what I intend with this thread is to answer one of those questions that a lot of people seem to have. feel free to contribute.
1*Getting the fish of live food.
2*Changing the diet of a fish.
3*Getting a fish on pellets.
well, first of we would like to separate the "greedy fish" from the "picky fish".
Greedy fish would be something along the lines of Peacock bass, most Catfish, predatory cichlids and Snakeheads.
Picky fish would be Gars, Datnoids and Clown knife fish.
In between we find Arowanas, polys and some others.
1*So when it comes to the greedy fish DIESELMACK wrote a very good thread that I think we can still find in the sticky section of the p-bass forum. Basically what he wrote was you let your greedy fish wait for feeders in a competative tank, he is supposed to strike before thinking. What you do is you release a snacksize feeder into the tank *BANG* feeder gone, one more feeder, and now you release a piece of whatever you want the fish to eat, *BANG* he will hit it and hopefully swallow as he would not like to loose any nutrition to the other inhabitants in your tank. Do this a couple of times and voila, your fish is of live food. This method applies to almost all greedy fish out there.
Picky fish scenario. This may sound cruel but it works. take a neon, guppy platy which the fish will eat. since the picky fish wont strike at first sight we will need the prey to look as much as something it will eat as possible. what you do is you kill/harm the feeder before dropping it into the tank, give it some time and your fish will take the dead feeders. and from dead feeders there is not a big step untill it takes fish fillet. For gars or other fish that will eat from the surface you can take an earthworm, it will wiggle and trigger the fish to strike. when your fish eats earthworms all you need to do is wiggle a piece of shrimp mimicing a worm and after a couple of tries the fish will take the shrimp.
2*My fish will only eat blood worms(insert whatever your fish prefers)!
This is a very good way to get dats and other picky fish of bloodworms/other fish drugs. Your first mission is to get your fish as close to the surface as possible, in other words, get to know your fish. when he will come up and beg you basically have him on whatever food you like. Most fish seems to be hooked on bloodworms/blackworms or something so what you do is you take shrimp and you cut/rip it into the bare fibres, in this state it should look pretty much like bloodworms. Put these fibres in the bloodworms to make it adapt the smell. don't take to much the first couple of times, maybe 25% of the food. I can bet you the fish will get some shrimp either he likes it or not. what you do now is you steadily increase the amount of shrimp until the fish takes it. you will probably have the fish eating shrimp within 2 weeks. When you have it on shrimp you can use this same technique with pretty much anyting. but when you do this, remember that the easiest way to get this to work is if the food you want to teach the fish to eat has a similar "floating pattern" as the food you want to get if off.
3*The pellet issue.
Now if you want your stubborn fish on pellets you have pretty much to options. The stuffed shrimp/whatever option or the Starving option. I'm in favour of the stuffing option since the fish you want on pellets will most likely be a young fish. Young fish seems to be more prone to health complications when starved. (the only fish I would starve to get on pellets are probably polys since they tend to manage very long periods of time on very little food and their keen senses seems to tell them exactly what is edable and what is not).
What you do is you take a pellet, preferably a sinking one if its a a bottom level/mid level fish and a floating one if its an aro or something. do the same thing as if "2*" get to know your fish, prefarably til the point when it doesn't hesitate to take the food from your hand. Stuff the the regular food with more and more pellets until your fish wont mind them. then, offer the pellet and the the food separately but at the same time. Now YOU need to be patient, he will spit and spit and spit, but give a month and I can almost guarantee you he will eat those darn pellets.
A thing that could come in handy is a "teacher fish", a teacher fish is a fish already on the food you are trying to get "fish A" to accept, the teacher fish will compete with fish A for valuable food and will by doing this trigger fish A to take the food you offer.
This is just some general advice that has worked out great for me.
1*Getting the fish of live food.
2*Changing the diet of a fish.
3*Getting a fish on pellets.
well, first of we would like to separate the "greedy fish" from the "picky fish".
Greedy fish would be something along the lines of Peacock bass, most Catfish, predatory cichlids and Snakeheads.
Picky fish would be Gars, Datnoids and Clown knife fish.
In between we find Arowanas, polys and some others.
1*So when it comes to the greedy fish DIESELMACK wrote a very good thread that I think we can still find in the sticky section of the p-bass forum. Basically what he wrote was you let your greedy fish wait for feeders in a competative tank, he is supposed to strike before thinking. What you do is you release a snacksize feeder into the tank *BANG* feeder gone, one more feeder, and now you release a piece of whatever you want the fish to eat, *BANG* he will hit it and hopefully swallow as he would not like to loose any nutrition to the other inhabitants in your tank. Do this a couple of times and voila, your fish is of live food. This method applies to almost all greedy fish out there.
Picky fish scenario. This may sound cruel but it works. take a neon, guppy platy which the fish will eat. since the picky fish wont strike at first sight we will need the prey to look as much as something it will eat as possible. what you do is you kill/harm the feeder before dropping it into the tank, give it some time and your fish will take the dead feeders. and from dead feeders there is not a big step untill it takes fish fillet. For gars or other fish that will eat from the surface you can take an earthworm, it will wiggle and trigger the fish to strike. when your fish eats earthworms all you need to do is wiggle a piece of shrimp mimicing a worm and after a couple of tries the fish will take the shrimp.
2*My fish will only eat blood worms(insert whatever your fish prefers)!
This is a very good way to get dats and other picky fish of bloodworms/other fish drugs. Your first mission is to get your fish as close to the surface as possible, in other words, get to know your fish. when he will come up and beg you basically have him on whatever food you like. Most fish seems to be hooked on bloodworms/blackworms or something so what you do is you take shrimp and you cut/rip it into the bare fibres, in this state it should look pretty much like bloodworms. Put these fibres in the bloodworms to make it adapt the smell. don't take to much the first couple of times, maybe 25% of the food. I can bet you the fish will get some shrimp either he likes it or not. what you do now is you steadily increase the amount of shrimp until the fish takes it. you will probably have the fish eating shrimp within 2 weeks. When you have it on shrimp you can use this same technique with pretty much anyting. but when you do this, remember that the easiest way to get this to work is if the food you want to teach the fish to eat has a similar "floating pattern" as the food you want to get if off.
3*The pellet issue.
Now if you want your stubborn fish on pellets you have pretty much to options. The stuffed shrimp/whatever option or the Starving option. I'm in favour of the stuffing option since the fish you want on pellets will most likely be a young fish. Young fish seems to be more prone to health complications when starved. (the only fish I would starve to get on pellets are probably polys since they tend to manage very long periods of time on very little food and their keen senses seems to tell them exactly what is edable and what is not).
What you do is you take a pellet, preferably a sinking one if its a a bottom level/mid level fish and a floating one if its an aro or something. do the same thing as if "2*" get to know your fish, prefarably til the point when it doesn't hesitate to take the food from your hand. Stuff the the regular food with more and more pellets until your fish wont mind them. then, offer the pellet and the the food separately but at the same time. Now YOU need to be patient, he will spit and spit and spit, but give a month and I can almost guarantee you he will eat those darn pellets.
A thing that could come in handy is a "teacher fish", a teacher fish is a fish already on the food you are trying to get "fish A" to accept, the teacher fish will compete with fish A for valuable food and will by doing this trigger fish A to take the food you offer.
This is just some general advice that has worked out great for me.
