Getting copperband and blue star wrasse to eat

[ninjamyst]

I got a copperband butterfly and female blue star leopard wrasse last Friday. Both are still not eating. I tried Rod's fish eggs, Larry's, and mysis. Wrasse is in my nano tank with one clown fish. She pecks at the food and spits it out. Copperband is in my frag tank and pays no interest to the food. I prazipro the frag tank. Any tips?

 

[xmoji]

I read this about Copperband on Live Aquaria:

The Copperband Butterflyfish is a difficult fish to feed; it is a shy and deliberate feeder that may need a variety of foods offered to it in order to start feeding.

 

[Cubano32]

Try and get some live brine from a LFS that usually tend to help any picky eater

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[HecticZ]

Try and gut feed the brine shrimp first, but might be the only way to start to get him to eat

I forgot to mention that I also turned off the power heads off in the tank so the brine shrimp doesn’t get sucked into the return too quickly.

 

[Gav]

Live black worms work well too.


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[rockhead]

Both of those fish are very picky eaters, I’ve had both of them before and I found soaking my food in garlic juice from brightwell Aquatics seem to work but I think my blue star went almost 3 weeks before she came out from hiding so she was staving .

 

[Illinijoe]

Garlic extreme soaking worked for me

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Live black worms soaked in a bit of garlic extreme usually did the trick for me with Copperbands, sometimes bribe would work but I was too lazy to gut-load them.

If you need some Coral Reef Pet Centre in Norridge usually carries some.

 

[ninjamyst]

the blue wrasse is out and about and pecking at the food so at least that's good. i will get some live black worms from Coral Reef pet Centre tomorrow. I am thinking the prazipro is making the Copperband not eat so I will do a big water change tomorrow too.

 

[ninjamyst]

Blue wrasse loves the black worms! Copperband still not eating. I moved it from the prazi pro QT tank to the main display tank in an acclimation box. How do I transition the wrasse to go from black worm to frozen now?? It's a pain to keep black worms in the fridge....

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Start mixing, throw in a few mysis or whatever you feed with the black worms. Preferably let the mysis hit the water first, then the black worms.

 

[ninjamyst]

Start mixing, throw in a few mysis or whatever you feed with the black worms. Preferably let the mysis hit the water first, then the black worms.

that's what i did today. fed mysis first but the wrasse just spits it right out. then the black worms she went nuts for. will keep doing this for a week or two.

 

[ninjamyst]

copperband ate black worms.

 

[Blue Line Coral]

We also have live brine shrimp at the shop. Usually live helps trigger eating, then can mix in frozen to trick them into trying it.

 

[ninjamyst]

We also have live brine shrimp at the shop. Usually live helps trigger eating, then can mix in frozen to trick them into trying it.

Thanks! Both are eating live black worms now. Going to slowly train them to eat frozen.

 

[ninjamyst]

Now my clownfish refuses to eat frozen mysis and demands live black worms. This is the OPPOSITE of what I want. FML.

 

[ninjamyst]

Picture of the wrasse:

View attachment 25949

 

[Mjl714]

Really nice picture.

 

[beetlenut33]

Nice leopard wrasse! Where did you get her?

 

[ninjamyst]

Nice leopard wrasse! Where did you get her?

Xzotic during their black friday sale. Got her for $30 =).