New fishes not feeding

[Cardinal Tetra]

I just bought a black band butterfly and bi colour angel for my FOWLR tank yesterday night. I did not feed the fishes last night as I wanted to give them some time to settle in. The butterfyl immediately swam around the tank, sometimes taking a peck at the LR. But the bi-colour angel just hid in the LR.

Just tried to feed them just now with flakes and frozen bloodworm. The 2 fishes took a peck at them but spat it out. What do you think I should try? Bought them from Pasir Ris farmway (i think is ah beng?), they told me they feed on frozen brine shrimp.

I heard that brine shrimp is not nutritious to fishes.

Also, found out that part of my butterfly fish tail fin was bitten off by something.

I only have a clarki clown in my tank, and its scared of the butterfly. Any idea what would have caused it? crabs maybe?

[Qxnviolet]

The tail might have been bitten by a crab as you suggested. But it could also have been torn when the fish goes swimming or darting around your tank hitting the LRs. New fishes usually takes a few days to settle down and start feeding. Dun worry too much, keep your fishes monitored for a couple of days especially when you mentioned they have pecked on the food already. Good luck!

[Elune]

Frozen brine shrimps are still good, though is not as nutritious as compared to frozen mysis shrimps. but in terms of size-wise, brine shrimps are slightly smaller, thus more suitable to feed to smaller fishes.

As a general rule, dun just feed them brine shrimps. Feed them a variety - brine, mysis, cyclopeeze, henry's mix, chopped-mkt-prawns/sotongs, wat-have-you...

New fishes usually takes a couple of days to familiarise with ur tank, and its common to find them hiding amongst the rocks.

As to the butterfly' tail getting nipped, its common also, as fishes in ur tank will check-out and bully new-comers, especially so if the older fishes as bigger than the new-fishes, or certain fishes had established a certain "territory" n the new fish unknowingly "invaded" the area. I've seen my friend's clown fish chase after damsel fish before, so I wun be surprised if the culprit that nipped the butterfly's tail is ur Clarkii.

Last but not least , try feeding cyclopeeze and mysis.

[andylee]

i find that henry's mix is always able to induce feeding in new fishes, u may like to try tat.

But most imptly, have u checked whether they really feeding when u bought them? they may not even have acclimatised to the LFS when u bought them, so might not start eating easily.

Nipped fin may be due to stress.. my fishes once in awhile might have nipped fins, so i noe it's time to do water change.

Dun worry, they are still stressed up and everything will be fine within few days

[Cardinal Tetra]

Things are not looking really good right now. Bought 2 packs of frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp each and fed the brine shrimp (as the lady claimed they feed on brine shrimp) but it did not eat The only good sign is both of them are pecking on the LR.

The butterfly's tain fin has been totally nipped off by what I don't know. It also looks like its having trouble staying straight as it would always stay at one corner and tilt alittle.

andylee, why will the fins get nipped on when the fish is in stress? I don't think the clown or angel is the culprit but I may be wrong. Another interesting thing is, the angel hides in the LR most of the time but its fins are still intact which doesnt show sign of crab attack right? sigh.

[mansiz]

Bi-colour angel are generally difficult to feed compared to all the other dwaft angels, I would really prefer to buy bi-colour angel that are already feeding. Bought a few from farms few months ago without checking they are feeding or not, in the end all died. (Of-course the few of them is not bought together). But after that, I bought 1 from Henry, and it survive, although the price was slightly higher, but he assured me that it feeds, that is something we should look out for.

[Octopuffy]

Same for the bi-color angel i bought yesterday from j & j. auntie told me that fish is with them for 2 mths and feeding already. but until today still not feeding in my tank. still stress, maybe? hope this guy survives, this is a really nice specimen

then again, i always have no luck with dwarf angels. sigh...

[brendan_toh]

fishes when first bought from LFS, due to water condition not exactly the same as LFS totally, they may go into stressed for awhile so its wise not to feed them on the first day, let them settle down first. Feed those fishes already in the tank then introduce your new member in, if you do not practice quarantining them.

2cents opinion

[Octopuffy]

Yeah, quite true. now the fishy finally eating ytd and terrorising my other fishes. but i thought angel eat nori too? i tried feeding but it is not interested... hmmmm

[alex826768]

get a small specimen of six-line wrasse to get rid of the crabs .. try mysis shrimp for new fishes ... easier to taunt them ... just my 2cents

[perkiezai]

get a small specimen of six-line wrasse to get rid of the crabs .. try mysis shrimp for new fishes ... easier to taunt them ... just my 2cents

is it true that six line wrasse can help to eliminate crabs.. have managed to get rid of most of them but i still see that one ortwo left in my tank and being a nuisance..

[Rex Ng]

try worms to induce the feeding response. But they may not be enough necessary nutrients to sustain your butterfly.