Hi guys I am very frustrated. I have I a 180g tank with 1 baby Oscar, 1 full grown Severum, 5 Silver Dollars, 3 Clown Loaches, and 3 new (1.5weeks in tank) 3 inch ST Dats. Dats will only eat freeze dried krill soaked in Vita Chem and Brine and Mysis Shrimp which is very much expected. I bought three because I have tried this before with two and they hated each other, so I added another in to spread aggression but the dominate fish killed them both. This time around I went with 3 and it is 2 against one. Should I add in 1 or 2 more to even it out or am I doomed. I will start breeding my own Mollies soon if it will be worth it, I have a couple tanks so I want to avoid the extra work if these fish just won't work for me. It just seems impossible to get them on pellets. I want these fish more than anything, please help?
Please Help!
- Thread starter Stevenm1
- Start date
My experience with datnoids has been that it is best to keep either a single specimen or keep like 5-6 together. Almost every time I have had either 2 or 3, they work each other over until one is unhealthy and skinny, and hiding in the corners all the time, then the two dominant ones start going at it; Same thing happens. I end up with 1 great looking dominant and two scared, black, hiding, skinny datnoids. This is just my experience though... But on the other hand, Just about a month ago I bought 3 ITs and two of them beat the third one a little, but i got them all eating pellets and he fattened up so i took him outa the tank. Now the two remaining hang out together just fine, except when they get hungry they start pushing each other around.
I would say try taking the third one out, the one that is getting picked on, and see if the other two work things out. If not, i would try keeping only the best looking one as a single specimen.
Totally unrelated,
you have any pics? I would love to take a 3in off your hands, if they are indeed ST.
I would say try taking the third one out, the one that is getting picked on, and see if the other two work things out. If not, i would try keeping only the best looking one as a single specimen.
Totally unrelated,
you have any pics? I would love to take a 3in off your hands, if they are indeed ST.You are right on, one is in the upper outer corner and only comes out to eat shrimp. You seem to have had the same issues. I will try to get a pic to you. So would you add 2 more if nothing else works? How did you get yours on pellets? Thanks
For me pellet training is a series of steps. But i feel you gotta have other fish in there, eating them in front of the dats, so they know its actually food.
Also it notable that pellet training is easier when small. Not too small because you might have to starve them for a little while, but around the 2.5"-4" Mark works the best for me.
Usually pellet training goes in these steps for me. Jump in where you currently are in the chain. Feeders> Shrimp> Frozen Blood Worms> Pellets. With your guys right now, I'd either stuff the shrimp with pellets to get flavor in there or soak the pellets in some water with the shrimp you're about to feed, or soak the shrimp with some frozen bloodworms. and just offer it. You need maybe a catfish to pick up the waste food that hits the bottom, but keep offering it before the food they are currently taking. Then start offering him only the target food. Eventually he will get hungry and take the target food into his mouth. Once he goes for it once, you pretty much have a done deal. Even if he spits it out for the first couple of times, he'll get hungry enough to swallow it, if you keep only offering the target food.
Oh and i saw you are feeding him freeze dried krill. I would stop offering that immediately. If you hope to get him on anything else, stop feeding that. FDK is so full of flavor that they will not easily take to anything else once hooked on it. Ive run into this problem before with one of my dats, and I kept with it because it was better than feeders, but i would say the shrimp is a better route. I never could get him on anything else. My dad raised him, and he never ate anything but FDK and eventually he died from some fungus that got into the tank. but thats besides the point. I just don't think its an adequate diet and it'll be hard to get them off of.
Oh and I usually use HBH SuperSoft krill pellets for pellet training. Has the same smell but in pellet form, and it kind of falls apart in their mouths so they take to it easier than a normal hard pellet. Then once they take to the SS i get them on either omega-one or NLS and Massivore. And then make a large fish food container mixing Algae wafers, shrimp wafers, NLS, Massivore, and omega one all together and feed that. That way they get such a broad range of food that they should no doubt have a great diet.
As far as adding more, You could try it. I don't know where or how you could have a steady supply of 3" ST or how you could afford it. Chances are they are IT, but in any case.
Adding more might spread out aggression. Most tanks with multiple Dats I've seen have a dominant great looking fish, and a bunch of not so hot looking ones. Unless they have like 10+ or are all ST.
Also it notable that pellet training is easier when small. Not too small because you might have to starve them for a little while, but around the 2.5"-4" Mark works the best for me.
Usually pellet training goes in these steps for me. Jump in where you currently are in the chain. Feeders> Shrimp> Frozen Blood Worms> Pellets. With your guys right now, I'd either stuff the shrimp with pellets to get flavor in there or soak the pellets in some water with the shrimp you're about to feed, or soak the shrimp with some frozen bloodworms. and just offer it. You need maybe a catfish to pick up the waste food that hits the bottom, but keep offering it before the food they are currently taking. Then start offering him only the target food. Eventually he will get hungry and take the target food into his mouth. Once he goes for it once, you pretty much have a done deal. Even if he spits it out for the first couple of times, he'll get hungry enough to swallow it, if you keep only offering the target food.
Oh and i saw you are feeding him freeze dried krill. I would stop offering that immediately. If you hope to get him on anything else, stop feeding that. FDK is so full of flavor that they will not easily take to anything else once hooked on it. Ive run into this problem before with one of my dats, and I kept with it because it was better than feeders, but i would say the shrimp is a better route. I never could get him on anything else. My dad raised him, and he never ate anything but FDK and eventually he died from some fungus that got into the tank. but thats besides the point. I just don't think its an adequate diet and it'll be hard to get them off of.
Oh and I usually use HBH SuperSoft krill pellets for pellet training. Has the same smell but in pellet form, and it kind of falls apart in their mouths so they take to it easier than a normal hard pellet. Then once they take to the SS i get them on either omega-one or NLS and Massivore. And then make a large fish food container mixing Algae wafers, shrimp wafers, NLS, Massivore, and omega one all together and feed that. That way they get such a broad range of food that they should no doubt have a great diet.
As far as adding more, You could try it. I don't know where or how you could have a steady supply of 3" ST or how you could afford it. Chances are they are IT, but in any case.
Adding more might spread out aggression. Most tanks with multiple Dats I've seen have a dominant great looking fish, and a bunch of not so hot looking ones. Unless they have like 10+ or are all ST.
Agree that you can only keep Tigers happily in large groups and only in very large set-ups (180g isn't big enough long term for this to work).
Don't give up on the pellets-it takes a lot of patience and effort but can be done. My NGT would only eat earthworms when I first got it but over a few months it's now a Massivore junkie. I thought like you it'd never happen but I followed the advice of a few of the veteran Tiger keepers on this site and it worked.
Don't give up on the pellets-it takes a lot of patience and effort but can be done. My NGT would only eat earthworms when I first got it but over a few months it's now a Massivore junkie. I thought like you it'd never happen but I followed the advice of a few of the veteran Tiger keepers on this site and it worked.
If only dats could frown, they would show us they are not happy in large groups. But those cute little faces i suppose still read something different to the unaware
1 dat per tank no matter the size of tank
It's boring to some. No more exciting "just added a new dat to my group threads"..I wish this was the way
If somebody comes on here and debunks this, I will still advise 1dat per tank, cause stunted, lackluster dats are the high %'s (for the long run, which I hope every dat owner looks to). Actually 100% so far that I've witnessed
If people actually saw a 2foot dat in person, I think a gd % of them (people with modest size monster tanks) would say "there's just no more room for another beast to patrol my tank even if they did get along" Maybe so, maybe not
A byproduct of 1dat per tank is more dats for future generations of dat lovers. Win,Win for the dats & us...shweet!
1 dat per tank no matter the size of tank
It's boring to some. No more exciting "just added a new dat to my group threads"..I wish this was the way
If somebody comes on here and debunks this, I will still advise 1dat per tank, cause stunted, lackluster dats are the high %'s (for the long run, which I hope every dat owner looks to). Actually 100% so far that I've witnessed
If people actually saw a 2foot dat in person, I think a gd % of them (people with modest size monster tanks) would say "there's just no more room for another beast to patrol my tank even if they did get along" Maybe so, maybe not
A byproduct of 1dat per tank is more dats for future generations of dat lovers. Win,Win for the dats & us...shweet!
+1
They do better solo no matter what other people tell us on how well their group does
This is from someone who has kept big groups in the past for many years
It's best to just find one you like and stick with it don't by loads just because you can
Lots of other fish can be mixed in with tigers if you need other tank mates
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Thanks for the reply's I will try to get some pics. I Agree, they are probably Indos but they are small hard for me to tell. Broke down and set up a 10 gallon tank and bought a bunch of mollies and will breed my own feeders. One of the already had baby's over one night so I'm pumped. Got some mollies from a friend that's breed them for years, got 5 and put them in 5 in tank and the Dats went nuts, they were gone in seconds and they seem to be getting along a lot better. what do you guys think? They are still eating krill and mysis/brine shrimp!
