a few other red belly questions

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Dont think you can make it meaner by changing its diet.. red bellies are pretty much skittish 90% of the time, however they get braver when in large shoals.
 
It is not the diet, it is the conditioning and the habitat, they still stay skittish to anything unexpected
 
I don't know if you're quarentining your minnow's. If you're not I'd say it's a good idea. I'm always paranoid about introducing sickness to my fish. Feed them what they'll eat until they put on some more weight and then cut out the minnows and force them to eat what you want them to eat while they are still young. If the fish grow to sub-adult size only being fed live food, it's a very unhealthy habit that is very difficult to break your fish of. They'll come around.
 
thanks for the advice. they are doing well and have grown so much! when we got that at the beginning of summer, they were about the size of a quarter. now they are about 2.5-3" already! so i guess i'm doing something right. still can't get them to eat much other than the minnows. yes, i quarentine the minnows in a 5 gallon tank for a few days before feeding. just to be sure, we always put a little ick away in the feeder tank. should i be putting anything else in there?

i've found they love beefhart and a frozen shrimp now and again. other than that, they seem to only go for the live food. someone mentioned stopping the minnows at a certain age and making them eat the pellets. when would you do that?
 
feed them the pellets, they will eat them wen they get hungry. its best,and running to the store for feeders gets old. didnt u say the are small?
put the pellets in and move away from the tank the fish are sissys u could be scareing them if u are standing at the tank. no im sure u are. ive had 2 foot red snakeheads that ate pellets, its up to u to train them.
 
CrAcKaJaP said:
i keep finding mixed information on feeding. we have 3 very small red bellies, about an inch, 1 just over. how often should they be fed? they guy we got them from said every other day. however, looking on the internet, i've read 2-4 times a day all the way to twice a week. so which is it? what is the best feeding schedule? i'm a little confused here.

and as far as what to feed them, they seem to not like any of the dried bloodworms at all, they just won't eat them. nor will they eat any of the cichlid pellets or shrimp pellets. however, they LOVE minnows. tried a few ghost shrimp, they ate them, but didn't seem to care for them much. tried a mealworm and they didn't touch it. put a couple guppies in there, but it took them forever to eat those, they ate the minnows before they'd even touch the guppies. shouldn't i be alternating what i feed them? they don't seem to want anything but the minnows. is this ok for them? i did drop in a frozen shrimp once and they pecked on it a bit and it was gone over night.

also, how do i know what type of red belly i have? nattereri, cariba, or piraya? what are the differences?

and as far as sexing them go, what do you look for to tell them apart?

any advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks guys!
mandy
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in my opinon i think you should feed it once a day and dude feed it some BEEFHEART THEY LOVE IT!!!!!! and maybe some small krill :thumbsup: its really up to you how much you wanna feed them but make sure you dont feed them to much take out any food that is left in the take in 10 mins good luck man!
 
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