Blood worms and then broken up hikari food sticks is exactly how I raised my little guys. It helps if you throw the broken up food sticks at the surface one at a time they will often strike out of reflex and decide the pellets aren't that bad.
yea hopefully they start taking the pellets them little bastards are really picky i threw in some frozen blood worms and they take it spit it out take it spit out and finally take it lol. the only reason why i really dont like using live ones is i have sand and they crawl underneath the sand and chill there.