Caring for your picky eaters: What do you feed your finicky fish?

[MnFish1]

lol. In retrospect I see I made it seem as though I fed my fish with it. Not at all the case. I use it to catch trout. It’s garlic flavored and works well for its intended purpose.

I mean - maybe it world work !!! depending on what it is

 

[borrowedthemoon]

Can you point to any evidence that garlic makes any difference? I have used it multiple times over the years with no positive results

I mixed a few drops of garlic guard with frozen brine for my benggai cardinal (placed in QT tank) whom was very sick and not eating. Once the antibiotics kicked in, even when he was still not eating, the garlic guard got his appetite up just enough that he ate one little piece of brine shrimp. That was enough for me to conclude it works! The following day he ate a few shrimp and the day after that his appetite was back. Idk if it was the antibiotics or the garlic guard, but lets just conclude that it was both!

 

[Reef By Steele]

I replied to the garlic. But here is what I do and have had luck with for expert only or reticent feeders.

Size matters.
Copepods, amphipods and live brine (enriched with selcon) for smaller fish

Garlic enhances nori for herbivores although I don’t know that they would be a problem to get to eat anyway.

Live feeder shrimp (ghost or grass) to get the fish feeding initially. Then I switch to frozen krill dangled with clear monofilament fishing line to be able to simulate movement, eventually transitioning to frozen seafood that I get from an Asian market, soak, rinse, dice and freeze.

I often use Garlic guard when transitioning to the frozen foods.

Have had success with marine betas, blue spotted box fish, anglers and scorpions.

Have used squid or octopus to get small reluctant eels to eat.

 

[Paul B]

The vast majority, but not all fish will eat live worms. If they don't eat live worms, they probably are on Jenny Craig and won't eat anything.

Pipefish won't eat worms nor will seahorses. But the other fish will. I have found that if I feed live worms too often, the fish will get spoiled and won't eat anything else so I always feed other frozen or fresh foods first.

Larger fish such as Waspfish, lionfish, morays or triggers need larger food so for them I use earthworms or shellfish. These Red Waspfish got spoiled and only now want earthworms but being predators only need to be fed every few days.





I never used garlic for fish as I just never saw the need. Healthy fish living in the correct aquascape will always eat unless they were drugged or over medicated.

 

[MnFish1]

I mixed a few drops of garlic guard with frozen brine for my benggai cardinal (placed in QT tank) whom was very sick and not eating. Once the antibiotics kicked in, even when he was still not eating, the garlic guard got his appetite up just enough that he ate one little piece of brine shrimp. That was enough for me to conclude it works! The following day he ate a few shrimp and the day after that his appetite was back. Idk if it was the antibiotics or the garlic guard, but lets just conclude that it was both!

Could very well be!

 

[kindafun]

Wait, I'm not qualified to vote yet. All of my fish try to be first to the trough. Oinkers.

Getting a CBB this week though.

 

[JoJosReef]

Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and Reef Nutrition ROE. I've yet to meet a fish that won't eat ROE. I would eat it if the fish weren't watching me so closely...

 

[anemonalex]

I recently got this little lantern bassl, only will eat live brine shrimp and mysis cubes. I just got a culture of nano phyto, currently stewing in a gallon jug with a utility light on it. Once this phyto thickens up I'm going to try and keep a population of tiger pods and grown out brine shrimp to feed the basslet.

 

[w8lifts]

Aiptasia…. I let it grow in my sump and my copperband is in heaven…..but dang my sump lol it’s spicy

 

[Alexa.Davis37]

My LFS usually has live blackworms and those wriggly things appear to be a temptation that is quite difficult to resist. Yes, they're freshwater, but so long as you don't go overboard on feeding them, they're a good way to at least get something into Picky-Picky's belly.

This! I feed live blackworms and order from Eastern Aquatics.