what to feed a finicky PJ cardinal

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Hi all,

I have an old PJ cardinal that only likes a few foods... really just one. While he/she has lived a long time on this self imposed diet, I feel kind of guilty that it only eats mysis. I have tried mussels, squid, cyclopeeze, several of the SF bay brand blends and numerous pelleted and flake foods to no avail. It will eat frozen and live brine shrimp but I stopped feeding frozen because its mostly water, however, live brine is an occasional treat.

Another stipulation is I really don't like frozen foods that are blended too small. Some of the SF blends just turn into a cloud of tiny particles that none of the fish eat. Then I feel like all I'm doing is adding filter feeder food and/or adding phosphates and other nutrient into the tank.

I realize its likely catching and eating amphipods at night so may be no additional variety is needed but I'd still like to vary the food I feed it. So, what would you suggest I try?

Oh, and I do enrich the mysis with Zoecon and/or garlic.

Thanks,
Tom

[Sir Patrick]

Doesnt eat cyclopeeze???

Maybe its living off your wildlife (pods) in your tank- and wont accept anything other than mysis.

Give it a while- and keep on trying. It will take somthing eventually. Try only feeding just before lights out, or after lights out w/ moonlights.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Thanks for the response SirP. No go on the cyclopeeze. I think because they're so small the PJ ignores them. Although the latest frozen stick seems to have a lot more clear copepods and far fewer red/orange ones. May be there's not enough nutrition or flavor in this batch. Come to think of it all of the fish are less into this pack of cyclopeeze... interesting.

Wait a while, huh? I've had the PJ for 9 or ten years!

I like the night/dusk feeding idea. I'll have to give that a try tonight.

I know this isn't an emergency and the fish isn't starving. In fact, its always been fairly skinny so may be I'm wasting my time trying other foods. But I'd still like to try. What are other peoples' PJs eating?

Thanks,
Tom

[MizTanks]

Aside from live mine too only ate frozen and I tried just about everything.

[handlevandal]

Mine does mysis only but will nip at some cyclopeeze on occasion. I feed a lot of different things to the tanks but the PJ will only eat when it's mysis. I rinse both mysis cubes and PE Mysis because of the clouds that happen if I don't, and I stopped using Rod's since most of the fish are bigger and the little tiny particles that float about in the Rod's cloud don't seem to interest most of them. The PJ was my second fish so he's been around for over 5 years and still looks healthy and is about as active as a card can be.

[cg5071]

same here though mine will eat life spectrum pellets. it nibbled on aquadine but now lets it sink. just mysis and the pellets. i feed at dusk and dawn and i dont feed mysis everyday so i drop about 3 pellets at a time over him so the rest dont sink before eaten. hehe a hand fed pj. spoiled!

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Thanks for all of the replies.

Sounds like this may be the norm for PJs.

Has anyone tried feeding oyster eggs to their PJ? I'm thinking about trying these for the tank in general, but if the PJ will go for them then I'd be more inclined to try them.

Thanks,
Tom

[Myteemouse]

Mine liked "SUPERSOFT shrimp pellets."

[streetrodder007]

TOM- what brands of frozen have you tried? About 2 months ago I got a bad batch of H2O Life "cyclop's" . KEE's was very happy to give me another one. which did help a little..

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Originally Posted by streetrodder007

TOM- what brands of frozen have you tried? About 2 months ago I got a bad batch of H2O Life "cyclop's" . KEE's was very happy to give me another one. which did help a little..

Argent Brand (I think) Cyclopeeze. That is the only frozen cyclops I've tried. Honestly didn't know that there are other brands out there! Thanks for the tip streetrodder007.