Pajama Cardinalfish

[qazplm25]

Yesterday I got myself a pair of Pajama Cardinalfish from a LFS. I acclimated them for over three hours and this morning they seemed to have regained their color and they are looking good. They are very shy, however, and I can't seem to get them to eat. Whenever I approach the tank they huddle in the back corner and they swim away from my hand or the turkey baster. My tank has been set up for about 14 months and this is my second attempt at fish (a few months ago I bought a 6 line wrasse- everything seemed to be going well and then it disappeared at day 4).

Any advice or experience on this species would be great! I hope that the pajama's will maybe even breed in my tank.

Also I heard that they like to swim in sea grass, does anybody have experience with this or similar macro algae?

Thanks to all,
Michael

 

[s_kelley]

Are all your parameters ok? If so id just give them a few days to settle in. Its not uncommon for new fish not to eat and be skittish in the begining.

 

[frank180reef]

how did they look at the store when you got them, did they eat for you at the store

btw they are noctural I beleive...............so the behavior may not be that much out of the ordinary

 

[mason90]

I have a pair and when I first brought them home they hid for 2-3 days and didn't come out for anything than they slowly came out and eat like hogs... I feed the frozen brine and mysis... I just thaw out a cube and let it go in the tank because all my fish love it

 

[qazplm25]

Thanks for the responses, I finally got them to eat, and I learned that they have very good senses. This morning before the tank lights came on I took a fresh cube of mysis shrimp and selected a few delicious looking shrimps and sucked it up in my turkey baster and put it in the tank. The fish immediately retreated to their hidden corner and at best I could only get the baster within 5 inches of the fish. After squeezing out some shrimp without any response from the fish, one and then the other starts darting across the tank to catch the food that was blowing around in the current then dart back. I then accidentally let out a few too many shrimps so I left the room in hopes they would eat more "in private"

Mason90: Did you notice that they ate more readily when the lights were off? I tried to feed my pair again in the day and they ignored the food.

 

[mason90]

I actually only feed them with the lights on I thaw the cube out in a net and let it go in the current all over the tank and all the fish just eat away (cardinals included)