Back with /\/\onsters - Odoe Pikes - off live food?!

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HarleyK

HarleyK

Canister Man
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Aug 17, 2005
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Howdy,

After my yearlong stint of breeding a few species of smaller fish, I (finally) got monsters again. I picked up five 4'' Odoe from Pedro. Nice quality fish!
Odoe.png
They're in my 75 gal with a dozen feeder goldfish, leftovers from before my hiatus. The goldfish are approx the same size as the Odoe now, lol.

To get to the point: the Odoe were on guppies at the store, and I want to get them off live food. Trying with Hikari Food Sticks, curious what other members have had success with.

Thanks,
HarleyK

Odoe.png
 
my buddy feeds his floating and sinking hikari to his, his took them after 2 days of not feeding anything but pellet and he had teacher fish. it shouldnt take long the general consensus seems to be odoes break from live food fairly easily
 
when i bought mine he was eating floating pellets. Now that he is over a foot I just find it easier to stuff a shrimp with some pellets and feed him in one shot.
 
nice pikes you got there.
look forward the grow out process.
 
They do look great and the fact that you got a whole group is awesome. Don't see multiple odoe in a tank too often, or at least not often enough. I used Hikari food sticks to break my GATF off of live, and as far as I know, odoe are easier to break off of live than ATF.

I'd recommend teacher fish if you don't have any, at least a couple of non-threatening fish that will eat the food sticks in front of the odoe. It does speed up the process of showing them that the pellets are a food source, and they should take them within a week's time as long as you don't break down and give them live in that timeframe.
 
+1 on getting a group... I've kept a few groups and I really think they're better suited to our glass boxes as a group.

All I've kept have been very easy to get onto frozen, but they have not been even close to cooperative with pellets. I think it's the texture. They hit something hard and just spit it out. I've only gotten one of my groups onto pellets. Seemed soaking them helped a bunch. Get them on frozen and let them get to know you as a food source for a while, then with some soft pellets and a bit of luck, and a whole lot of patience you should be able to get them switched over, but sure seems like mine really prefer big ol chunks of thawed tilapia and shrimp over any of the Hikari or Ken's fish pellets I've ever tried.

Once comfy they seem to eat and grow like weeds, but they do seem kind of tempermental when it comes to changes, like tanks or tankmates, almost seem shy. Once the balance is upset it takes them a while to go back to normal. Can really make the growth rates bouncy, but if the tank is set up around them they'll grow fast and won't slow till 10-12".
 
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