Getting fish to eat NLS

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Community Disorganizer said:
4.5 mm floating pellets. They are about the same size as the cichlid gold medium pellets I was feeding. Whenever I put in the 2 mm medium fish pellets, the convict just ignores them.
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Way too big. NLS is not like other fish foods. It is incredibly dense and hard. It is formulated to be swallowed whole and not chewed at all. Most of the time if it is too big they will take it in their mouth and spit it back out because the can't chew it. The biggest I would try is 2mm and would honestly suggest 1mm. They should take that no problem and if you starve them a little they will eat it when they get hungry. Even if they do start to eat the 4.5 all the chewing will create a lot of waste through their gills and it will foul your water and plug your filters fast. Just get the smaller size you will be way happier:)


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trace said:
Way too big. NLS is not like other fish foods. It is incredibly dense and hard. It is formulated to be swallowed whole and not chewed at all. Most of the time if it is too big they will take it in their mouth and spit it back out because the can't chew it. The biggest I would try is 2mm and would honestly suggest 1mm. They should take that no problem and if you starve them a little they will eat it when they get hungry. Even if they do start to eat the 4.5 all the chewing will create a lot of waste through their gills and it will foul your water and plug your filters fast. Just get the smaller size you will be way happier:)
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2mm is wayyy to small. My tiger barbs seem to love it though. I can't see my convict eating 2mm NLS. I've spent alot of money on fish food, and I have Hikari, which they love, so I'll probably go back to that.
 
Community Disorganizer said:
2mm is wayyy to small. My tiger barbs seem to love it though. I can't see my convict eating 2mm NLS. I've spent alot of money on fish food, and I have Hikari, which they love, so I'll probably go back to that.
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My 15" umbee eats 1mm just as readily as he eats 6mm. It's all about getting them use to it and them realizing it's food. Once they realize it is edible you won't have to worry about it. It really isnt hard to train them to eat what you want them too you just have to be patient. I have never had to try more than a week to train a fish to eat NLS in any size and usually 2-3 days will do it. Offer it in small quantities and if it's still uneaten in 5-6 min. Take it out. Then try again in 24 hours. That's where most people screw up is they try every several hours and the fish don't realize they have to wait for a meal and have to eat whenever they can. Also starve them for 24-36 hours before you offer it the first time if you can so they are good and hungry when you try. They can go weeks of they are healthy so don't worry about them starving. Good luck and dont let the fish train you, train them!


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Some of the fish I have raised have never taken to a floating pellet. They seem very scared to approach the surface to eat. Probably a survival mechanism. But many of these ate sinkers with no problem.
 
I'd like to add that when I worked in a small zoo's aquarium (and I mean small, like 30 tanks and the largest was 300 gallons), I got all the animals minus the marine eels and sharks on only NLS pellets, including piranha, lungfish, marine frogfish, Lake tang cichlids, discus, etc. I never used any floating formula though, only sinking.

I heard about the Repashy mix this past year and dropped a good $100 on some, because of the rave reviews. And none of my fish touched the stuff. Even the snails avoided it, and the shrimp ate only when I stopped feeding all else. Now that was a hit in the wallet for food no one really ate.
 
Almost all my fish even the 10inch fish love 2mm pellets. They are a good size to start.

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