Have any of you successfully trained your Datnoid to eat flakes?

NeonFlux

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2010
270
17
48
Los Angeles
Hello guys, like the title suggests, has any one of you managed to get your datnoids to eat fish flakes besides pellets and other foods? If you have successfully trained them to eat flakes, how exactly did you do it? I want my datnoid to be able to take flakes, so I can feed it along with pellets, freeze-dried insects, frozen foods, live foods, you know, so I can mix things up nicely, and feed a variety of foods; so that it is good for their health, color, and growth instead of feeding the same stuff all the time. Plus, if he/she gets sick one day somehow out of the blue, I would be able to feed him/her medicated fish flakes just in case pretty easily since he/she knows how to eat flakes to help combat diseases that are internal..... So I'm guessing the first step is to starve him/her? :eek: I'm going to really hate doing that. Hopefully I don't stunt him/her badly, or get him/her sick, which is a few of my greatest fears since it is my first datnoid of all time, I'm planning to keep him/her with me till the very end; I've already bonded with the little guy, and I don't want to risk losing him/her at all.

Any input would greatly be appreciated!

Thanks.
 

bottles

Polypterus
MFK Member
Sep 2, 2007
1,231
126
96
canada
Stick to all of the other foods that you mentioned. Flakes would be a poor choice for a dats diet and the dat is not likely to eat flakes.
 

NeonFlux

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2010
270
17
48
Los Angeles
I'm not planning to feed flakes too often, no worries.. Actually I'm planning on training him/her to feed on pellets soon, but however, I do want to train him/her to at least learn how to take flakes first in the quarantine, (he/she's currently in quarantine tank, before going into main tank) so I can feed him/her medicated flake with dewormers/antibiotics if he/she somehow ends up getting sick to the stomach one day randomly from possibly nematode worms, parasites, protozoans, or other nasty stuff. So you know, it would be easier to treat for infections that way, so there's no panic of my dat not knowing how to eat flakes.

You get where I'm going? I want him/her to learn how to eat flakes, so that one day if he/she gets ill, I would have medicated flakes on hand and it would be easy for me to treat and save him/her.

By the way, do you guys know how to identity Dat's sex? I hate having to say "he/she, his/her" @_@ all the time..
 

Gar88

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 1, 2011
1,901
16
53
INDIA
Getting them to take pellets is a task on it own. Haha I can see their reaction to flakes. I've kept and raised a few. But as suggested above you would be wasting your time.
You can always orally medicate. And these guys are beasts who need a lot of food. Flakes won't do it.

In any case if u still wanna feed them, stuff dry shrimp and feed.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 

NeonFlux

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2010
270
17
48
Los Angeles
All right.. I see, thanks, Gar88.

So have you got them to eat pellets? Do you still have dats? It's only a matter of time I'm going to have to train my dat to take pellets instead of thawing, melting, and feeding frozen bloodworms all the time.. of course, I'm still planing to feed bloodworms, but definitely not everyday, it gets expensive.. but just as treats every two or three days.. I'm guessing I'm going to have to starve the dat for a few days while letting him/her see the pellets be eaten by other fish, so it would entice him/her to eat pellets eventually?
 

Jhawk974

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 14, 2014
333
18
18
Utah
It can take months to get a Dat on pellets so be ready to go nuts. I would try to hold on blood worms till they are on a steady diet of pellets. I had all 5 of mine on pellets for a few days and the wife feed them blood worms after that it took 3 months to get one of the dats back on pellets.

Sent from my SM-G900V using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 

krichardson

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2006
27,558
14,446
480
Datnoid Island
Yep and money since so much of the flakes would be wasted before the dat ever gets around to ingesting just one sliver of flake.At least the uneaten pellets can be removed from the tank and saved for other attempts or given to other fish.
 

krichardson

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2006
27,558
14,446
480
Datnoid Island
That's kind of cool,is that all you give him,and how's that thinbar holding up,Jay?
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store