Getting Newbies To Eat :(

[littleme1969]

WEll I'm having serious issues with my new fish. Always the case, tank set up and cycle goes great without a hitch, Plan fish arrival carefully so I have plenty of time to spend introducing them, and also make sure I get right food in (as suggested form where fish where purchased) . First Off one small clown dies in transit ( I hate living in an area with no Marine shops ) Second fish looks so stressed all it does is swim backwards and forwards in the same spot, refuses to eat anything Glad to report cleaner shrimp that came with these fish is doing great and snacking for england
Dragged hubby on a 60 mile round trip to try and find little percula a new friend in the vain hope it would stop him dying.... Fish shop had very little in with the exception of a couple of tomato clowns. So against my own better judgement I bought the smaller one (about the same size as little percula) Also bought a scooter Blenny who is just so cute and luckily he seems to be eating OK. **** Takes in deep breath... Continue*** Percula seemed happy to see his new tank mate and for the first hour all was great, happy percula happy tomato.. Buddies!... NOT!! within an hour the tomato had started picking on Nemo something shocking and he was back to sulking in a corner. After 24hrs I took the hard decision of removing what seemed to be a fish that was not going to make it anyhow. Set up an 8 gallon nano for him with Rock sand crabs snails etc, and his fav bit of spagetti algae that he had been sleeping on I did expect him to be dead this morning. But he was still there swimming in the corner looking thoroughly depressed.
I hatched some brine shrimp out a few days ago and so in a last ditch attempt to get this fish to eat I added them to the tank. He loved them, and for the first time since I got him his behaviour seemed normal. So hes been getting them all day and Ive set up another few bottles so I have them at different stages. But the nutritiononal value of these is poor and not a long term option for healthy fish.
Other Tomato clown just spits out everything I offer him though he does look fit and healthy and his behaviour is normal I'm worried about getting him to eat.
So Far Ive tried..
Flake Food
Pellet Food
Tetra Prima Vitamin enriched shrimp
Frozen Brine and Mysis shrimp
Dried seaweed
Ive got some blister packs comming tomorrow with 4 different variets of frozen food.
Can anyone suggest a plan to get thes fish eating ? Percula has been here since Friday and the Tomato I got on saturday.
Also any other food suitable for the blenny. Hes eating the Mysis shrimp OK and grazing on rocks and in the sand he looks a little thinner than I would like around the tummy area, even though the shop claimed he was eating well on frozen I'm kinda wondering how much they gave him.

Sorry....... just not used to fish not eating.. 5 years breeding tropical the only time they dont eat is usually when they are almost dead..lol
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[norite]

Garlic. Try fresh garlic. Do you have any fresh cloves? Get some aquarium water in a cup, put some flake food in it, then chop up a clove of garlic really fine, and put this in as well. Give it all a good stir and let it sit for a few minutes, then pour it into the tank. Garlic enhances the flavour of the food, and allegedly, it's also good for their immune system....*allegedly*

It worked on my percula clown....he hardly ate anything for nearly two weeks...now he eats anything I put in the tank!

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks for that I'll get some tomorrow.. and yes Garlic is excellent for the imune syatem great for fighting any type of viral infection. I'll try mixing it in with the frozen shrimp and other bits and bobs Ive seen them put in their mouths and then spit out I'll let you know how I get on and thanks for talking the time to post

 

[Betta5]

Tomato clowns are mean, my little one even bites me, but hes a right character and i do love him, even tho he stops me from getting any other fish really. Glad nemo is recovering

 

[Dorkhedeos]

garlic, smash it up through one of those garlic presses. or just buy some garlic extreme or something if you dont want to do that(11 bucks).

 

[littleme1969]

Hi..
Well I gave it a go. Tomatto clown looked at me like I just tried to poison in, and swam roun the tank like a mad thing spitting away to try and get the taste out of his mouth..lol Hes now sat giving me the evils from the other end of the tank Litle nemo managed to eat a whole Mysis shrimp..lol but looked shocked by what he had eaten. the blenny just tucked into it as usual So its a no for the tomato, but on the positive side he did eat some shrimp this morning as I think his hunger has finally got the better of him. So i'll keep him on the garlic free stuff and hope he continues to improve and nemo will get his daily baby brine shrimp and I'll keep trying him on stuff every day, hopefully he will come round slowly. He does look much better, more alert etc.. so fingers crossed he goes OK. And my cleaner shrimp had done his first shed this morning Pics of this lot will be in my nano blog later.

Thanks guys

 

[norite]

Heh...OK.
One thing you could do instead, as Dorkhedeoss suggested, is get a garlic press and just squeeze the juice into the water and mix that in. I have a yellow tang and she happily tucks into the pieces of garlic - you might have an issue with the uneaten garlic pieces rotting if nothing eats them.

 

[shibby]

my clowns loved garlic also cured ones mouth problem.

they only eat brine though they spitr everything else out talk about fussy!! even the longnose n cleaner wrasse which r mena be fussy eat it all

 

[littleme1969]

Happy to report after 9 days all fish are finally eating The little clown finally started to eat the frozen brine shrimp yesterday and now there is no stopping him Tomato clown has even eaten flake food YAY..lol and scooter blenny is starting to fill out around the tummy area.

Thanks for all the advise its much appreciated

 

[shibby]

wahey thats good to hear!