breaking african pike off feeders

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

mchambers527

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 26, 2015
38
0
6
Long Island,N.Y
I have an African Pike hepsetus odeo, he is about 5 inches and loves goldfish. To bad i don't, im worried about parasites and diseases. Im bad at starving fish especially when its an 80 dollar fish, well i paid 50 because i work at the store he came from. I just really want him on anything but goldfish, i dont care if its tilapia or pellets. Im just so worried any suggestions would be great thanks.
 
i had one a couple weeks ago and only took about 3-4 days to break him. Just starve and keep them with a bunch of fast eating dithers (tinfoils, silver dollars, mahseers) and they will follow suit soon enough.
 
Pikes are fairly easy to get off live foods. The trick is to get the owners to not cave in haha. For all speacies, I do the following...

Day 1- feed 1 baby gold fish or 2-3 minnows (for juvi fish like the Odoe)
Day 2 through 7- One piece of shrimp/krill/pellets/etc. Take food out after 20 min and trash it.
Day 8- start from day 1...

feeder qty will vary depending on size of stubborn fish

gl
 
i had one a couple weeks ago and only took about 3-4 days to break him. Just starve and keep them with a bunch of fast eating dithers (tinfoils, silver dollars, mahseers) and they will follow suit soon enough.

Yep That's what worked for mine used a tinfoil barb. I used pieces of tilapia which he loved then starved him a bit longer to get him on pellets


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
I found that I needed to presoak pellets over night to make them soft, and throw them into the tank individually, or in sets of two.
Have a bottom feeder that cleans up leftovers.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Thanks everyone! Im going to give it a try again With the tilpia and i soak all my pellets in axathin, makes it easier for my messy cichlids. I will update my results staving starts rn, i appreciate everyone's help.
 
Also try dead foods. what i did for my army and some of the pbass I owned in the pass and present. I started off with live. after few weeks or 2. stop the live feedings and kill the feeders.(also could starve for them like 2-3days after live feeding so ya make them beg xD) I drop the dead feeders in. smash em like crazy. But for some there picky mofo take a little time. but for me this worked best. also same why for pellets. do the same. dead foods.then stop. pellets. usually I literally throw them in there so they splash xD. for Odoe there not picky. pretty easy to get off live
 
i did frozen bloodworm..threw them into pump stream so they were like live ones..first day no success..third day they went crazy about them..about week later i went from bloodworms to frozen shrimp and they got it :) food seems more interesting if they need to catch it so stream is very useful :)
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com