Need help from the dat experts

[socalsurfer]

Couple questions

1. I'm trying to get my wide bar to eat non live. This sucker is one stuborn S.O.B.
coming this weekend will be 2 weeks with no live food and he has not touched anything I've thrown in there. I even bought two thinbars that eat shrimp but he's not having any of it. SHall I keep starving him??? I know its cruel but in the long run I'm sure he/she will be better off. My question is how much more time do you think I should give it?

2.) ALL my dats just hide all day long. The wide bar I have had well over a month now and he still just stays in his driftwood. The other 2 I bought, I've only had a couple weeks now and I expect they will stay hiding for a while longer. How long do these fish usually take to become established? I'm sure there is real no answer I guess you can give me, but maybe some experiance from your dats?
They are really driving me nuts. I don't want to take the hiding spots out but at the same token I really don't like paying for these fish that all they do is hide.
On a side note they do come out at night, and it seems the thinbars will come out when ever the wide bar does. So really the widebar is the one keeping everyone from coming out. :cry:

[redtailfool]

Hey socalsurfer. I have fish go for more than 2 weeks of not eating and they still look healthy. Its a case to case scenario when it comes to starving. The safest thing is to probably give in for now, feed it its usualy food and when its in top form, start starving again... just repeat this routine and the datnoid will eventually give in.

As for the fish hiding. its normal if they are still small. How is your lighting? try putting newspaper in between the light and the tank. . . have you placed hiding spots in your tank?

[socalsurfer]

Hey red, thanks for the response. Yea I was thinking of giving in and will. But not tonight =p I'll get him grubb tormorrow.
as for hiding places yes, I have 3 caves i made from driftwood and that's where they hide. The wide has his own, and the 2 thins share another,

OMG I just turned around and I think I seen that sucker getting a piece of shrimp!! Wooohooo!! I hope and pretty sure that he got himself a piece. I cut up one piece of med size frozen shrimp and throw it in, the clowns even eat it. anyway just seen the widebar getting something off the bottom! hahah woohooo!

Anyway sorry I'm a little excited. But back to the question yes there is sufficient hiding spots.

Lighting I have one 28W T5 12000k bulb, one 28W T5 actinic blue bulb on a odyssea T5 Fixture. And @ night I have moon lighting.

[Gr8KarmaSF]

you can also add some dither fish to help them come out...

[Steve_89]

Datnoids can take a very long time to establish. Particulary at juvinile stage.

I however have had juvie dats come out and become stable in less than a day and have also had no trouble at all with getting them onto frozen foods within a day or two.

I think your datnoids should eventually start to venture out, just take RTF advice about feeding and feed them up. I find that my larger datnoids are more outgoing than my juvies.

[DiXoN]

if i ever have to use the starvation method i will pump them with what they want to eat first and then start the starvation.
i have gone over 3 weeks until the fish gave in before.
and yes smal dats ar emore timid than larger ones so just give it time

[milk_and_mallard]

I've had the problem with one of my 4in dats hidding too. I kept mine in a small 20g tank until it got bigger. I thought my 16inch dat would eat him if i put him in my 75g. So he went on hidding under this decoration only coming out to eat. Once i decided to put him in the 75g a few months later, he took to a 180 and was very extroverted and swimming around. This would in part be due to the fact that the 75 had many fish and was a very community setting. I guess his philosophy was, "if the other fish didn't have anything to worry about, why should i?" I guess add more fish than decorations to make him feel more comfortable that other fish have nothing to worry about, so why should he?

As for the food, that same dat had that problem when i first got him. Try to wait in the dead of the evening when the lights are off. Then strip off a piece of shrimp and wave it in his face. He should instinctively snap at it. I'm serious this works, and the next time he catches a wif of the scent it should become more automatic. Before this, he would run and hide anytime i came at him with shrimp, it was only until i did it when he was sleeping and his instincts (scent) came into action. TRY IT.

[Vince]

how big is your dat, and how big are the oscars? the thinbars are skittish, but the widebars are not, however, the smaller ones do what is just instinct. hide from predators, until they get about 6 inches and bigger. in order to acclimate for prepared foods, i used beefhearts cut into bitesize chunks. Gut loading is a good idea before starving. what I do is drop the beefheart piece, one at a time. if at first you don't succeed, try again. One thing about beefheart, you dont want too much in your tank or it gets nasty. So one at a time, and make sure it is eaten. if the datnoid does not eat it, then offer it again another time. you might also want to try freeze dried krill. again, try little portions because uneaten food is bad...

[Richie]

Pieces of shrimp seem to encourage them to eat, either cooked or raw is fine.
Introduce lots of ditherers to add confidence and they will surely come out.

Good luck:thumbsup:

Rich

[95Harley]

I "Just" got one of my 3 large Widebars to take non-Live food. He has been watching my Aro eat shrimp and finally decided it was worth a try. But only 1 piece and the other two have not even shown any interest in anything not orange and swimming.

I also had good luck with Grass Shrimp as a stimulate to get them eating different things.

Does anyone know if golds only will cause any other ill effects other than possible disease from the nasty feeders? In my salt tank I feed no FW feeders as it causes liver damage.

[michael]

My smaller dats will eat krill and other preserved foods but my 12" won't. I am trying to do the same thing now. Try using dead fish, silversides and go from there

[Chubb]

currently housing 5 wb dats 3 thin bars and small school of clown loaches. most of them hide from my jardini swimming at the top. dropping freeze dried shrimp and krill could work at the top. try to increase food competition. i drop one peice of krill, at first, none of the fish took to it. after a day of starving, i did it again...
one ate it...then all the others slowly came out from under the driftwood peices, and i fed them one by one...:grinyes:
now...i just throw half handful of krill, and go to the bathroom...by the time i come back...it's all gone. :headbang2
oh yeah...so i feed my jardini meal worms, but the competition kills him also, so he eats a few pieces cuz he feels left out. but when he doesn't get the meal worms, i couldn't beleive it...thin bars and wide bars taking to meal worms also!! funny. :ROFL:
even my pleco and fei feng try to eat the shrimp...but i throw in a few blood worms.:headbang2

[socalsurfer]

Update
Well my wide bar still wont touch any shrimp. He picked at it but then just let t go, it's almost if he doesnt know how to eat it...
Every fish in the tank eats it. DRIVES me nuts. I have not tired beef heart yet. Might try that see how it goes. I bought some freeze dry krill, put it in front of of the glass he follows my fingers 1/2 way up then goes back down. I even put it right in front of his face and I don't know if he was trying to bite my finger but he did take a lil nibble. Problem with the freeze dry is it floats and he don't wanna come all the way top to get it. What other type foods have you guys got your wide bars to eat? I stuffed him up pretty good on Sunday, so now once again I'm gonna try starving him.