I tank-sat for a friend who had one with some geos and dithers. I had it six months and rarely saw it eat. I just dropped a good amount of pellets before lights out in the spot he liked to hang out in. Obviously he ate because I cared for him for six months and he didn't die or look malnourished at all. I fed him and feed all my fish NLS pellets.
Best diet for H. psittacus?
- Thread starter Lab_Rat
- Start date
my psittacus is a non-discriminant eater, krill, flakes, pellets, blood worms. when i raised them from fry they started with flakes, moved to crushed up pellets then everything else was easy. she's now large enough to take an entire cube of bloodworms in 1 bite
Hopefully as they grow they'll get more bold about food. I'll throw in some extra pellets at night when I'm throwing in the plec food, maybe they'll get more then. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
sorry to change directions a bit with this but i was wondering where you got them. My lfs has never gotten them in.
More than 2 months later the psittacus are FINALLY eating flake. They still won't take pellets but at least they're eating more than zucchini. They were starting to get skinny, 2 months of only eating zucchini will do that I guess.
Sorry, didn't see this til now. I got them from The Wet Spot (ordered online).
Usually psittacus are aggressive eaters. What size tank are they in, and what tankmates? It's odd to hear they're picky. Mine devour anything and everything the second it hits the tank.
They're in a 180g with a pair of nics, a pair of cutteri, some severums, a JD (unusually mellow fish), an EBJD, a syn, a rainbow cichlid, 2 SAE, 3 roseline sharks, and 2 plecs. They are the juvies in the tank though, along with the syn. Everyone else is adult/sub adult.
They've now started taking pellets in addition to flake. I'm thinking they were intimidated by the boisterous eating of their tankmates and have now adjusted. It's nice to finally see them with fat little bellies after feeding time. I'll still put the zucchini in for them, the young severum and the SAE like it as well.
