Pajama Cardinalfish Eating Habits...

[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