best way to get dats to eat prep food

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T

Tiger-army

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 18, 2009
264
1
16
Southern california
i got 1/2 -1 inch baby dats and a 3 inch ntt

feeding them black worms the 1/2 are a little under weight but eating great i was told starve them and they will eat at some point id like to fatten them up b4 that

also i was wondering if im suposed to just not feed them and then keeps putting pellets in for them they are in a 30 gal hex tank its high so i feel like they wont go to the top to get there food when i come to feed them they all line up at the front on the bottom they even stop fighting till after eating lol they just sit side by side lol

i love my dats so much i really want them to eat pellets but i dont want to starv them is there any other way?
 
they seem too small to starve. you need to continue to feed them the black worms for awhile, before trying a starve technique.
 
Have you tried any foods other than just black worms and pellets? If not, try frozen bloodworms or finely cut shrimp then try to make steps towards pellets.
 
I wouldn't starve them. They're too small for that. I would try to get them off live blackworms ASAP. I have small dats like yours and they like to try new foods at that size. Try giving them frozen bloodworms first, then brine shrimp. Then move up to frozen foods with higher protein content like mysis shrimp and then krill. Krill is the best frozen food IMO and feeding them mysis shrimp should get them to accept the krill. You gradually work your way up to feeding them food that is higher in protein and nutritional content.

Most of them won't eat pellets for awhile I think. It's better to fatten them up with frozen food and then try to get them on broken/ground up carnivore or massivore pellets or NLS baby size.

If they won't eat the frozen food you give them, try soaking the food in Seachem Garlic Guard for 10 minutes. I use it regularly when I give new food and the smell seems to get them ready to take new foods right away.
 
As already said, these guys are too young to try to starve. Remember these are just babies and should be getting as much as they can to eat to grow healthy.
 
i know i didnt want to starve im looking for ways around that
they eat black worms 2 times aday and the first 2 i got are already twice the size the newer babbies are catching up =D
little luck today tho crushed up pellets and they all charged them as they sank one even sucked it up but spit it out they seem to smell them and look 4 it but then dont "see" it as food so they back down with any luck i can keep this up
 
I usually make a lil mix of the food they eat already and slowly introduce what I want to feed them aka pellets . For example I'll put a pinch of pellets in with some freeze dried bloodworms and after a few feedings they end up recognizing it as food and eating it. The first few times you'll prolly have to clean the food off the bottom though. This has worked for me with a number of different fry.

If they're already chewing the food thats a step forward and they'll be eating it soon enough.

Definitely don't use starvation methods with fry though.
 
you also have to consider their mouth size at the size they are in. when they are still young their mouth doesnt open as wide as lets say the 3 inch thinbar you have. while they are young most people prefer feeding them live food suxh as blackworms, little meal worms. bloodworms. and as they start to grow bigger then you can try feeding them other alternative such as feeder guppies. im not talking about those fancy guppies. and once they hit about 4" mark try giving them some ghost shrimp something they can chase around. datnoids are predatory fishes so hiding spot is a must for them. they blend in with the surrounding at times when its feeding time and snap at live food when it comes near. also one thing that i recently learned was they love live plants. i recently picked up some live plants for them and most of the time they are stable. you also have to consider that datnoids are picky eaters and alot of the datnoid owners had difficulties feeding them pellets. once they are big enough they will come upto the tank when its feeding time. and i will tell you a trick how i got my datnoids to eat pellets.

1. first you feed them what they want for instance frozen krills lets say as an example.

2. feed it as long as you can so they know and get used to the routine.
3. after they get used to the routine they will come up to the tank because they know its feeding time.
4 with a folded hand pretend u are dropping some and most of the time they will try to snap at it. once thats set.
5. throw in a handful of pellets. and i would say 5/10 datnoid will fall for the trick.

if they do eat it they will have that look like "wtf" and give you that look where they will kill you in your sleep. but after several times with the same tirck. they will gradually take pellets. if they dont take it stave them for few days and do it over again.

i dont know how other people tranied their datnoids to take pellets but that was my method. tricky part is you have to catch the right timing when they are gonna snap at the food. and occasionally feed them ghost shrimp and you shouldnt have any problems feeding them other stuff if you use the method.

hope it helps.
 
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