He won't eat!

[rudy]

It has been a couple days since I got my cuttle. He ate apparently 2 damsels at the store but has not eaten since I have had him (that I know of). He took a shrimp from me but does not look like he ate it. I have chromis, tried all sorts of frozen food on a stick with no luck. No crabs available here so any ideas???

 

[Jean]

It may be stressed by the trip, keep offering food. Cuttlegirl may have some idea's

J

 

[cuttlegirl]

Live shrimp is my suggestion... You can order from aquaculturestore.com. Never mind about the aquaculturestore because you are in Canada. You can call them, but I don't think he has a permit to ship to Canada yet.. Otherwise, put the food on a stick, skewer and move it around like it is alive. In general, I have found that cuttlefish prefer shrimp and crab to fish. How does he look otherwise? How big is he?

 

[cuttlegirl]

Can you get live shrimp or fiddler crabs at the LFS where you got the cuttle? Could they order you some? It is encouraging that at least the cuttlefish accepted the shrimp, even though it didn't eat it. Make sure the shrimp is the same temperature as the water in the cuttle tank. Some cuttles don't like their shrimp cold... was it a raw shrimp?

 

[rudy]

He actually just took a clam as well. Dropped it but took it right away.

He looks fine. Body is probably 2 inches or so. I will keep you posted, but live food is probably not an option as I would have to order it!

 

[DrBatty]

I have never had a cuttle, so I'm not sure the same rules apply.....but my octo would take anything I offered to him, whether he wanted to eat it or not. He'd carry it around for a minute and then leave it...almost as if he were humoring me.
At first, I was hard-pressed to find food for him as well [and eventually ordered from aquaculturestore.com]. Before I could find him fiddlers, I gave him live ghost shrimp to hold him over. He looooved them! I don't condone feeding a marine animal freshwater food because it doesn't have the right Omega-3 fatty acids for marine animals, but it can help you out if you're in a pinch and need to buy some time! Just a thought....maybe your LFS has some of those around for you....at least until you figure out the food situation. Good luck!

 

[Thales]

I have had good success by going a day or two without offering food. Let him get hungry, used to the new environment and stop freaking him out by shoving stuff in his face . Then try thawed rinsed fresh shrimp (if you can get them whole and unshelled you will be better off) on a clear plastic feeding stick - wiggle it near a rock or on the bottom as if it is alive. Be patient. If the shrimp doesn't have eyes, sometimes drawing eye spots on the shrimp will induce a strike.

If there are fish in the tank, you may want to take them out as they may be frightening the cuttle.

You might have to get something live for him to eat if you cant get him to take dead food. WC cuttles are often difficult, if not impossible, to get weaned onto frozen foods.

The store near you must have some kind of live shrimp or crab you could feed if he isn't going to eat dead food. You may have to order some live food to keep him alive until you, hopefully, get him weaned. If you do order, you can try to feed him freshly dead shrimp which may help weanin him.

I haven't really tried to get them to eat frozen foods from the grocery because they don't seem to eat as much of them and IME, they don't do as well on them.

Oh- they don't eat clams.

 

[rudy]

I am down one Chromis today. Must have ran into Bruce!

 

[rudy]

Yes!!! Put a krill on a stick today and bam! Took him all of 5 seconds