ATF's favorite non-live food?

[RampageRR]

OK, so I'm attempting to get my ATF off of feeders now, while he's still little. I went out and bought a bait leader and some fishing line, and put a guppy sized piece of tilapia on it last night. The other fish all went nuts on it, he circled it a bunch and hit it a couple of times with his snout but didn't seem to actually take a bite. He was definitely interested though, very animated and twitchy compared to normal, and was watching it the whole time.

My question is for those of you who have ATFs now that take non live, do yours have a preference food wise? Do they prefer shrimp, tilapia, cod, etc over anything else? If I can find a common food that most of you say they will go for over the rest, my plan is to use that to train him and get him off live. Once he takes that, my thinking is that the rest will be much easier. Anyone with any experience here?

 

[Chicxulub]

When I broke mine, he watched the other fish taking freeze dried krill off of the surface. Eventually, he took the krill too. After a while, he started taking the Hikari Jumbo Carnisticks that are my staple food and now he won't eat anything but.

 

[West1]

Yup, Krill seems to be the best for ATF. My old guy LOVED Massivore!!

 

[RampageRR]

I've been feeding the Hikari Food Sticks to the other fish in there, and he does go right to the top and investigate, but he hasn't taken a bite yet. I feel like as soon as he takes the first bite, he'll be good to go - I just can't get him to do it. Maybe I'll get a small container of frozen krill to mix in there for the smell, might be the little bit he needs to go for it.

Anyone notice a certain fish/shrimp as a favorite of theirs? I know all of my serras LOVED salmon, but I only feed that literally an hour before I do my tank cleaning, since it's so damn oily/messy.

 

[sashimimaster]

I've noticed each one of mine definitely have different preferences. My GATF loooves sticks but not so much my diy food. One VATF looves tilapia filets while another likes sticks more. So I have to constantly vary the diet so each one gets enough to eat. Not that they won't eat the other stuff. It's just I can tell what they like and what they don't like.

I believe a healthy fish has to have variety.

 

[RampageRR]

I believe a healthy fish has to have variety.

Oh, I definitely agree there. Just trying to see if I can find a specific food that would make training him to take non-live go easier. As soon as I can get him to take something besides feeders, then I'll be able to give him different types of filets, pellets/food sticks, etc.

 

[Chicxulub]

I've been feeding the Hikari Food Sticks to the other fish in there, and he does go right to the top and investigate, but he hasn't taken a bite yet. I feel like as soon as he takes the first bite, he'll be good to go - I just can't get him to do it. Maybe I'll get a small container of frozen krill to mix in there for the smell, might be the little bit he needs to go for it.

Anyone notice a certain fish/shrimp as a favorite of theirs? I know all of my serras LOVED salmon, but I only feed that literally an hour before I do my tank cleaning, since it's so damn oily/messy.

Mine was doing that for about two weeks before he actually bit the food. Give it time my friend, you're almost there!

 

[djaalix]

i agree, you are almost there if he's showing interest in the carni sticks... i never had much luck with floating stuff cause the surface agitation plus overflow box filtration sent most of the sticks into the filtration system in seconds.... mine went for silversides first, pretty easily.... then getting them on krill/shrimp was a bit more difficult, and getting them on massivores was really difficult... my Goliaths were more stubborn than the VATF as far as trying different foods ... i'd say the most important thing is trying pellets as soon as possible, and when the fish is as young as possible

Sent from my DROID RAZR using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[MonsterFang]

my vittatus likes to eat market shrimp, tilapia fillet, smelt, and my forskalii only eats market fish like tilapia, smelt he'll eat a liittle bit of shrimp but prefers market fish .

 

[RampageRR]

Awesome, thanks to all of you for the input. Looks like I'm on the right track then, everything listed is exactly what I'm using so that's a plus. For now, I've been putting the bait leader in with the tilapia/haddock on it in once every other day (when I feed my serra), and letting him take a look at it then.

Every 3-4 days or so, since he isn't taking the actual non-live, I've been throwing in feeder guppies just to make sure he is eating since he's still so little (probably around 3.25" now). Would you recommend trying to go further without feeding live at this point to get him away from it, or is it too risky at this size? I have zero experience with ATFs, so I'm not sure how hardy/fragile they are at 3"...

I'm more apt to err on the side of caution and wait until he's a bit larger before starving for longer periods of time unless some of you have done it on here at this small of a size.