how soon should my new fish be eating?

[sadie]

I put a very small clown and a yellow clown goby in my 12 gal QT yesterday.  I read some ppl don't feed for 24 hrs, while others will feed if the fish are out and look healthy.

 

I fed sinking 1mm sinking pellets last night, clown seemed interested, but didn't eat them.  I scooped them out with a fish net.

 

This after noon I fed some frozen mysis shrimp with a pipette and neither ate it.  I left the pumps off for a bit, just left the moon light on, and left them alone for about an hr.  but it was still there.

 

When should I get be concerned, and what can I do?

[sadie]

I just fed them again (the pellets) this time my clown caught one, but spit it out.  I know some ppl soak their pellets.  I was wondering how long.  

[specore]

I generally start them on flake food before pellets as new fish are more likely to accept them.  Since the LFS had your clown for a while I would call and ask what they have been feeding and start there.  

[sadie]

I did ask and I bought it.

[specore]

5 minutes ago, sadie said:

I did ask and I bought it.

So they were feeding pellets?  

[jesseatam]

It depends, I've had fish eat directly after getting shipped to me and some can take about a week or even longer.

[sadie]

1 hour ago, specore said:

So they were feeding pellets?  

yes, sorry my answer was so quick and sharp, 😄 I was being "summoned" and had to go.

 

So yes, they were feeding pellets, they are tiny, but I don't think small enough.  After soaking my pellets, I dropped one in and it broke apart.  My clown was able to grab some of the smaller pieces and eat it.

 

I was thinking of putting my cleaner shrimp in the tank to eat up all the uneaten food.  But I think I will just do more WC to keep up with the waste.  My goby comes out of hiding and perches on the LR, so all looks good so far.

[xthunt]

Usually takes a few days for mine to get interested in food. I wouldn’t keep trying different foods, just stay consistent for now. Might need to break up the 1mm pellets. For small fish, I use .5mm

[specore]

I would try some flake, frozen mysis or if nothing else brine shrimp.  Frozen brine shrimp is junk but at least is usually quickly accepted and a good way to get fish to start eating.  Once you get them to start eating one food you can then start to mix in pellets/mysis, etc. 

 

I would be concerned if they were feeding pellets at the LFS and the fish is spitting them out.  Just because they were feeding doesn't mean he/she has been eating :).   Not necessarily a big deal, but I would be diligent in finding something they will eat fairly quickly. 

[sadie]

my clown fish is eating!!   He actually picked little pieces of the mysis shrimp up off the floor.  My yellow clown goby came out and looked interested.  I'm just gonna leave the pump off for a bit.  Maybe the goby is eating, just not in front of me.

[sadie]

figured I would update:

I bought the flake food on Friday and every morning when I turn my lights on, I shut my pump off and feed.  This morning as soon as the lights came on, BOTH my fish came out to feed BEFORE I added the flakes.  Then ate while I was standing right there.  😊