Keeping fish well

[Noober]

I ordered some fish, and all my water parameters are in check, execpt maby phosphate, i cant test for that. nitrite nitrate ammonia at undetectable on api's master saltwater test kit. ph is at 8.2. All my small fish seem to be doing great, I acclimated them all for an hour with the drip method. My powderblue tang and my copperband butterfly are medium size and the copper band seems to have blobs on his fins, I've seen this before but dont know what it is, the powder blue tang seems to get ich at the end of the day, in the morning he looks fine and throughout the middle of the day, at night he seems stressed though. I wish I could find something for the copperband to eat, he likes eating all the little anenomes around the tank but i fear he is running out. I'd hoped he would turn to frozen or pellet by the time he ran out. Also my flame angel is starting to move around the tank a bit more and getting rid of his shyness, I hope he starts to eat more actively as well. Please toss me some ideas, thanks!

[Kristy]

They covered some good suggestions along this line at Sunday's MAAST meeting. There were several vitamin supplements recommended to strengthen a fish's resistance and improve overall health. Are you using any garlic extract to enhance the smell of the food and entice it to eat?

Have you tried foods such as: cyclopeeze? live brine shrimp? Artic-pods (in a bottle by Reef Nutrition)?

I read a good article recently about "teaching" fish to accept prepared foods. I'll try to dig it out and reference it here.

[hobogato]

for the copperband, buy some of those live freshwater clams that they sell in the HEB seafood area. pry one open and drop it in - just be sure to remove any of it that is not eaten within about 30 minutes. eventually you may get it to switch over to mysis and then other frozen foods.

[Bill S]

I've also had luck with HEB's mussels. If you can find some live brine, that will sometimes work, as will PE Mysis.

Angels and tangs need veggies. Mine get either nori, or romaine lettuce each day. I've never had a copperband eat dry food or veggies of any kind. Mine eats frozen out of my hand.

[seamonkey2]

worms, the little frozen red worms, my CBB loves to eat them, and of course the HEB clams, yum yum yum

good luck

Jose

[Noober]

sweet thanks a lot, i'm hoping the angel is eating sponge when im not around, i have plenty of veggies for my tangs, they love them. I need to try some vitamen suppliment. I am going to brew up some brine shrimp eggs and put them in there and see if the copperband will eat them. Have a good one!

[twychopen]

Instead of posting a new thread I thought it better to continue this one...hopefully thats ok.

Noober...what ever happened? Did he eat the shrimp? I have been told many times that brine shrimp don't work for CBB. I am also interested in what you did get him to eat. Mine kind of picked at a mussel but isn't really "eating" per say.

Thanks!