Any hope of persuading a CBB to take non-mysis foods?

[RD]

So basically so far nobody's saying that they had one that would take flakes or pellets ... I'll take that as a "don't even bother trying" perhaps.

Never say never. From page 2 of the following thread:
http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29859

When I fed the rest of the tank NLS pellets........ He started eating the pellets like they where crack!

Obviously not an easy species to convert to pellet foods, but at least in some cases it can be done.

HTH

[Delphinus]

I did seriously give it a try and I do feed pellet in every few days so if he ever changes his mind, it's there for him.

I have a Dendrophyllia coral that I feed mysis to and he is fully aware that if I feed that coral, he can steal the food from there. So sometimes I will feed the coral the NLS pellets as it eats just about anything and the CBB will try to steal the food, thinking that its mysis.

However he spits it out every time! He simply will not touch anything that's been dried.

I've resorted to putting in a mussel, clam or oyster every now and again so that he has something else to eat besides mysis. Starting to get used to the strange looks at the seafood counter when I ask for "one mussel please."

I tried frozen clams but he won't even touch those. He will, however, eat the formerly-live ones I buy from the supermarket.

If there's a trick to getting them to broaden their tastes I'd love to hear it. Unfortunately I'm not very good at deliberately starving fish in order to get them to try something new. In this case I don't hold out a lot of hope it would work anyhow, he has a very strong will.

[Tarolisol]

My CBB after consuming every aptasia in my tank ate mysis as well as nori. Never touched a coral. He was perfect. Then he sucumbed to the sucking action of a vortech.

[hawk]

After you introduced the mussels, clam,etc. did he develope a taste for your "real" clams?

[Delphinus]

So far has shown no interest in those..

[RD]

Tony, try soaking the pellets for approx 5 minutes in some of the clam juice, to soften them up, and add a bit of extra flavor. This usually works on most finicky freshwater fish, and is at least worth a shot on your CBB.

[Delphinus]

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to try that.

Dumb question though .. where does one get clam juice? Is this something you can get at the grocery store?

The only clam juice I know about is Clamato (yum yum) But I'm going to assume Clamato won't be appreciated by the CBB.

[RD]

Use the juice from the fresh seafood that you are feeding. Oyster, clam, mussel, whatever. Sometimes just softening the pellet up a bit will make a big difference with fish that tend to spit the pellets out, and with the added taste of fresh seafood mixed in, you just might be able to convince this fish to stop spitting, and to start swallowing. IMO the fact that it is already taking the pellets in is a huge plus, you're already half way home.

[Ruth]

Tony you can buy clam nectar in the grocery store - I use it for making clam chowder but it is available in cans and jars.

[Delphinus]

Cool, I'll look for it. Or try .. um.. draining the clam or oyster or whatever, next time I feed one. (For some reason I can't help but think "ew!" as I type this in..)