boxfish help

[Big_Pun]

so my girlfriend wanted a box so I let get one for my tank, yes i know the complications of a box so need to remind me. it's a black/brown white spotted box fish, my problem is I haven't seen it eat in 3 days since I've gotten it. now it does spend it's time picking at rocks, but that bothers me that I can't get it to eat prepared food. I've tried marine cuisine, emerald entree, blood worms, whole krill, anybody have any suggestions.

[txg8gxp]

They talk about live brine, ghost shrimp here....might be worth getting some to try. But I have no idea, never had one...Good luck.
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/puffers/polkadotbox.php
After looking at a few pages, I would maybe try some live ghost shrimp.

[Europhyllia]

wasn't this one really teeny tiny though?
YOu're way far away from me but if you want to meet up I can give you some hatchable decapsulated brine eggs.
The mandarins always did well with them.
They can eat the eggs themselves or they can eat the freshly hatched brine shrimp.
Have you tried the prawn eggs Gabe sells? Maybe he'll eat those?

[txg8gxp]

I have some regular brine eggs aswell if you wanna hatch some.

[Big_Pun]

thanks guys yea i have the ova, feed lps and also it's a mandarin snack. doesn't like that either. the one in my pico is a pig eats anything. I have another one in my 65. might have to set up a quarantine tank and see what I can get it to eat

[Big_Pun]

this is the one I have

http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/boxfishes/blackspottedboxfish/

[Europhyllia]

yikes chris ...what a link!

This species has been known to "nuke" an entire tank of fishes. This occurs most often when the fish is stressed; therefore, it is wise to remove sources of stress (e.g., aggressive tankmates) if necessary. Make sure you do not keep it with fishes that will pick on it and remove it immediately if it looks as though it may die. (They sometimes release lethal amounts of their body slime when they die.)

[txg8gxp]

Hey, sometimes you just got to live on the edge :)

[Europhyllia]

It's interesting how easily we have access to highly toxic stuff. We could use our aquariums for the perfect crime...

[hobogato]

try the live black mussels they sell at heb. just pry one open and drop it in, shell and all. or, try some frozen squid, that stuff is pretty stinky and may trigger a feeding response. boxfish are also known to eat mushrooms (the coral not the fungi).

[allan]

I'd go with the mussle idea as well. Mine too to eating right away but he was eating before I got it at aa.