Pygmy red rooster wasp fish

[Thumpsios]

Hello! This will be my first thread on r2r, I am curious about my little wasp fish that I picked up last night I got the pair of them for 100$ and they just hide and haven’t eaten yet, I’ve tried frozen brine, love ghost shrimp and dry sinking pellets. My current tank is a 75 gallon 10 nitrate, 8.4 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. Salinity is 1.0026, acclimated for about 20 minutes, tank has been setup for 6 months, water changes bi weekly. Just curious as to why they won’t eat is it due to them just acclimating to their new surrounding or should I know something else

 

[champduke21]

I’ve had mine for about 2 weeks. It eats black worms which my lfs sold me. It hasn’t eaten frozen or pellets yet.

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r! Sorry am unfamiliar with those....

 

[Topekoms]

Most fish won't eat a day or so after moving to a new tank

 

[Han]

Have you tried target feeding them?

 

[BloopFish]

Wow, I was so tempted to buy one before - sounds like you got a decent deal on them.

You should wait a couple days before getting too worried, its relatively normal for fish to not eat right after being in a new tank.

Scorpionfish tend to be quite particular about their food choices. If it doesn't eat after a couple days - I'd resort to trying other live foods like adult brine shrimp. I do think it should accept ghost shrimps, like you've already tried, after a while, but they need to feel comfortable first. Dry pellets are sort of worth trying again, but I highly doubt a scorpionfish would choose that as their first thing to try out in a new tank - normally one has to train them to eat those.

Scorpionfishes also have very low metabolism compared to other fish, so they won't starve as fast as other fish.

(Please note that the Waspfish is not a scorpionfish, but is classified as being in the order Scorpaeniformes, and is very closely related to scorpionfish. I use the word scorpionfish in place of Scorpaeniformes for the sake of simplicity)

 

[Katrina71]

I'd leave the powerheads on to entice feeding.

 

[lion king]

i never check this forum, how are they doing. It's been a month so hopefully you got them eating. I would have suggested live ghost shrimp, these guys many times need live food to start, then target feeding.

 

[Unstoppable algae!]

Following! I just bought 1 yesterday "owned 1 in the past & loved it" I will wait another day or 2 before trying to feed mine. Im going to keep a few ghost shrimp in our planted tank.

Any luck on getting them to eat? Also great deal, I pain $80 for one "jk"

Where does everyone get black worms? I seem to like fish that are finicky eaters. They are just small worms to place in front of the fish?

Thanks

 

[Isaac Alves]

I’ve had this exact fish. One of my favorites. In my experience and research they will only take frozen and live. I found mine loved Rods food soaked in selcon and garlic guard.

 

[Judd]

I have one for a few months now. At first it ate live ghost shrimp. But when I got tired of buying live food, i was able to feed him dried krill. When I feed the my other tank with frozen mysis I soak the dried krill with it.

 

[Unstoppable algae!]

Nice. Mine is still doing good but only interested in ghost shrimp. We have a small plant tank and keep ghost shrimp on hand and feed them good food to gut load.

Eventually I will try to get him eating frozen. It can be a pain when all the fish eat his food including the ghost shrimp lol

 

[Judd]

Just curious, does your waspfish swim around or venture out of their caves during the day? Mine only comes out at night..

 

[MCatano]

Hello! This will be my first thread on r2r, I am curious about my little wasp fish that I picked up last night I got the pair of them for 100$ and they just hide and haven’t eaten yet, I’ve tried frozen brine, love ghost shrimp and dry sinking pellets. My current tank is a 75 gallon 10 nitrate, 8.4 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite. Salinity is 1.0026, acclimated for about 20 minutes, tank has been setup for 6 months, water changes bi weekly. Just curious as to why they won’t eat is it due to them just acclimating to their new surrounding or should I know something else

Great post. Can I ask where you got your pair? I've been looking and not having much luck.
Thanks!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

do these guys eat like shrimp porcelain crabs and things I kinda want one

 

[lion king]

do these guys eat like shrimp porcelain crabs and things I kinda want one

They don't eat hard bodied inverts but will eat shrimp. They are pretty small like less than 3", so a shrimp would need to about 1/2 thier size, so a 2" plus shrimp should be fine.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Oh ok