Sweetlips Clown

[Dixigrl87]

I bought a Sweetlips Clown fish a little over a month ago and he doesn't look like he is eating very well. I have tried feeding him flakes, brine shrimp and squid. I have also started letting the food soak in garlic for about 10 min before feedings. He rarely takes a bite of anything and if he does then he spits it back out after a couple seconds. Does anyone know if this is normal for this type of fish? When the lights are off he looks like he is sifting through the sand and picking the rocks but I don't know if this is enough for him to live off of. He doesn't look lethargic but he has lost a little weight. All of my other fish are really aggressive eaters and it looks as though he just doesn't move fast enough to get what he needs. Will he be ok?

[ryandlf]

In my experience its always a bad sign when a fish isn't eating within a few days...
If you can get him into a quarantine that will help your chances but thats probably not an option. You have to be very careful about taking your time acclimating a fish to your aquarium, trying to speed up that process has been one of my biggest problems. Just keep an eye on your new clown and hopefully within a couple days he comes around.

[rayme07]

I would try adding some garlic attractant to the food and see if that entices him to eat.

[Dixigrl87]

I have been doing that and it doesn't really seam to change things much. My other fish love it and eat like crazy but he doesn't really seam like he can get to the food quick enough. If it isn't right in front of him he can't catch it. I know this may sound weird but could he be blind? He stays in one spot most of the time and when I feed him he tries to get food but it looks like he may not be able to tell exactly where it is. :|

[CarmieJo]

Hi Heather and :welcome: to TR!

I think she has been using garlic. I would consider trying live brine that has been gut loaded and soaked in vitamins to encourage him to start feeding. They are known to be difficult to get start eating in captivity and aggressive feeders just make it more difficult. Unless you are feeding enriched brine shrimp it is not very nutritious. This article How to Harvest and Feed Baby Brine Shrimp to Your Tank by Marc Levenson - Reefkeeping.com (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/nftt/index.php) has information on brine shrimp.

[Dixigrl87]

Can you buy live brine shrimp? I don't know if I am into the whole harvisting thing as of yet. Preferably I would like to get him eating frozen food because the fish store that I go to is like 30 min away from my house so I don't really want to have to make multiple trips weekly for food unless I absolutely have to. I have only tried spot feeding him a couple times but he gets really scared when I go in the tank to spot feed him. Do you think I should work with this more or is it a lost cause? Any advice will help.

[CarmieJo]

Yes you can buy live brine but you would still want to enrich it. It is not very hard to grow. If you can get him eating live you could begin mixing it with frozen and see if he would just eat it thinking it is the same thing.

[Dixigrl87]

Ok I will have to try that and see if it works. He doesn't look too skiny right now but I want to get him eating better before it gets too bad. Could he be getting enough just by sifting in the sand and picking the rocks? I don't know much about this type of fish besides what I have found out by searching the web. A lot of sites say they are really finiky eaters and mostly eat at night so I guess I'm not the only one having problems lol.

[CarmieJo]

Well they are carnivores and known to want live food so he could be picking at pods. But, a hungry fish can deplete a tank that doesn't have a hundred or more lbs of LR and a fuge in short order. I think that if you can see that he has lost weight then he is probably getting enough.

[Amphibious]

Dixigrl87, welcome to TR, the best, friendliest, most informative reef forum on the net.

You have several things going against you with the Clown Sweetlips, Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides. The very first is, as endearing as it is as a juvenile with it's Clown like undulating swimming motion, grows to a length of 28". Second, for some reason these fish are still mostly collected using the drug cyanide which dooms them to a short life. Third, juveniles that aren't drugged are known to be finicky eaters. Slow swimming by nature, any aggressive eaters or tank mates will drive the Sweetlips into seclusion. What to do with your fish??? Obviously, you are a caring person willing to do most anything to save his life. Try feeding Black Worms, or live mysid shrimp. Some LFSs stock them or will order them for you. They do prefer to eat after lights out. Try putting live Black Worms in a half hour after that.

In my opinion, the clown Sweetlips is one fish best left in the ocean due to it's ultimate size and the fact that the juveniles are such fussy eaters. Cute they are, difficult they are but, not suitable for the small aquarium which would be anything under 300 gals.

Dick