Coral Beauty Not eating prepared foods

I bought a coral beauty about 5 days ago. He's doing fine but won't eat any prepared foods. I've tried two different types of flake food, frozen mysis, angel fish food, blood worms, nori and krill. The good news is that he is eating. He cruises around all day picking at the rocks. I have seen him eat pieces of algae and what I guess are copepods on the rock. I just wanted to ask if anybody had any good ideas as to how to get him to eat prepared foods. I though about trying to find some live shrimp somewhere, but I'm not even sure if that's what they eat. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

 

What I did to get my Blueface Angel that I had eating back last year, I would rubber band some nori around his home area. he would start grazing and eventually find it. Brine and Mysis, well those werent not an issue.

 

+1 on the above... I have also heard about a very thick paste made up of fish food. add nori and mysis and smear along the rocks.

With a flame angel, I had success with going to the grocery store and buying a few clams, mussels, and whatever else was fishy. Started by putting a clam/mussel on the half-shell beside where the angel likes to hang out. Once it discovered that, then i just started chopping the clams and mussels into fine bits and mixing that into the normal frozen food. Tedious, I know... but it did work

 

Hey GuitarMan,

I've had mine CB for about 9 or 10 months now and he rarely eats the prepared food I put in the tank to feed the other fish. Mine just swims around all day picking around at rocks,walls and pumps and just swims right through the food. Sometimes might pick at a piece.. Guess he's finding enough to eat in the tank throughout the day. Even though he's active and disease free I still wish he would some of the food I put in there for him.

 

Sounds like my situation, I'm not too worried right now because he is eating something. I did a little research and some people had CBs never eat prepared foods but lived for years in their tank. The info above is very good and I will use it. Thanks.

 

would a garlic soak maybe entice it to eat prepared or frozen? mine eats everything thrown in except nori. but as you said, if its gettin its fill , theres more than likely nothing to worry about. god luck with it guitarman
guy

 

All the above suggestions are good, and remember that you've only had him for a few days - sometimes it takes a week or two for a new fish to start eating. One thing you could try is to hatch some live brine shrimp, and pick some up in a syringe. Feed the fish with those - he should love them. The next day, feed some more live brine from the syringe - this teaches the fish that food comes from the syringe. The following day, do the same thing, but add some frozen mysis to the syringe as well as the live brine - see if the fish eats any. The next day try just the frozen. This technique tends to work, but may take some time and effort.

 

Another good idea, know anyplace to get them?

 

I need to pick up some garlic extract anyways, I tried, but the lfs closest to me didn't have any. I tried some flakes that had garlic in them, but he didn't budge and my other fish actually didn't seem to like it too much either.

 

you can also use the juice from minced garlic from the grocery store.

i got lucky with my CB he'll eat anything i throw in. just keep trying