i have been trying too experiment with different food for my Channa, I have tried Mussels/Beef heart/bloodworm/shrimp/dead fish and feeders. the only thing he goes nuts for is Prawns! every time I give him prawns he destroys it in a matter of seconds but wont look at anything else? he cant just remain on a diet of prawns can he ??
channa aurantimaculata only accepting Prawns?
- Thread starter EsoxPredator90
- Start date
never had snake heads before so its all new too me mate, i don't want too just guess and end up killing my fish.
Part of the fish keeping hobby is to experiment and learn for yourself. No fish keeper has gone without at least 1 death. I hope you don't misinterpret me and perceive this as saying that it doesn't matter if your fish dies but i mean you need to do what you think is best and learn from the things that work and don't work. Tokyo has probably given you a more in depth description and guide on how to keep snakeheads than most people have ever seen, It should be more than enough to make your own judgement calls.
for serious advice though, to get a fish off of 1 type of food it's best to feed them what they were eating before and fatten them up (make sure they're healthy and stable). Then starve the fish while dropping other types of food into the tank so that he/she becomes more familiar with different foods (or the specific food you want to get your fish on). Snakeheads are very hard and aren't picky with the things they eat, at some point your snakehead (out of hunger or curiosity) will attempt to eat other foods and from there on it will more easily accept whatever you give it. When I was teaching my Channa Pleurophthalma to eat pellets, i would go through starving periods of up to 2 weeks (PERSISTENCE IS KEY)
It's kind of like a child, if a child only eats 1 type of food your course of action isn't to give in and only give your child what he wants. It's up to you to know what's best and force him/her to eat a variety of foods. Just like nobody is a perfect parent, nobody is also a perfect fish keeper so feel free to experiment with whatever methods you like. Just be aware of signs from the animal if he/she responds negatively to what you're doing
My snakehead's a picky eater the same as yours, He loves prawns but he won't eat dillies he eats earth worms but won't touch meal worms the one thing he can't resist is live river shrimp, i have to buy 50 a time to make them last more than 5 minutes but i love to watch him and my oscar chase the shrimp around.