Flowerhorn is stubborn

[Isaiah Shipp]

So I have had my flowerhorn for 2 weeks now and he was eating great at first, pellets, jumbo sticks, and flakes. But now he will only eat raw defrosted shrimp! Is this cause the shrimp is better than those other foods? Have any of you has this problem before and what did you do? I guess it is fine if he only eats defrosted food but what are some good frozen food you can feed a FH and where do you get it, thanks!

 

[ECW]

Never had that problem with a flowerhorn. Get him back on pellets ASAP. Too much rich foods like shrimp can wreak havoc on a fh's system. They are prone to HITH, bloat, and other such problems from feeding them "treats" as their staple diet. Starve him and only feed him pellets until he gets adjusted. Only offer shrimp, fish, etc once or twice a week and only a little! Frozen food "treats" include fish such as tilapia, krill, worms, squid, crab, mollusks, etc. They can be found in your LFS or local supermarket.

 

[Isaiah Shipp]

Never had that problem with a flowerhorn. Get him back on pellets ASAP. Too much rich foods like shrimp can wreak havoc on a fh's system. They are prone to HITH, bloat, and other such problems from feeding them "treats" as their staple diet. Starve him and only feed him pellets until he gets adjusted. Only offer shrimp, fish, etc once or twice a week and only a little! Frozen food "treats" include fish such as tilapia, krill, worms, squid, crab, mollusks, etc. They can be found in your LFS or local supermarket.

Thank you for the response, so I'll will wait for him to take but how long should I wait before I should be worried? Sorry to get off topic but he also seems to not be able to see the food. I know that sounds weird but when the white shrimp drops to the bottom of my bare bottom tank, he just randomly goes around a tries to suck food up then once he finally gets something he will stop and chew. Is this a disease in flower or is it just the white shrimp and bare bottom tank do you think?

 

[ECW]

Thank you for the response, so I'll will wait for him to take but how long should I wait before I should be worried? Sorry to get off topic but he also seems to not be able to see the food. I know that sounds weird but when the white shrimp drops to the bottom of my bare bottom tank, he just randomly goes around a tries to suck food up then once he finally gets something he will stop and chew. Is this a disease in flower or is it just the white shrimp and bare bottom tank do you think?

He shouldn't take more than a week to come around to eating pellets. I'm pretty sure he will start to eat the pellets in a few days since he was eating them before. A healthy fish will NOT starve itself to death. Just offer him one or two pellets. If he doesn't eat it scoop them back out and let him starve till the next morning.
Regarding your other question... Does he have cloudy eyes? Can you post a pic of your fish? That seems really weird that he doesn't seem to be able to see his food? My flowerhorn has very keen senses. He can see a 3mm pellet pretty far away and will jet to eat it. He can also pick out a pellet pretty easily from his accumulation of poop in spots in the tank. I normally try to feed him one pellet at a time so he smashes the pellet right as it hits the water. You should try to feed him only a bite at a time and wait till he's hungry. He should come to the top begging like a dog. Drop the pellet to the left or right of his face. He should grab it. If he lets it fall... There is something wrong.

 

[Ihsnshaik]

God reminds me of my Kamfa Bruce lol he only would eat market shrimp and I starved him for two weeks and he came around and would anything I would throw at him. I thought he was sick but asked the previous owner and all he fed him was shrimp so that's what he was used to.