[Tourkid]

leebeca, hello hope your doing well!

I had a question for you..

Do you think it would be ok, and possibly WORK, to use maracyn 2 to get an otherwise healthy fish to eat?

The fish in question is a copperband butterfly.

It ate frozen brine in the store, and was in good health. But a pretty small copperband.

I put him in my ten gallon QT, and its on a major hunger strike. hasent touched a thing. I have tried your normal to your weird food choices..

mysis
brine
baby brine
live brine
flakes
nori
formula 1 & 2
prime reef

live clams
live mussel
(yuk.)
I put a tiny piece of LR in the tank and it pecked a lil, but it dident have any fan worms or aptasia on it...

I looked everywhere in a 2 hr radias for live black worms but since byerlys went out of business, columbus is without them. I even joined all the fresh water clubs forums and asked them in hopes of someone breeding them.

so its day 7. Today, it has chosen to not leave the plastic cave. This is the first day it hasent acted insanely healthy and free of parasites and bacteria.

Ok, so its stressed out for sure. Im DIEING to add him to the reef and get him eatting rock life, and its not for parasites or anything that stopped me.

Its that it isent eatting. how would i ever get it to eat in the reef if it wont now?

I am getting some 'entice' on sunday as well as artic pods whitch a club member broke its coppbands hunger strike with.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Maggie

[leebca]

It truly is a stress issue on most new acquisitions. Check water quality VERY closely. Check anything else that may be upsetting or disturbing the fish. The back, bottom and sides of the QT should be blocked off (black paper) to cut down on distractions.

It could be that the fish is just had it for acclimation and won't acclimate again. You ARE RIGHT about it not getting better in the display tank. The people who go ahead and put the fish in the display still are faced with training the fish to eat prepared foods while the fish is 'distracted' hunting for its normal foods. When people say it worked, what they are admitting to is that their QT was stressful (that is, they don't know how to quarantine without added stress to the fish).

You've offered a wide variety of foods which the fish would eat if not under some unseen/undetermined stress.

Get large scallops (frozen or thawed from frozen). While frozen, shave bits of it and drop tiny bits it into the QT. Push some of the scallop bits, brine or other foods you tried into a bit of live rock and see if it will eat it off the rock.

The appetite stimulant in Maracyn Two for Saltwater fish is a weak inducer to get a fish to eat that is under another stress. If you have that antibiotic, I would add it anyway in case there are some bacteria bothering the fish.

I've tried vitamins to stimulate appetites and never had a case where one would start to eat just because I added the vitamin to the water.

Try soaking some foods in garlic juice. This changes the smell and flavor and may be enough for the fish to be attracted to it. Garlic, however is also a poor appetite stimulant and never definitively proven to help.

Keep us informed.

[Tourkid]

thanks the maracyn should hopefully be here tomorrow, i dident plan on needing any, i was just stocking up on some stuff

I did try vitamins, garlic extreame, and squid juice
also cyclops and rods food.. forgot to mention it.

I also tryed prime reef shoved into the live rock, as well as mysis

so after i posted this i did a large water change (65%) and it came out of the cave almost imediately. but then it went back and havent seen it agian. i found a small liverock with a few fan worms on it, i put that in there.

I dont have the side and back covered, ill do that now. I do cover it at night though...

[leebca]

Lighting during the day (especially if you're treating with antibiotic) should be dim.

[Tourkid]

got the maracyn 2 in the mail today whoohhoo. I went ahead and double dosed it.

when i went to the gym early this morn the fanworm was still there and the fidh was out of hiding. (hid for 24 hrs strait) well its still out of hiding and the fan worm is either missing, or hiding, so maybe it ate SOMTHING... i donno. Ive always gotton fish to eat after 3 days of maracyn so im really hoping it works!!

I blacked out 3 sides of the tank and the lights are dim. and the qt is in a room by itself with no traffic, but an ajoining bathroom i can spy on it from lol

Im out of ideas, so i hope it works

[leebca]

I'd say you're doing about all that can be expected. The rest will be up to the fish. Keep close attention to water quality and perform water changes if you're in any doubt.

Maracyn Two for Saltwaterfishes can be used in some reef tanks. However if you can avoid the LR, I'd not put it in there during treatment, just in case there is die-off that sends ammonia into the water. An artificial LR is the best to use in the future.