Blue Throat Trigger not eating.....any ideas.

[ZC]

so i bought a blue throat trigger last thursday, and he's still not eating. It's starting to look like his stomach is caving in. He was not swimming around at all that i could see, until yesterday and he's still not completely comfortable swimming across the tank. Likes to stay by his cave he found.

I have tried everything getting him to eat, mysis, brine, krill, peel and eat shrimp, cyclopeze, soaking in garlic....etc. Anyone have any ideas on how to get him to eat. I'm starting to get a little worried!

Thanks
Zac

[AW2EOD]

Did you make sure it was eating, at the store, before you bought him?

A good rule is to always ask the fish store to feed the fish before you buy it.

[capt. insano]

and sometimes it just takes time.....for the fish to become acclimated to his surroundings. I had a meredithi angel that didn't eat for 3 weeks when I first got her and I was really scared. Then one day, she realized she was hungry and began eating everything I put in the tank.

[LisaD]

Have you tried a variety of live foods? Is there a lot of food competition? Try dimming the lights in the room, putting a bunch of food in the tank (even try enriched live adult brine shrimp) and leave the room.

[spamin76]

Try plankton - that is their natural diet. Also try giving him some algae or vegetable matter - many triggers consume a significant amount of veggies in their diet. Have you already tried these foods?

[trueperc]

I had one due this too, and what he finally took a liking to was raw unfrozen table shrimp, like the ones we would eat, My guy just went crazy for, Through in shell and all.

[osufarker]

I would try live food.

I wouldn't worry too much until past two weeks. Sometimes it just takes awhile for them to want to eat.

[Espo92]

I would try silversides, with garlic. Or also get small mollys, or ghost shrimp.

[zemuron114]

mine loves feeder shrimp. The male and female hunt all day for them (i toss in 100s at a time.. lol)

[ZC]

Well He's out swimming around more tonight than i have ever seen him and he finally showed interest in food frozen mysis shrimp, but he was to slow, he may have gotten one bite IF THAT! but at least he is showing interest! I guess that's a start. I am going to try more live food this weekend, we'll see how that goes!

[spamin76]

Too slow? He got some competition for food?

[Wolverine]

Is he swimming up to the food, but just not eating it?
Sometimes the Xanthichthys triggers can develop tumors or abscesses in their mouths which make it impossible for them to eat. Sometimes you can see this from the outside, but sometimes you can't. They get an abnormal contour to the jaw.
There was one person here (I don't remember who) who was able to rescue one with a few amikacin injections, but most often there's not a lot of success.

Dave

[ellamaeruth]

What else is in your tank? How big is he?

Mine absolutely love zooplankton. It is their natural diet. All the fish will smell it, but if he is housed with bigger, more aggressive fish he will be the only one who can see and eat it. Nori is also a good idea.

[ZC]

well he's kinda eating now, just pickey eater, only wants to eat mysis no brine.

Yeah he has a lot of competition for food, flame angel, yellow tang, two clowns, two purple fire fish, and a domino damsel, oh yeah and GIL the 2' snowflake eel.

But he has finally ate, so i'm not so worried now.

[ellamaeruth]

Glad to hear. Remember, brine is like popcorn, no real nutritional value. So, that's ok. Brine does help with coloring, but so does krill.

I forgot to mention, their metabolism is pretty high, so even if you feed him every day his little belly may still look pinched. It's not usually a problem. If his back starts looking like that, then we'll worry.

--jenny

[spamin76]

He is not going to win in many food competitions - usually what I do to aid with food competitions is to add smaller amounts of food to 3-4 areas of the tank at once - since the big eating bullies can't be everywhere at once.