Help me get my second queen anthias eating

[Maddlesrain]

I added two queen anthias to my tank a week ago. One began eating frozen food within days, the shyer of the two continues to refuse food, even live brine. He’s picked at a couple pieces of the frozen stuff, enough that I thought he might pick-up the habit from his buddy, but has since been listless and wary. I was able to convert the more aggressive of the two over to frozen brine by making a feeding contraption that I started adding live brine to and then mixing in frozen. While in a frenzy to get the food before my other fish, he started accidentally grabbing the dead stuff and now eats it without issue. He’s also learned to come to the glass when I go to the tank like the other fish and isn’t shy about muscling my Chromis aside to get at a shrimp. He’s not quite to mysis yet, but he’ll grab them and spit them out, so that’s a start I guess.

The other, shyer, fish either ignores the food entirely or swims away and hides out on the other side of the tank. He’s pretty alert and will watch the food go by or prowl around and eye-up the rocks / corals as if looking for something to eat, but never actually eats anything. I know anthias are open-water feeders, but these guys definitely keep tabs on their surroundings and are pretty vigilant.

At this point I’m just not sure what to do for him to hopefully get a feeding response. I know he can’t go on much longer without eating / eating much. He did grab those few frozen chunks a couple times, but my hopes are pretty shot on him being an aggressive feeder like the other one now that I watched him not eat at all today.


Here’s a photo of the more aggressive of the two holding his own against my piggy crew of fishes:

 

[deedubz]

Nutrimar ova seems to be fish crack, though I haven't seen it available for a while. Have you tried live black worms or ROE?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Purple queens are notorious for refusing eating. The times I have seen the most success with them is in large groups, 12+.

 

[Maddlesrain]

Nutrimar ova seems to be fish crack, though I haven't seen it available for a while. Have you tried live black worms or ROE?

I have not. I tried frozen eggs, but hadn’t tried the ROE or black worms yet. The worms were next on my list. I just hope he’s ok until I can get them for him... and then I just pray he eats them!

Purple queens are notorious for refusing eating. The times I have seen the most success with them is in large groups, 12+.

I had read that. The one of the two eats like a champ, but this poor second one is definitely living up to the notorious queen anthias reputation.

I wish I knew someone with a large school of anthias, even if they weren’t queens. I’d be tempted to let them take him as a way to help this guy. He watches the other one eat, but decides he doesn’t want to try the food himself.