My Clownfish won’t eat shrimp!

[Starterfishyowner]

Hi, I recently got my first saltwater tank! I added two clownfish that have been in our tank for about a week and a half now. We fed them pellets and tried some mysis shrimp but it seemed too big for them. But we got baby brine shrimp but it seemed too small. Now we keep trying to feed them mysis, but they only eat the eyes of the shrimp. What to do? We also have medicine in the food for internal parasites. Anybody wanna tell me how to make proper shrimp for my clownfish?

[bennyd]

When I got mine they were pretty tiny, could only ever get them to eat flake food. Even when they got bigger, they would nip and pick at some foods, but when it was flake they chowed.

[Starterfishyowner]

45 minutes ago, bennyd said:

When I got mine they were pretty tiny, could only ever get them to eat flake food. Even when they got bigger, they would nip and pick at some foods, but when it was flake they chowed.

Yeah, we cut the mysis shrimp up really small but they don’t eat it still. The store we got them from fed them shrimp. My brother said it could be because we fed them pellets and they might like it more since they only go for the shrimp eyeballs. Because their the same color. Mine are pretty tiny too. Less than an inch probably 

[FollyFish]

You could try brine shrimp its smaller then mysis but it has less nutrient. If they are eating the pellets then you can stick with it. 

[Tired]

Assuming the pellets are a good-quality brand, stick with those. Don't bother with brine shrimp, it's not very nutritious. 

[j.falk]

My clowns wouldn't eat mysis when they were babies...now that they have some size to them they'll eat anything I put in the tank.

 

Stick with the pellets for now.

[Starterfishyowner]

11 minutes ago, j.falk said:

My clowns wouldn't eat mysis when they were babies...now that they have some size to them they'll eat anything I put in the tank.

 

Stick with the pellets for now.

Ok, thanks for the answers. I’ve noticed that they have started to eat small pieces of the Mysis. I see the female eating big ones, munching and spitting out and munching until it’s done. So I’m slowly trying to feed them more shrimp. I have a diamond goby, 2 Nassarius snails, 2 Turbon snails and one cleaner shrimp, and one fire shrimp. We also recently broke a big rule of getting a baby captive bred mandarin fish. Less than an inch big. He’s not being attacked by any of my animals so. 

[Starterfishyowner]

13 minutes ago, j.falk said:

My clowns wouldn't eat mysis when they were babies...now that they have some size to them they'll eat anything I put in the tank.

 

Stick with the pellets for now.

Thanks. Yeah, we recently found a fish store in Rhode Island called OSA (Ocean State Aquatics), and they told us that most of the clowns are now captive bred so they are used to eating pellets . I’ve noticed that they are starting to eat some mysis shrimp. But since they are still pretty small, the male has some trouble eating big chunks. The female will eat some whole mysis. Thanks for the answers. 

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Assuming the pellets are a good-quality brand, stick with those. Don't bother with brine shrimp, it's not very nutritious. 

Got it. Just wanna let you know that I started seeing the clowns eat some mysis. The female is eating some whole mysis while the male is having trouble since they are smaller. Thanks for the answers

[Starterfishyowner]

2 hours ago, FollyFish said:

You could try brine shrimp its smaller then mysis but it has less nutrient. If they are eating the pellets then you can stick with it. 

Yeah, thanks. We got baby brine thinking that they would be good for the size, but it’s too small. I’ve noticed when I fed my goby shrimp and snails that the female has been eating some whole mysis. The male eats smaller prices because he has trouble with the whole mysis. Thanks for the answers

[Starterfishyowner]

On 7/17/2020 at 8:43 PM, bennyd said:

When I got mine they were pretty tiny, could only ever get them to eat flake food. Even when they got bigger, they would nip and pick at some foods, but when it was flake they chowed.

Ahhh, same. They have started growing so they are starting to eat some of the mysis shrimp I feed to my shrimp snails and goby. I was told garlic would encourage them also. I tried medication and pellets with garlic and they ate it the first few time and then stopped eating it. 

[aclman88]

13 minutes ago, Starterfishyowner said:

We also recently broke a big rule of getting a baby captive bred mandarin fish.

From everything I’ve read these are notoriously hard to feed and should not be attempted on a whim, especially if you are already having trouble feeding your current fish. I would rehome it and focus on getting your current fish happy and eating well.  

[Tired]

Mandarins should never go in a new tank. Even when they're captive-bred and reliably eating prepared foods multiple times a day, they should be kept somewhere that has pods for them to eat. Mandarins in the wild are near-constantly eating a food source that's extremely high in nutrients, which is very difficult to replicate in aquaria. 

 

Frankly, I'm skeptical that any mandarin will do very well on pellets. Maybe with some of the really high-end ones. Their digestive systems just aren't designed to hang onto food for very long and extract all the nutrients from it. I'd want to see multiple people keeping mandarins for years and years, not just a couple years, and having them grow to large sizes on pellets. The people who have the really happy, healthy, fat, long-lived mandarins always seem to be the people who have them in highly pod-rich tanks, or are feeding them live foods multiple times a day. 

[Starterfishyowner]

On 8/2/2020 at 9:42 PM, Tired said:

Mandarins should never go in a new tank. Even when they're captive-bred and reliably eating prepared foods multiple times a day, they should be kept somewhere that has pods for them to eat. Mandarins in the wild are near-constantly eating a food source that's extremely high in nutrients, which is very difficult to replicate in aquaria. 

 

Frankly, I'm skeptical that any mandarin will do very well on pellets. Maybe with some of the really high-end ones. Their digestive systems just aren't designed to hang onto food for very long and extract all the nutrients from it. I'd want to see multiple people keeping mandarins for years and years, not just a couple years, and having them grow to large sizes on pellets. The people who have the really happy, healthy, fat, long-lived mandarins always seem to be the people who have them in highly pod-rich tanks, or are feeding them live foods multiple times a day. 

We are getting live brine shrimp for the baby and we have a refugium set up. My clownfish are now eating well and the baby is pecking at the rocks a lot these days. If he’s pecking at the rocks the fish store I go to is called OSA and 

 

On 8/2/2020 at 9:34 PM, aclman88 said:

From everything I’ve read these are notoriously hard to feed and should not be attempted on a whim, especially if you are already having trouble feeding your current fish. I would rehome it and focus on getting your current fish happy and eating well.  

We were thinking of rehoming  it but my dad and brother decided that they want to keep it alive so we got a refugium and fed it some live brine shrimp and the baby seems to be eating lots. He’s not starving and he’s pecking on the rocks with some smoke coming out of its gills. The fish store I go to says it’s all right as long as it’s not being bullied by other animals and it’s eating. He’s done well for about 1 1/2 weeks now

[Tired]

You need to be feeding him baby brine shrimp every day, at least once a day if not more. He'll wipe out the pods in your tank pretty fast. Mandarins can only live on pods in very well established, large tanks, or tanks with large, well established fuges. If he'll eat pellets, he should be fed those multiple times a day, which can quickly make your water quality go downhill.

 

Mandarins go downhill fast when they run out of pods, burn their fat stores, and start to starve. They need to eat pods pretty much constantly, and will eat hundreds if not thousands in a day. They do not work in new tanks unless very, very heavily fed. There's a reason there's a rule about not getting dragonets! You should rehome it before it starts going hungry, because if it starts going downhill, it'll be hard to bring it back. 

 

Don't trust fish stores for advice. They want to sell you things, and a lot of them will tell you whatever makes you buy things. The dragonet appearing to be eating doesn't mean it will do well.

 

Also, how big is your tank, and how long has it been set up? Two clownfish, a goby, and a dragonet is a lot of stock to have in a new tank.

[Rabb.D]

i think it boils down to your water ranges and quality, maybe you can redo the salt mixture, and could also be the temperature

[TerraIncognita]

I feed my baby clowns this until they're about 1inch.

 

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/new-life-spectrum-theraa:-small-pellet-enhanced-non-medicated-fish-food140-grams-3096175?cm_mmc=PSH-_-GGL-_-CAL-_-PME-_-PET-_-AQU-_-0-_-PM_GGL_FY20_SBU05_SH14_AquaticSupplies_AquaticFood_PLA-SMRT-_-0-_-0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxP-x1J2F6wIVzcDACh14LgR9EAQYASABEgLVFPD_BwE

 

The pellets are about the size of a mysis eyeball. they love it.

 

Once they're bigger I just let em get their fair share of the tanks Reef Frenzy

[Tamberav]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:57 PM, Starterfishyowner said:

We are getting live brine shrimp for the baby and we have a refugium set up. My clownfish are now eating well and the baby is pecking at the rocks a lot these days. If he’s pecking at the rocks the fish store I go to is called OSA and 

 

We were thinking of rehoming  it but my dad and brother decided that they want to keep it alive so we got a refugium and fed it some live brine shrimp and the baby seems to be eating lots. He’s not starving and he’s pecking on the rocks with some smoke coming out of its gills. The fish store I go to says it’s all right as long as it’s not being bullied by other animals and it’s eating. He’s done well for about 1 1/2 weeks now

They will peck at the rocks even if they are not eating anything. They will peck anyways...the smoke is the Mandarin just expelling debris it grabbed. It does not mean it found food. 

 

You will want to culture pods and live white worms to offer. Ova is another good food for them. 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com/amp/liquid-coral-food-and-fish-food/coral-feast-ova/