

Fwiw, your fish doesn't look underfed, and normally these fish show NO signs of interest in good, they just go on grazing like the excitement in the tank and the added food has nothing to do with them.

Artemis nauplii are the only food I have seen them actively pursue, but also definitely is not required for long term health, at least so long as you have a sand bed and some hair algae patches.

Thank you I have them in my macro algae tank which as you probably know is a magnet for hair and other types of unwanted algae. They graze all day long on it. They are always around when I feed my frozen cocktail but they just don't look interested. The LFS that sold it to me had just gotten them in so didn't know if they were eating or not.

 

[peewee5779]

Thank you I have them in my macro algae tank which as you probably know is a magnet for hair and other types of unwanted algae. They graze all day long on it. They are always around when I feed my frozen cocktail but they just don't look interested. The LFS that sold it to me had just gotten them in so didn't know if they were eating or not.