Feeding neon dottyback with hungry clowns?

[jciwlsn]

My neon dottyback seems to get left out every time I feed my two tomato clowns. The flake food doesn't have a chance to sink to the bottom with those two around. It's easier when I feed with frozen brine shrimp, but I know this is not something they should eat everyday.

Anyone have any ideas?

muchos gracias


oops, the smiley didn't work..

[slojmn]

Jackie,
I feed a variety of different foods to my crew. I have different techniques to get the shy ones to eat. First off I have found that each fish has a favorite food and they differ, just like humans. I have a few pigs and the rest are fairly shy and hang back. I have about five different options of food so no one gets left out. Clowns usually will eat anything and everything but the key is to get them off and running on yummy food and then feed close to the shy guys so they can quickly chow down. I feed flake very sparingly and really only a spirulina mixture for my foxface. I put together a home brew of fabulous morsels of fresh seafoods I pick up from the local grocery fish market. Along with this I feed Formula 1 and 2, frozen mysis shrimp, bloodworms, frozen krill, and other odds and ends. The main staple is the homemade brew and the mysis. I feed by holding chunks of food between my fingers so the food comes out slowly over time and so my copperbanded butterfly can get the mysis he loves so much, he is dreadful at snagging food out of the water column. He goes into the crevices between my fingers to snatch the mysis shrimp just like he goes into the crevices of the rocks for worm hunting. In this way he gets his fair share. My orchid dotty back is also very shy at feeding time. I make sure to get bits of food down in the rock work where he hangs out. I have plenty of scavengers to clean up any leftovers so I don't worry about uneaten bits. Meanwhile my sunburst anthias pair hang out in the flow, similar to the wild where they hang at the reef crest catching food particles as it sweeps in over the reef. They prefer various parts of the home brew, hate the flake, and barely pick at the mysis. I make sure while I am feeding in the general feeding area that I get the homemade brew to flow with the current over the rock work where they diligently catch small morsels. The hungry clowns and blue chromis devour the larger food morsels that the anthias ignore, along with anything else that is available. My foxface also gets fresh caulerpa from my refugium on a clip which he eats at his leisure. I notice the copperbanded picking at the clump of caulerpa as well when I first put it up so I suspect there are worms and such in the greenery that he eats. As you can see feeding time is a very thoughtful and creative adventure in my reef. Take the time to figure out what your fish prefer, train your clownfish to get food in the farthest area away from the dottyback. Soon they will go to this spot and you can spot feed other fish in different areas of the tank while keeping your clowns otherwise occupied with their own food:). Try a variety of foods, flake is easy and quick to feed but will not keep your fish happy and excited about food. Vary the diet, it is possible that a very yummy fare of food will entice that dottyback to come out and be a bit more aggressive for food. Good Luck :)

[jciwlsn]

slojmn,

Thank you for taking the time in your reply; sorry I couldn't get back to you yesterday, pretty hectic Sat.

I was at the seafood section of the market yesterday, but honestly didn't know what to buy besides the shrimp. What other kinds of fresh fish do you buy?

I have had good luck with the frozen mysis and brine. At your suggestion, I tried different areas of the tank in feeding which works much better. My rockwork allows the dottyback to swim from one end of the tank to the other without my knowing where he's going to zip out from, so it's going to take a little doing!

If you can also suggest some brand name foods to feed that would be an awesome help. I like to shop through Fosters and Smith, one of my favorites.

Thank you so much for all of your help!

BTW, you have a GORGEOUS tank setup, hope mine looks like that some day!!!!