IT: Eat or Die

This is a great looking IT. He holds his own against the Snakeheads. The problem is, this guy only eats prawn. At this point, I don't even care if he eats pellets, but anything else would be good. Worms, krill, and silversides are all refused. The Snakeheads and Catfish all rush around eating, so I had hoped that he'd learn to get in the mix, but he only joins in for prawn.
It's been roughly 6 weeks of me only offering pellets, worms, krill, and silversides. I am considering packing the prawn with pellets, but at the same time, it might be best to just keep prawn out of the equation for now...

Pics:

krichardson said:

It is nice looking and I would stuff the prawn with pellets for more nutrition for the dat.Have you tried freeze dried krill?..I think shrimp and prawn must be a part of their natural diet in the wild as most dats can't seem to resist them...most that I have had anyhow.

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Thanks, Krich.
I can stuff the prawn, but considering it's been 6 weeks, I wonder if I should just hold out. Everyday I say, surely he'll break today, but no dice. I haven't tried freeze dried krill, only thawed.

NixMix said:

He's a good looking one! Reminds me of my IT. I love them! <--- my avatar

I try to feed mine MS once in a while but he wants nothing to do with them. He will nose them and then ignore. He holds out for tilapia though. I can usually get mine eating pellets if I hold out on the tilapia.

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Thanks. Yours is very nice as well and good pic.
I feed silversides (whole frozen fish), but haven't tried fillets. Maybe I'll give that a shot.

robroy said:

I agree with stuffing the prawn with pellets-I don't think its good long term to feed a fish just prawn.
My NGT only ate worms when I first got it-I weaned it onto prawn and now stuff the prawn with Massivore but have slowly over time reduced the piece of prawn I put the pellet in. Yesterday it took a Massivore by itself but spat it out after a minute or so and I reckon it'll soon take Massivore on its own. It's growth has been better putting the pellet in the prawn. I got the fish last November so that'll give you an idea of just how long it's took

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Thanks.
It's not a good idea to feed strictly prawn since it has thiaminase. If yours is mouthing the Massivore, I wouldn't feed it anything but because you're very close.
Yes, that's good info for the timeline. I'm trying to avoid the prawn altogether at this point.

I'm going to try some fillets and if that doesn't work, I'll start packing the prawn with pellets in about 2 weeks. I don't want him to go without eating for more than 2 months, however, everyday he goes without eating now, I think he's just that much closer to taking something else.

BuffaloPolypteridae said:

I will continue to tote my best luck with breaking dats, ctenopoma as teacher fish. They seem to always chill near each other ime with 2 separate times of having separate sets of both of them. Recently got this 3/3 IT to eat pellets after starving for only a couple weeks, same as the 4 bar I tried this with.

I don't think a cten would last long with SH though lol. I would try the pellet stuffing, does he eat live blackworms? Never had a fish that didnt, and you can put massivore powder in the mass of them to gutload them and they must taste somewhat like it.

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Thanks.
I've trained my two smaller ITs to eat pellets. It's much easier when they are small. This guy is already 7.5" and although I was told it ate pellets and other things, I'm having my doubts now. I've only had him for about 2 months.
Yes, Ctenopomas are too slow and would just be easy targets for the Snakeheads. However, using "teacher fish" is what I was hoping would happen with the Snakeheads, but so far no luck.
The price on blackworms here has gone up considerably in the past year, and no stores bother to carry them anymore. I can do a special order by the pound, but I won't bother for just one fish.

Very nice 3 bar.

GarNiac said:

I had mine ate pellets when they were only 2cm when they arrive. They were eating blood worms, then a week later I gave them eating sinking pellets and they took them right away. As they reach 4cm i added some more ITs about the same size to join the gang, but they new group did not want to eat pellet.Had me about a month to train them and they finally follow the rest to eat pellets. I think its easier to train them when you have a group of them in the same tank. I would remove the SH if I were you, dont really trust them as tankmate.

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Thanks, GarNiac.
I agree that it's easier to train a group.
As you can see, there are no rips in the fins or any damage from the Snakeheads. I watched closely for the first few weeks and haven't had any problems. This is also not my first time with Snakeheads and Dats in a community. There are a few Catfish species in there as well.

FunWow! said:

Well letting it die is just stupid in my mind. He will break but it's probably going to take even longer. I'd pack the prawn with pellets. In return you'll feed less of it since the pellets packed will fill him up. Dats will starve themselves instead to breaking to pellets.


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Thanks.
I'm sure that everyone would agree that it's stupid to let any fish starve to death. As I said, I'll go back to prawns packed with pellets in a couple of weeks if things haven't changed. And again, this isn't just about him eating pellets, but eating anything that isn't prawn. You can see in the pictures that were taken today that he doesn't have a sunken stomach or anything yet.