3 spine stickleback

[Shenanigans]

Anyone have any luck keeping these little guys? They are the only native that I cant seem to keep alive and I believe its regarding their eating habits. I did manage to train them to eat crushed up sinking pellets as well as feeding them a large planeria species. Ive also tried a variety of other small feeds. My longest experience with them was after they learned to eat pellets, but they only made it for about five months.

 

[Owain4]

I've never had 3 spined but i have had brook sticklebacks. I could never get them to eat flakes, they would pick at freeze dried shrimp etc but the only thing they would really eat was frozen blood worms. I think they are too picky of what foods too eat and will starve themselves. maybe they need a specific type of food like insect larva, They seem most adapted to eating bugs because of their swimming and hunting style.

 

[Shenanigans]

Yea I have offered a vast array of foods but all they ever did was pick and slowly starved, a buddy of mine kept them for a long time with them grazing on algae as well as dried worm but this too only prolonged the inevitable. I do believe they relished the planeria but I only had so much of that on hand

 

[Oddball]

I kept them years ago and was successful in getting them to breed. They fed on a variety of small live foods including daphnia, scuds (juvenile), bloodworms, mosquito larvae, cyclops, and occassionally took cyclop-eeze. I had some initial failures in keeping them alive until I incorporated a chiller to their system and kept them at 58-65F. I set up their tank with water, gravel, plants, leaf-litter, and rocks from the creek I collected them from. I used only filtered rainwater for their water changes and topping off. Lighting was HomeDepot plant lights set on a timer to match normal daylight hours.