Lyretail anthias not eating

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Would LRS frozen work.

While that's a good food, it still doesn't have the texture and look of a natural food item, so it will take some training for the fish to accept it, less training than flakes or pellets, but still some. The idea behind using natural whole or live foods is that there is less training involved. All of this only applies to fish that are in the process of adapting to aquarium foods. There are other reasons why a fish won't eat in captivity...health issues, diseases, having been caught with cyanide, etc.

I recently posted this short article on relative feeding responses in fish:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/relative-feeding-responses-in-fishes.1146254/

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Feed frozen mysis. If it won't eat the frozen mysis then find some live baby brine shrimp, live brine shrimp is a great way to get finicky fish eating.

 

[cdemoss01]

Here is a photo I could get. Not the best

@vetteguy53081

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081

Add some ruby rally pro to tank. Keeps at least mine in check with potential issues

 

[cdemoss01]

Add some ruby rally pro to tank. Keeps at least mine in check with potential issues

Did you notice something? Or is ruby rally just in case? Will it have adverse affects on coral or inverts?

 

[cdemoss01]

Update: I saw it eat. However the LRS pieces are extremely small. Not even a CM. I could barely see them. She sucked them in like plankton I guess you could say. Is that a good thing? Or is this anthias looking for plankton or extremely small food like that.
Also after feeding LRS my leather coral and one of my rose BTAs closed. Any ideas?

 

[cdemoss01]

Also I tried the flake method it just spit them out.

 

[Ryan - Serious Reefs]

Assuming it is not illness related, Elliot has told me this is often because they don't recognize it as food. They are planktivorous so find things that look more similar to their natural diet. There is a point of no return where if they don't eat they never will so act fast.

I do know the trick he uses with Purple queens is live brine first, then frozen calanus, then tiny pellets. Takes a month or two but after that they are no harder than most other Anthias.

He has also shared with me that he doesn't like using them but live bloodworms can get a lot of fish to eat that otherwise won't. The "wriggling" triggers a feeding response for these types of fish.

Call the local LFSs today, one will probably have live bloodworms or live brine. If you want to save them time to action matters.

 

[cdemoss01]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 what do yall think. LFS sold me it. Can the rest of the fish along with the anthais eat it? And where should I place the cubes at? In front of a powerhead?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 what do yall think. LFS sold me it. Can the rest of the fish along with the anthais eat it? And where should I place the cubes at? In front of a powerhead?

They should relish this. Additionally brine shrimp, Chopped krill and plankton

 

[cdemoss01]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 what do yall think. LFS sold me it. Can the rest of the fish along with the anthais eat it? And where should I place the cubes at? In front of a powerhead?

They should relish this. Additionally brine shrimp, Chopped krill and plankton

All the fish ate it including anthias. Thanks guys

 

[vetteguy53081]

All the fish ate it including anthias. Thanks guys

This is one my anthias absolutely love

 

[cdemoss01]

This is one my anthias absolutely love

Will be getting second soon

 

[Tcook]

Will be getting second soon

They also love the frozen calanus made by PE. Give the some variety. I have used the calanus on pickier new anthias including pictilis and ventralis and they can’t resist it.

 

[cdemoss01]

Will be getting second soon

The also love the frozen calanus made by PE. Give the some variety. I have used the calanus on pickier new anthias including pictilis and ventralis and they can’t resist it.

All my fish loved it.

 

[Biokabe]

Glad you got her eating, hopefully you can keep up with her demands. =) Long term, if you'd like to keep more anthias (or just make things easier for your lyretail), an autofeeder is invaluable. If you can get your anthias trained to pellets, the Eheim feeder isn't terribly expensive ($35-$50) and handles pellets and flakes quite well. If you have more budget, the Avast Plank is amazing.

Regardless, an autofeeder allows you to easily present your anthias with multiple small meals, which is what their bodies are adapted for. It's not 100% necessary (I've heard of plenty of people keeping anthias on 1-2 meals a day) but for me, having those multiple meals made keeping my lyretail a breeze.

 

[cdemoss01]

Here we go again... Fed mysis again. Put it in it's mouth and spit it out. Why.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Camden, are you near the water in Florida? You might try collecting some live plankton to get her started. Sometimes a light on the water at night attracts plankton that you could scoop out with a fine net. Just a thought.

As an after thought this us why you ask the store to allow you to see the fish eating before making a purchase. Also notice some and breathing patterns. I also think Anthias are schooling fish and seem to do better in a trio or more. Honestly, have forgotten so much about fish care over the years...but you are getting good advice from the experts here.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

If things don't improve you might consider returning the fish to your store for an exchange....

 

[cdemoss01]

Camden, are you near the water in Florida? You might try collecting some live plankton to get her started. Sometimes a light on the water at night attracts plankton that you could scoop out with a fine net. Just a thought.

As an after thought this us why you ask the store to allow you to see the fish eating before making a purchase. Also notice some and breathing patterns. I also think Anthias are schooling fish and seem to do better in a trio or more. Honestly, have forgotten so much about fish care over the years...but you are getting good advice from the experts here.

Nowhere near Florida. I'm gonna try and get another anthais soon.