bullhead doesnt eat

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nativelover

Feeder Fish
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May 30, 2005
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i caught a bull head last sat. hes about 7" i think its a yellow bellie or brown (since its only got yellow on its gills and the rest turns brownish) ive tries mealworms, nightcrawlers, pond pellets, a piece if mackerel, a cricket, and a wolf spider and it didnt eat any of them.s o i went to petco and picked up 30 feeder goldfish (i know there not good for them but i got desperate) so i dumped all the feeders in there and went out for a few hours, came back and all the goldfish were gone!!! so now i have a fat bullhead...
anyone know why it will only eat feeders? i just tried worms and pellets again today (fed feeders on wed.) and it still doesnt want any of it. this might seem like a wierd post but i cant afford to go get feeders every other day.
 
What did you use to catch it? go buy some chicken livers... if that doesn't work let the liver rot for a hlaf day to a day in the nice sun... Soon as he gets hungry enough he'll eat.. I toyed with the idea of puttin the bullhead i caught today in my tank just to keep it out of my way for the rest of my life of Channek fishing :) but i don't have space for that many Bulls.... :)

Earth worms, shrimp.... if not then only feed once a week. It is wild it is used to not eating every day.. For sure.. Thats why he's fat now and not so fat when you caught him,,, Hope you have luck..
 
oh he was supper fat when i caught him, then he slimmed down after a few days, ate 30 feeders then got fat again, now hes slimmed down and i think i may need to catch small bluegills or sumthin. and actually he did eat a small crawdad i brought home with him.
i netted it while catching crawdads for bait (them channels love crawdads) pulled him up along with 4 crawdads at the same time!
well, i'll keep tryin different stuff, ive got a bag of raw shrimp in the freezer so ill try that next.
 
start breeding guppies. =) or glass/ghost shrimp. they are pretty easy. :thumbsup:

if not, let it go again!
 
Try some frozen foods like bloodworms, beefheart and brineshrimp. You could just force him to eat pellets as well, offer him nothing else and remove them if he does not eat them. Eventually he will learn that the pellets are the only food and should eat them.
 
i hardly ever have the light on...maybe at night sometimes when im on the comp. and dont want any other lights on. but thats it. it gets direct sunlight (wich some people say is bad but i think it benifits the fish and plants)
hes pretty bold for a 7" fish, he tries to take on my 13" oscar. (wich looks really funny 'cause he always seems to win.)
also last night he was sifting through rocks (looking for food?) so i threw in a mealworm and he ate it but didnt want any more or anything else. and he keeps sifting through the rocks making a big pit in the center of the tank.
 
My friends bullhead wouldnt eat for the first few days after he got it, but then it started eating worms, feeders, and other live foods. Hes had it for a few weeks now but it still wont eat pellets. It think its because they are used to hunting down live foods, especially at that size, so it may never learn to eat prepared foods.
 
definetly turn the lights off when you feed it and try to drop the food right in front of it..mine didnt eat for a while buth then it realized it was gonna starve and decided to eat nightcrawlers...it wont starve though..trust me
 
Mine was taking dry food within days and now swims to the surface looking for pellets. I don't think yours is an issue of age or predatory habits like fisher was saying. Bullheads are big time scavengers more than hunters (their great sense of smell and poor eyesight is proof of that). You can pretty much catch a bullhead on anything. As for age, a 7" bullhead cannot be very old...they grow really fast. Mine was about 4" when I caught him and is now about 7 or 8" and I have only had him since August/September. I would start to wonder about any stressers or water quality issues if he does not start eating soon.
 
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