Help! First QT and new reefer....Coral Beauty laying on bottom...

[Jay Hemdal]

Her mouth was open for quite a while, and she still laid down a few times...but this morning her mouth is mostly closed and she’s darting in and out of her ‘cave’. Still haven’t gotten her to eat mysis or pellets...hopefully she’s nipping the algae when we aren’t scaring her.

I got to thinking about this - I was mostly worried about the rapid breathing and lethargy, but never asked you if the food is the correct size for this small fish. Live baby brine shrimp would be something to try. Are the pellets you have small enough? You will likely need to dice the mysids up to get them the right size.

Jay

 

[threebuoys]

I got to thinking about this - I was mostly worried about the rapid breathing and lethargy, but never asked you if the food is the correct size for this small fish. Live baby brine shrimp would be something to try. Are the pellets you have small enough? You will likely need to dice the mysids up to get them the right size.

Jay

Good point... I have a bi color that devours pellets in the 1.0 - 1.5mm range! Has since the day I got him. That size also works well for other smaller fish.

 

[Sam816]

I got to thinking about this - I was mostly worried about the rapid breathing and lethargy, but never asked you if the food is the correct size for this small fish. Live baby brine shrimp would be something to try. Are the pellets you have small enough? You will likely need to dice the mysids up to get them the right size.

Jay

Superb point this. my CBA in QT only eats small pellets by Aqua forest. They are not completely dry and sink. I have hikari seaweed extreme and marine pellets of same size range but it only eats AF pellets somehow. None of my other fish ate these while in QT.

 

[maugustine]

check pH and salinity and temp. Could be stress, I had that problem with a coral beauty. Needs a place to hide.

Did u try adding something they he can hide in To help reduce the stress? I don’t know if that would help but have noticed some new fish I added behaved In a similar way from stress.. we put a rock from the tank in with them.. after they calmed down they started eating but it took a day.

 

[gunflintcamper]

I got to thinking about this - I was mostly worried about the rapid breathing and lethargy, but never asked you if the food is the correct size for this small fish. Live baby brine shrimp would be something to try. Are the pellets you have small enough? You will likely need to dice the mysids up to get them the right size.

Jay

Yes we have the tiny tiny pellets for 1” fish cuz our clowns were pretty tiny.
and I thawed and mashed the mysis so there were tiny bits.
going to try again tonight. But she’s acting completely normal..swimming around but then when she sees us - hiding in her tube and peeking out.