poor color in rabbitfish

[Kung]

I recently purchased a 2 1/2 inch virigated rabbitfish from an LFS that I respect and trust. I had picked him out on a Sunday afternoon, but had him held until the following friday morning. When I picked him up, he was dull in color, but I thought nothing of it as the lights weren't even on in his tank yet.

It's been two weeks. He eats, he frolics, he does all the things he should do, and yet he remains dull in color. None of the others(seven inch sailfin, a royal gramma, a blue devil damsel, and a lovely coral beauty angel) in my 125 have had issues of any kind. Water chemistry is fine, as I know that dull coloring often is a result of pH issues. Other than being drab, he is completely fine.

Any thoughts? He has been mostly eating the hair aglea from the rocks, as he was purchased to do. He is mostly done, and I will need to find a food to maintain him on. Is there a good color enhancing formula available? I had used Prime Reef a while back, and am feeding the others some old flake that really should be thrown out and frozen brine shrimp. Mostly they pick what they need from the live rock and are thriving at that, so I feed maybe twice a week. Would my little rabbit benefit from some nori or another source of algae to vary his diet?

Sorry for the novel, but I thought you might need to know a lot of that background to accurately answer my questions.

[spoiledcats]

I don't know anything about that particular fish, but I think poor coloration can come from diet also. If it will eat nori, I would soak it in vitamins, and also feed a variety of frozen food. The greater the variety, the healthier the fish, hence better coloration. IMO.

[Kung]

A varied diet is absolutely my intent. I just don't want to go buying anything, though. I was really hoping for specific brands that people have had success with.

[violaceous]

Try soaking nori or seaweed in Selcon or Zoe. If he doesn't take to it right away, try crushing a clove of fresh garlic and soaking the seaweed in the fresh garlic juice also (don't use the bottled garlic or precrushed - it loses its effectiveness). If he will take to it, his color should begin to perk up again within a few weeks.

I use Selcon and have had very good luck with it. Well worth the sticker price.


Good luck!

[secrest]

I have the same fish. He dulled out as well after about a month in my tank. About that same time I had also ran out of nori. Once I was able to get some, his color is better than ever.

[spoiledcats]

I'm not sure if you are asking for specific brands of food, nori or vitamins. As was said, Selcon is good. Right now I have a gel-tec color enhancement vitamin that I soak the nori in. As far as foods go, I feed as varied a diet as possible-frozen mysis, brine(with omega-3 cause brine is useless by itself), krill, plankton, prime reef, cyclop-eeze, formula 2, marine quisine, emerald entree. And always a clip of nori in the tank(soaked 3 times weekly in vitamins). I'm sure there are other frozen foods I give them, just can't think of them all right now.

[Shekki]

I have the same fish and he is the biggest eater ever. There's nothing he WON"T eat. I mix it up with Mysis, squid, bloodworms, cyclopeze, and formula one and two. His color seems fine and he's a very active fish.

Robb