Pajama Cardinalfish Eating Habits...

[cbianco]

Hey all

I finally broke down and bought a pair of fishes for my tank. I bought two Pajama Cardinalfish (as the title suggests). I choose these fish since they are peaceful and normally out in the open for all to see.

Here is my problem...

Before I bought (12/29/05) the fish I had the store "prove" to me that they were eating, both fish ate just fine. I took these two guys home and now they won't touch any food. I have fed mysis, tubifex worms (treat) and I have ghost shrimp in the tank. They have not touched any of these. They physically look good and they are acting normal.

*EDIT* When I got the Cardinalfish home, they were aclimated for 1.5 hours. I used a drip per second.

Are my fish just going through an adjustment period? Can anyone give me some advice?

Thanks for the help!

Christopher

PS I will take pictures once they are well adjusted to the tank.

[hobogato]

sometimes fish will go a week without eating after being moved to a new tank. we have some pj's too, but we have had them too long for me to remember how long it took them to start eating.

[cbianco]

I hope that the Cardinalfish are just getting use to the new tank. I don't want them to go a week without eating that will make me nervous, :mellow ! I have had my eye on a pair of PJ Cardinalfish for about two months now, I don't want to be dissapointed.

Christopher

[tony]

i picked up a pajama cardinal about 2 weeks ago myself and it did the same thing. he never came out of it though. :(

[cbianco]

Sorry to hear about your loss Purejoy.

Is fish starvation (correct term?) that common? I have always been under the immpression that fish are pigs when it comes to food! :)

Christopher

[Darth-Tater]

Ours has been pigging out since we brought him home severall months ago. You go near the tank and he is up ront looking for food.

DT

[cbianco]

DT

My pair of PJ Cardinalfish are still hiding behind the rockwork when we get near the tank. They come back out as long as you are standing still. It is kind of funny because of the way that they look out of the tank at us. I wonder what they are thinking (maybe I don't want to know :) )?

Christopher

[ou812pezz]

My PJC is doing the same. He rises straight up out of a hole with a sad look and watches the others eat. I've seen him bite at food but spit it out. I've had him a week now but he doesn't appear to be starving. So he must be getting what he needs from somewhere.

[cbianco]

Today I went out and bought some frozen blood worms. The fish store that I purchased the Cardinalfish from mentioned that they fed blood worms. Needless to say the Cardinalfish ate the blood worms without problems. I am going to start mixing the mysis and blood worms in order to eventually ween the Cardinalfish onto the mysis only. From what I understand blood worms are more of a treat and not as nutritious as mysis.

Christopher

[hobogato]

that's good news! eating is always better than not eating ;)

[ou812pezz]

thanks for the tip.

[GaryP]

Bloodworms are fairly high in protein and better then brine shrimp. Check the nutritional info on the package.

Whenever you have shy fish like that, try smashing some food into an dead open brain skeleton and leaving it for them to pick at later. Bloodworms work good for this. This is a trick I learned from Instar for shy copper band butterflies. This may not work as well for cardinals because I think they are more of an open water feeder. Also, vary the time of day you feed. Cardinals are nocturnal, night time feeders. Finally, do some research on the feeding habits of a fish before you bring them home.

A fish may feed readily in a tank at the store, but may not feed well with the competitive pressure of a community tank at home. This doesn't sound like your case, but just an observation I have made. I have seen it frequently with the CBB. They may feed well in a tank at the LFS with low flow and not a lot of other fish in the tank, but when you get them home with fish flying all over the place chasing food moving quickly in a reef tank they don't do as well.

[cbianco]

Whenever you have shy fish like that, try smashing some food into an dead open brain skeleton and leaving it for them to pick at later... This may not work as well for cardinals because I think they are more of an open water feeder. Also, vary the time of day you feed. Cardinals are nocturnal, night time feeders. Finally, do some research on the feeding habits of a fish before you bring them home.

I thought about "smashing" some tubifex worms into my live rock for the Cardinalfish. After much research, come to find out, Cardinalfish normally will only take food from the water column. I am sure that if they got hungry enough that they would eat from the live rock and sand.

You are correct about nocturnal feedings. Cardinalfish prefer to eat with the lights out :) !

Thanks for the information Gary!

Christopher

[cbianco]

Oh and by the way...

After some "deep sea exploring" in my tank, I am missing about half of my ghost shrimp. I am pretty sure that the Cardinalfish have been eating just fine the whole time I have had them. I guess the joke is on me! :lol

Go figure! :lol

Christopher

[GaryP]

I was going to ask you if you had a good pod population. That would explain it. Notice that I did say they are open water feeders.

[cbianco]

I do have a good pod population but the shrimp population is dwindling, :lol !

:)

Christopher

[cbianco]

Hey all, here is an update! :)

Incase anyone is curious, the Pajama Cardinalfish are eating the bloodworms like there is no tommorow. I have been mixing the bloodworms with mysis. The Cardinalfish will not touch the mysis, only the bloodworms.

I currently feed once a day and I am thinking this is just about right. I am nervous about the organics building up in the tank. Anybody know if it would be safe (for the fish) to drop down the feedings to every other day?

Thanks for the help! :)

Christopher