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Dining in the dark.


FollyFish

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I recently got a white banned possum wrasse that would not eat either at the store or for the week that I jave had it. But he is not skinny. On Friday I work a 17 hour shift and got home after the tanks lights went out of the night. I decided to feed everyone anyway as they were all at the front of the tank watching me. I got the food ready turned off the pumps and fed eveyone. To my shock the possum wrasse ate! 

 

The next day I fed at my normal time and he didnt eat. So I thought ok I will try when the lights are off. He ate (so did eveyone else even though they ate 2 hours earlier).

 

Is this normal for this type of fish? Is there anyway I can shift his eating schedule so that Im not feeding him after the lights go out? This would suck with the work schedule that I keep. 

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I have just spent the last 2 weeks fretting over my new white banded possum also.  I only JUST got mine eating at all yesterday.  Mine ate at the store during the day with all the lights on right away, but wouldn't eat anything I put in the tank, though he would chase it around and get excited and stuff for it.

 

I saw him often eyeballing everything in the tank, rocks, snails, hermits, etc looking for things to pick off and eat, and I heard an audible click a few times and finally saw him popping pods off my rocks, but being its a new tank I know there isn't enough to keep him alive.

 

Anyway, he took about 2 weeks to "figure out" the blood worms I've been putting in along with the other mixed frozen is food and he can eat it.  He now eats like a pig.  I would say its up to you to decide if its worth changing your schedule for, but IMO if you keep on track with the same schedule he will learn to eat during lights on.

 

That said, some people have said their possums are more nocturnal feeders.  Mine is awake during the day and randomly throughout the night.  He takes random naps during the day.  

 

I dont know if I can link 'that other forum' here, But if you check Reef central in the fish forum you can find my post about my white banded not eating and it might give you some insight.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

As an update my possum wrasses took about 2 1/2 weeks before I got him eating at the same time as all the other fish, part of the problem I had, is I never feed at the same time of day/night. With my work scheduled that is not possible. That is why I tend to use other "cues" for the fish to know when it's time to eat.

 

Now my possum wrasse (Simi) joins in the feeding frenzy with the others; Black Ice Clownfish (Folly), Neon Goby (Hi-jinks), Tail-spot Blenny (Warren); giving them all a run for the money at the top of the tank right under the water line when it comes to food. Simi will also eat any kind of frozen food that I use. Today I caught him stealing food from the other fish, a coral, and biting a snail during the feeding time.

 

I wonder if the aggressive feeding behaviour was learned from the others, as over time all of my fish have the same feeding time behaviour. Highly aggressive postures, changing colour (Simi, goes deep red), right at the water-line (top fins out of the water), at the front of the tank, chasing the turkey baster that I use when I move it. Weirdly my Fire Shrimp (Vasic) will also chase the turkey baster at feeding time.

 

He also decided to try and join my Randal's Pistol Shrimp (Annie) and Yellow Watchman Goby (Grendel) in one of the burrow tunnels after eating. Much to my pairs displeasure, Annie shot him...again. You think he would have learned the first time.

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Mine is super assertive now for food as well, but I've never seen him do anything aggressive at all.  He eats out of my hands now if I hold a pinch of bloodworms in the tank.  I also don't have any other free swimming fish though.  He does skim the top quite a bit but I assumed thats because the blood worms I feed him always float at the surface.  He still won't eat flake or mysis.   Mine also went into my watchman gobies hole once and the pistol defended his home. I thought it was pretty funny with how my possum eyeballed the pair for a while before deciding to join them.

 

I find that strange that we've both had that happen.  I'd never expect a wrasse like that to want to hang out with a goby and pistol.  Mine did it when I wasn't feeding the tank though, so he was either really hungry and thought there would be tasty worms in there, or lonely, who knows. haha.

 

 

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18 hours ago, mndfreeze said:

Mine is super assertive now for food as well, but I've never seen him do anything aggressive at all.  He eats out of my hands now if I hold a pinch of bloodworms in the tank.  I also don't have any other free swimming fish though.  He does skim the top quite a bit but I assumed thats because the blood worms I feed him always float at the surface.  He still won't eat flake or mysis.   Mine also went into my watchman gobies hole once and the pistol defended his home. I thought it was pretty funny with how my possum eyeballed the pair for a while before deciding to join them.

 

I find that strange that we've both had that happen.  I'd never expect a wrasse like that to want to hang out with a goby and pistol.  Mine did it when I wasn't feeding the tank though, so he was either really hungry and thought there would be tasty worms in there, or lonely, who knows. haha.

 

 

I have tried bloodworms with Simi but he wont eat them, none of my fish will, but they will all eat mysis and brine shrimp.

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