how long do you wait to feed in qt | rainford goby

[LuizW13]

Good evening reefers,

I received a captive-bred Rainford Goby today that is currently in the QT. I was wondering how long other people wait before feeding. I'm asking because i tried feeding him a couple of pellets and a very small piece of frozen Rods food, but i don't think he ate any, although looking interested at the Rods food.
I'm thinking i shouldn't worry as the fish might still be stressed from the travel and is still acclimating to a new environment.

The QT is a 10 gal tank with a HOB filter, a heater, air tubing and a small piece of live rock from my display (will remove if treatment is needed) and a PVC cave. The water is fresh( mixed yesterday) at 1.026 which matched almost perfectly with the bag in the water. I have also dosed the water with a few drops of MicroBacter to help with the nitrogen cycle. I shouldn't have to do a water change in a few days, right? But, just to make sure, I'm going to try to buy one of those ammonia alert badges tomorrow- that kept me sane last time lol.

I haven't seen him move much since he discovered the PVC cave. It's probably okay though, right?

Anyway, excited to hear y'alls experiences!

Thanks!

 

[DoggoThePuffer]

Good evening reefers,

I received a captive-bred Rainford Goby today that is currently in the QT. I was wondering how long other people wait before feeding. I'm asking because i tried feeding him a couple of pellets and a very small piece of frozen Rods food, but i don't think he ate any, although looking interested at the Rods food.
I'm thinking i shouldn't worry as the fish might still be stressed from the travel and is still acclimating to a new environment.

The QT is a 10 gal tank with a HOB filter, a heater, air tubing and a small piece of live rock from my display (will remove if treatment is needed) and a PVC cave. The water is fresh( mixed yesterday) at 1.026 which matched almost perfectly with the bag in the water. I have also dosed the water with a few drops of MicroBacter to help with the nitrogen cycle. I shouldn't have to do a water change in a few days, right? But, just to make sure, I'm going to try to buy one of those ammonia alert badges tomorrow- that kept me sane last time lol.

I haven't seen him move much since he discovered the PVC cave. It's probably okay though, right?

Anyway, excited to hear y'alls experiences!

Thanks!

First of all, do a water test. You can feed your fish whenever you want. Just make sure they are up to eating.

 

[LuizW13]

First of all, do a water test. You can feed your fish whenever you want. Just make sure they are up to eating.

Ammonia 0, No2 0, No3 0 - as i expected.

Usually, i'll do a water change every 3 days in QT. This time however, i've added a HOB filter and a live rock from my DT- so, water quality should not be an issue.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Despite the transport stress I feel it's important to get a fish eating asap. One way to do that is to start with live brine shrimp. Feed exclusively for a couple of days then gradually introduce frozen mixed with live. By the end of 2 weeks you should be feeding frozen exclusively. I like it mixed with spirulina (hakari) for better nutrition. You can also mix some soaked pellets with that once it's eating. Only feed enough for five minutes of active feeding, once a day. It should stay in QT for a minimum of 4 weeks and during that time you can get it feeding on your DT feeding schedule. Obviously the QT is to prevent transmission of diseases to your DT, but it also gives the fish time to chill without competition from tankmates. I would also pull the LR out of there in case you need to treat prophylactically. I would not put that rock back into the DT to avoid possible disease introduction.

 

[LuizW13]

Despite the transport stress I feel it's important to get a fish eating asap. One way to do that is to start with live brine shrimp. Feed exclusively for a couple of days then gradually introduce frozen mixed with live. By the end of 2 weeks you should be feeding frozen exclusively. I like it mixed with spirulina (hakari) for better nutrition. You can also mix some soaked pellets with that once it's eating. Only feed enough for five minutes of active feeding, once a day. It should stay in QT for a minimum of 4 weeks and during that time you can get it feeding on your DT feeding schedule. Obviously the QT is to prevent transmission of diseases to your DT, but it also gives the fish time to chill without competition from tankmates. I would also pull the LR out of there in case you need to treat prophylactically. I would not put that rock back into the DT to avoid possible disease introduction.

I should been prepared with some live food- since the fish is captive bred, i didn't even remotely think getting it to eat was going to be a big deal. I emailed the seller and they said the fish was eating TDO pellets and frozen spirulina brine shrimp. They also mentioned the fish is shy for 3-4 days when introduced to a new environment- which makes sense, since the fish spends most of it's time hiding in the PVC's ; unless it doesn't know i'm there watching.

The live rock will be removed before any treatment if that's even necessary.

Thanks for your input!

 

[jd371]

This was one of the fish I took a chance and didn't QT the other being my Spotted Dragonet. They state the Rainford is an Omnivore but it wouldn't eat anything I put in the QT. Worried he was going to starve to death I moved it to the DT and as soon as I moved it to the DT he started sifting the sand right away and eating the algae film off the rocks. Been in the DT for few months now and I haven't seen him eat any meaty type food just what he gets from sifting the sand and algae off the rocks and glass.
I was surprised to see him eat some Cyano, I thought nothing eats Cyano. I have a few small patches of Cyano in the tank and last week I used a dropper to blow it off the rocks and I thought I saw him eat some. I sucked up Cyano into the dropper and squirted it in his direction and as I thought I saw him eat it. He won't eat it off anything it's covering only when it's floating around in the water column.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Agree with getting it eating ASAP. As long as you are okay with doing more water changes then don't be shy to try to feed a few times/day. Siphon out what he doesn't eat. The sooner he starts eating, even a little bit, the better off the situation will be.

 

[LuizW13]

This was one of the fish I took a chance and didn't QT the other being my Spotted Dragonet. They state the Rainford is an Omnivore but it wouldn't eat anything I put in the QT. Worried he was going to starve to death I moved it to the DT and as soon as I moved it to the DT he started sifting the sand right away and eating the algae film off the rocks. Been in the DT for few months now and I haven't seen him eat any meaty type food just what he gets from sifting the sand and algae off the rocks and glass.
I was surprised to see him eat some Cyano, I thought nothing eats Cyano. I have a few small patches of Cyano in the tank and last week I used a dropper to blow it off the rocks and I thought I saw him eat some. I sucked up Cyano into the dropper and squirted it in his direction and as I thought I saw him eat it. He won't eat it off anything it's covering only when it's floating around in the water column.

I just went to the fish store to get some Hikari spirulina brine shrimp, stopped at home and put a tiny piece in the QT, did not see it remotely interested

I have been thinking about skipping QT; I think i'll have to. I've seen him skimming the bottom of the QT when it swims, i think it's looking for sand. Since it's captive-bred, i'm assuming i should be okay skipping QT, probably a lower chance of have some type of disease or parasite.

I think I'm going to put it in the DT tonight if it doesn't eat. There's no other tankmates other than a few hermit crabs to spook it. Although the only thing that slightly worries me is the gnarly bacteria bloom; but i'll just put the air pump in DT until it clears up.

 

[LuizW13]

The fish is now in the DT. He swam around for quite a bit but didn't sift any sand yet. For a captive bred fish, it sure is shy; it's currently hiding between some rocks. I'm going to try and putting some Spirulina Brine shrimp in there to see if it eats.

 

[LuizW13]

Man, what a shy little fish. It really only swims around when the pumps are off, so i assume it's still settling in. However, it doesn't appear to be eating any of the prepared foods, I even bought some pods and plankton to get it to eat, which didn't look very appetizing it seems.

On a good note, i did see it sift some sand once or twice. I've seen it pick on the rocks as well.

 

[jd371]

I don’t feed flakes or pellets just live foods. I feed both live black and white worms, mysis and brine shrimp also some LRS. While the other fish are eating the worms and food the rainford just does his own thing and continues to sift the sand.
Once it settles in and gets comfortable it will start sifting more.

 

[LuizW13]

I don’t feed flakes or pellets just live foods. I feed both live black and white worms, mysis and brine shrimp also some LRS. While the other fish are eating the worms and food the rainford just does his own thing and continues to sift the sand.
Once it settles in and gets comfortable it will start sifting more.

I've read someone was able to feed it LRS, but i don't think i have any in my area. I think i'll try some live food tonight.