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Helping a picky eater


jawfish

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I recently bought a male Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse whom I am very happy about. I know they are picky eaters, so I've been feeding him so far with cyclop-eeze and mysis shrimp through a turkey baster bulb and flexible tubing to get in the cracks where the little guy hides. He has been eating, although not a lot, and I want to know if there is any way I can make him eat more/ possibly accept pellets and flakes in the future. I feed my tank once a day every day.

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Try a variety of foods. I had good luck with Scott's frozen food in getting a picky coral beauty angel to eat. She would eat nothing else for months. Eventually I started feeding flake and she took to it.

 

If you have a slow mover, try turning your pumps off when you feed so they can "catch up" to the food. This way you may not need to use a turkey baster.

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You can try adding something to the food like Seachem Entice Supplement for Fish Food

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Rods food. Maybe add some Nutramar shrimp eggs in too - fish love those (they are very tiny, but the fish have no problem seeing them).

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Why not try my homemade fish food? My copperband, who only ate frozen mysis, would go nuts when I fed my home made food.

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My carpenter's flasher loved Jan's food. He went crazy over it and would boldly come out to eat with everyone else. He also liked red flakes. He should hunt for pods during the day, though if you can - feeding more than once a day would be beneficial.

 

I just lost mine bc he refused to eat in hyposalinity :( It may have just been the new qt but he never came out of hiding to eat.

Also keep a lid on your tank and don't keep males together (how I lost my other 2).

 

Good luck and show us some pics!

Edited by YiatzOfEden
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(edited)

thanks for the tips! He has been eating more, and today he even came out of his cave and ate regular old pellets, which I am very happy about.

 

Funny thing about the lid: I have a glass top on my tank, but I don't have the plastic blockers on the back because I have so much HOB equipment that i would have to cut really weird shapes. Not 30 minutes after I put the wrasse in the tank, he managed to jump through this inch gap and land on the glass hood. Fortunately I was nearby and I was able to scoop him back in the tank, and spent the rest of the evening cutting out plastic backing that hugged my equipment so tightly that there was no way anything could get through. Lesson learned: when they mean tight fitting top, they really mean a TIGHT fitting top.

Here are some pics I took when he was out

med_gallery_2632400_1031_61547.jpg

 

med_gallery_2632400_1031_212243.jpg

Edited by jawfish
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  • 1 month later...

Unfortunately, I found him all dried up on the floor this morning, he must have jumped despite my best efforts at creating an escape-proof top :( No idea how he did it, I just feel really sad, barely had him for a month.

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