clown fish not eating

[swiatrek]

I just bought some clown fish on sunday, they were a new item, but seemed to be eating when I asked to see. Drip acclimated them, and all seemed well. My levels were all good, other fish seem fine, and the clowns just wont eat. I have tried mysis, brine, and even garlic. Any other ideas? My wife and kid love the things. I dont have an anemone, dont want to buy one now if they are not eating.

[jrodriguez]

have you tried live brine. if they are wild that might be one of the ways they will eat. Did you happen to see what they fed them at the store?

[recoiljpr]

swiatrek. I have two false percs who go through phases where they will NOT eat mysis, garlic and brine, etc. The only thing they they will then eat is new life spectrum floating pellets. I would say 50% of the time when I feed the tank mysis, etc they will not even eat it. I place those daggum pellets in there and they attack them. Fish, like people have certain foods they like or don't like. You have to keep trying till you find what they like.

All of that being said, it's not unusal for a new fish to not eat for a while. It's still stressed and figuring out it's home. A fish can go a long time without food.

[cpreefguy]

Live food is a great option if you can find it. I have also heard of others saying that their clowns love pellets too. Either way, keep trying even if you think you're over feeding, just make sure you stay on top of your water quality.

[swiatrek]

They were feeding frozen something at the store, I assume mysis or brine. The pellets did not work tonight, will wake up in the morning and try again. Thanks for all advice so far.

[ACE]

Give them some more time, they can be finicky eates sometimes after you acclimate them to a new home. Just keep offering small amounts of food, they should eat sooner or later

[barderer]

hmm sometimes this is normal behavior with more finicky fish but in the case of a damsel/clown fish I would say 3 out of 5 its a sign of malnutrition, sickness or stress as they are usually very aggressive eaters. I would take the new fish out of general population and put each one alone in a 10g breeder for a week or so. Let them have a stress free environment where it does not have to compete for food and peck when its gets the energy. Once they build up strength then dump them in the main tank. I have had much greater success with my fish since I have employed this "recommended" method. Also known as... QT :) If it does not take gut loaded live brine in QT then its bad news. I have brought severely malnourished fish back from the brink of death using tube feeding but that is ..."advanced", and a lot of work. Hopefully ACE is right and he will come around in a few days. Either way moving him to QT for observation can't hurt.

[JoshOdphi]

yea the clowns i had liked to have a mixed diet..more like variety....would change from frozen to live then flakes...guess it might jus be the fish's personality...

[Crazyeyes]

What everyone is saying is correct, you don't need an anemone for them to host in yet. Try adding garlic to the food, it might help. Good luck with them.

[dmweise]

What kind of clowns are they? I have a pair of pink skunk clowns and they love live salt water ghost shrimp. They eat frozen foods as well but I have never seen them go as crazy for food as they do for live salt water ghost shrimp.

[JoshOdphi]

were u able to get tha clowns to eat?