new clowns spitting out food...

[Lizz]

so i got a pair of clownfish on thursday and feeding them has been stressing me out to no end.

 

i brought home some rod's and NLS small pellets with them and got some hakari mysis shrimp a couple days ago too.

 

i've tried soaking the pellets, crushing up the pellets and they still don't eat them..or if they try, they immediately spit the bite back out.

 

with the rod's i've chopped up as small as possible, but they still bite and spit. i barely put any in and i'd say 99% goes uneaten. same thing with the mysis....i'm talking like...less1/8th of a cube tiny of an amount.

 

the bigger of the clowns keeps in some of his bites, but the smaller one (and he's real small...and inch maybe? the bigger one is ~1.5") seems like he's spitting out everything. both are darting at specks in the tank like they are food and seem excited when i feed them but then don't really eat. the fish get along fine and hang out/sleep together and the bigger one doesn't try and steal food or anything.

 

i'm not sure how much tiny clowns are supposed to eat and i know it's good that they are trying but i'm nervous that it seems like they are hungry but wont or can't eat. i'm mostly concerned about the little one.

 

what should i do? should i be as worried as i am?

[hey]

try some enriched brine my fish go nuts for the bad stuff clearly. Most nervous fish won't eat for a few days aswell, keep at it a bit longer I doubt theres much of an issue if they aren't showing any signs of disease.

[Lizz]

no signs of disease that i can see.

 

just now the bigger one went to sleep in the usual corner early (even though the tank lights go off before we go to bed, they have not been going to sleep until later) and the small one is on the opposite side of the tank all the way in the corner near the surface. it's the first time they haven't gone to sleep together so of course i'm reading into it and something must be wrong. don't worry, i overthink things in my life outside of fish too. :/

 

 

ETA- ok ignore me being a spazz about them not sleeping together. they are now. the food question is still relevant though. haha

[ReeferBoo]

Give them time to get used to their new environment, like Hey said, they're probably just nervous. You could also try putting some food in and then backing away from the tank so they don't get spooked. I've always had success with uncooked and unflavoured fish roe for my finicky eaters.

[hey]

no signs of disease that i can see.

 

just now the bigger one went to sleep in the usual corner early (even though the tank lights go off before we go to bed, they have not been going to sleep until later) and the small one is on the opposite side of the tank all the way in the corner near the surface. it's the first time they haven't gone to sleep together so of course i'm reading into it and something must be wrong. don't worry, i overthink things in my life outside of fish too. :/

 

 

ETA- ok ignore me being a spazz about them not sleeping together. they are now. the food question is still relevant though. haha

 

My clowns are most definitely paired yet refuse to sleep together, and to top things off sleep in random places almost every night. corner near surface is a pretty common sleeping place though as the current is usually lacking there.

[Lizz]

just wanted to update this...been having some success with ocean nutrition prime reef flakes with the smaller of my two clowns. he doesn't get much, but he's actually fully eating some bits so i feel a lot better about his general well being now.