What do tamarin wrasses eat? How do I train them onto prepared foods?

[Perpetual Novice]

All I can find online is that anampses tamarin wrasses eat crustaceans off of rocks. What kind of crustaceans? Wikipedia has nothing on this genus.

I want to train mine to accept frozen food but I don’t even know where to start since I don’t know the diet it would naturally eat.

Has anyone had success with tamarins that can tell me how they coaxed them onto prepared foods and what prepared foods worked best?

 

[TvanB1]

What kind of tamarin is it? I’ve successfully gotten them eating by starting off with live Blackworms, BBS, fresh shucked clams, and Tigriopus californicus.

 

[Fonn]

Had one fed on frozen brine and mysis, and then gradually to ocean nutrition mini pellets. It takes time to train them, but these fish seem to need to be fed several times a day. I do believe they have a very small stomach. GL

 

[Perpetual Novice]

What kind of tamarin is it? I’ve successfully gotten them eating by starting off with live Blackworms, BBS, fresh shucked clams, and Tigriopus californicus.

It’s a pearl/black-back/china wrasse. About 4 inches. All signs look positive just haven’t seen it eat out of the water column. I’ve been feeding spirulina brine soaked in selcon and vita chem. What is BSS and the last food you mentioned. Live blackworms seem really hard to feed sustainably.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

I posted this in another thread I started as well. I was hoping to get more info on just what their natural diet would be in here. But anything I can get is a huge help!

Took this video today.

 

[TvanB1]

It’s a pearl/black-back/china wrasse. About 4 inches. All signs look positive just haven’t seen it eat out of the water column. I’ve been feeding spirulina brine soaked in selcon and vita chem. What is BSS and the last food you mentioned. Live blackworms seem really hard to feed sustainably.

I have a pair of China wrasses. My first one ate frozen right out of the bag. The second is still eating live food. BBS stands for baby brine shrimp. Freshly hatched BBS are the most nutritious (1-6 hrs after hatch). They are super easy to hatch and are relatively cheap.
Does it eat the frozen food off the rocks?

 

[TvanB1]

China wrasse (Anampses neoguinaicus)

I bought an A. neoguinaicus that will arrive tomorrow night. I have been doing a bunch of research but wanted some personal experiences. I have a bunch of small ghost shrimp, pods, and bbs to get it to start eating. Any info helps. Thanks.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Perpetual Novice]

I have a pair of China wrasses. My first one ate frozen right out of the bag. The second is still eating live food. BBS stands for baby brine shrimp. Freshly hatched BBS are the most nutritious (1-6 hrs after hatch). They are super easy to hatch and are relatively cheap.
Does it eat the frozen food off the rocks?

I’m not certain but it seems to eat things off the rocks. It has t gotten any slimmer and it’s been in the tank almost 72 hours now.

I’ve hatched some brine shrimp but I considered it a failed experiment as they seem much too small to feed to a 4 inch wrasse I added them to the tank anyway and the only fish that seems to have noticed is the bengai cardinal which looks like it’s just gulping down water.

 

[TvanB1]

I’m not certain but it seems to eat things off the rocks. It has t gotten any slimmer and it’s been in the tank almost 72 hours now.

I’ve hatched some brine shrimp but I considered it a failed experiment as they seem much too small to feed to a 4 inch wrasse I added them to the tank anyway and the only fish that seems to have noticed is the bengai cardinal which looks like it’s just gulping down water.

Adult brine shrimp aren’t very nutritious compared to other choices of frozen food. I highly recommend LRS Fish or Fertility Frenzy. Perhaps try live Blackworms if they are available in your area. Mine loves them.
72 hours is still a very short period of time, so if its eating microfauna off the rocks thats a good sign.

 

[TvanB1]

If you can’t get it to eat anything within the first week, consider setting up a culture of tigger pods. They are large enough to be seen/eaten by them.

 

[vetteguy53081]

meaty foods:

They have same eating habits as an eel in which the wrasse will take in food, chew it up, spit it out and repeat this process several times before finally chewing and swallowing the food item. One of the reasons Tamarin Wrasse exhibit this type of feeding is due to their pharyngeal jaw which acts as a second set of teeth/jaws for chewing up hard shelled crustaceans or smaller snails and bivalves. The pharyngeal jaw resides in the back of the wrasse’s throat.
Beware of having inverts as they will be food. also Note that this is a very difficult wrasse to raise and will be challenging to feeding, tank conditions and ability to create a webbed cocoon every night as a security blanlket persay

 

[RMS18]

Mine eats pods, amphipods, frozen mysis, live black worm's, brine, and a meaty mix I have forgot who makes it. He will even eat nori if I place it in a clip. I have a male yellow tail. Was a female but he converted.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

meaty foods:

They have same eating habits as an eel in which the wrasse will take in food, chew it up, spit it out and repeat this process several times before finally chewing and swallowing the food item. One of the reasons Tamarin Wrasse exhibit this type of feeding is due to their pharyngeal jaw which acts as a second set of teeth/jaws for chewing up hard shelled crustaceans or smaller snails and bivalves. The pharyngeal jaw resides in the back of the wrasse’s throat.
Beware of having inverts as they will be food. also Note that this is a very difficult wrasse to raise and will be challenging to feeding, tank conditions and ability to create a webbed cocoon every night as a security blanlket persay

Adult brine shrimp aren’t very nutritious compared to other choices of frozen food. I highly recommend LRS Fish or Fertility Frenzy. Perhaps try live Blackworms if they are available in your area. Mine loves them.
72 hours is still a very short period of time, so if its eating microfauna off the rocks thats a good sign.

Ok. I’ll invest in some other frozen foods. I know they’re hard. I’ve had success with several leopard wrasses so I decided to give a tamarin a try. Unlike the leopards though I didn’t get to see it eat at the store because it hurried each time. I’ve added lots of tigger pods and have amphipods and feeder shrimp on order. Blackworms are not a local option though.

So you think other frozen foods might be more appealing? How about masstick? Am I missing any potential options besides the worms?

I’m looking for something I can actively feed since my leopard wrasses and melanurus will undoubtedly lend a hand in cleansing the tank of a viable pod population long term for feeding.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok. I’ll invest in some other frozen foods. I know they’re hard. I’ve had success with several leopard wrasses so I decided to give a tamarin a try. Unlike the leopards though I didn’t get to see it eat at the store because it hurried each time. I’ve added lots of tigger pods and have amphipods and feeder shrimp on order. Blackworms are not a local option though.

So you think other frozen foods might be more appealing? How about masstick? Am I missing any potential options besides the worms?

I’m looking for something I can actively feed since my leopard wrasses and melanurus will undoubtedly lend a hand in cleansing the tank of a viable pod population long term for feeding.

Mastick - Nah

mysis shrimp
sm plankton
LRS fish frenzy
Spirulina Brine shrimp
chopped clam

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Don’t remember the website I found off the top of my head but they had amazing deals on pods. Copepods and amphipods. Just released hundreds of amphipods into the tank and the tamarin is vacuuming them up like mad!

 

[Tamberav]

My China wrasses eats anything. I mostly feed live black worms, LRS, fresh frozen clam, masstick, ova, and an auto feeder with pellets.

I think the first things it took to was finely chopped LRS, ova, and live worms.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

The leopard wrasse showed her the main stockpile at the end of the vid.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Just went to feed my white ribbon eel some raw shrimp and a bunch of shrimp prices tore off and got swept away into the tank. Low and behold the tamarin wrasse sported then and went into a frenzy collecting each loose shrimp piece in its belly.

 

[PatW]

I have a tamarin wrasse. Sarah at my LFS suggested him. She had him eating frozen. These guys are considered “expert only” because many are hard to get off of live food. Mine eats everything that goes into the tank except Nori. It eats frozen, enriched brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp, and 4 kinds of pellets. It is an active, peaceful and reef safe fish. It is plump and well colored. Nothing picks on it, some fish are born victims and seem to trigger aggression. So if you get him eating, they are great fish.

 

[artieg1]

I have never fed my anampses lineatus live food. QT'd on frozen brine (junk food basically, just to get him/her eating), then frozen mysis. 2 years later in DT, it eats pellet, frozen, nori just like all the others. I do BBS sometimes. I'll bet it grabs stuff off rocks when I'm not looking. But never had a problem feeding it. Same story with my leopard wrasses.