longnose butterfly not eating...please help!

[seanoman]

thanks for the replies guys. Delphinius, when you give your CBB the clam/mussel, do you just place it one the sandbed and let them go to town? That sounds like an interesting idea and I am willing to try anything to get the little guy eating. I'll try the cyclopeeze first when I get home today and if it's not willing to go for that, I just may head out and get some clams for it.

[seanoman]

michika- no luck with the nori yet... I'm not sure if it's really even noticed it either though, as it's on the opposite side of that tank from where it usually swims.

[Delphinus]

Pretty much. I just get it cracked open enough that he can get his proboscis (or whatever it's called - his "snout" ) into the shell and he goes to town. Now that I freeze them they pretty much open all the way though.

I'm not 100% convinced Cyclops-eeze will do the trick. It might, most fish love the smell of it. I know my CBB goes berserk when I feed it to my tank but it seems to me that among my fish, it's mostly just my tang and my rabbitfish who are able to vacuum it down. My butterfly seems to need to strike at something to be able to eat it. I don't know if that holds for all butterflies. I guess the thing to do though is try Cyclops, if he eats it then great. If he seems to react to it but can't eat it - then try soaking some cyclops and mysis together to see if the taste transfers. Likely, what has to happen is he has to eat some mysis by accident and then discover that he actually really likes it.

Good luck!

[seanoman]

cool that sounds good. I will give it a try when I get home and see if it goes for it. If not, I'll be off to the grocery store in search of some clams. I'll post later tonight on it's progress