Chinese Perch won't eat

[sevenspeed]

He hasn't ate in like 4 or 5 days when he took a small piece of shrimp. I hate leaving him hungry, he probably hates me but after reading about feeders I got rid of them and got other fish for that tank. He's eaten a market shrimp twice in like 2 weeks.
I just tried a thawed out silverside again and he spit it back out When I was doing the live minnows he would gobble up the dead ones that I had thawed out after freezing (misinformed that disease/parasites would not pass on) like they were deep fried and soaked in cheese and gravy....
But he won't eat the shrimp or silversides and comes up to the top anxiously when I open the lid and watches me everytime I go by. I feel so bad, but if they're not minnows are not nutritious they're a hassle anyway.
I was going to get meal worms or something but around here all they have right now is nightcrawlers for some reason not sure if I should try those or not. Was hoping for something cheaper like the market shrimp. I tried 3 places for the live bait and one had a sign saying something about supplier shortage. Are wax worms okay if they do get them in?

 

[rallysman]

How big is he? Mine went without eating for a month while I was getting him off of feeders. Have you tried to mimic a live fish with the shrimp? They're not the brightest fish so it takes them a while to catch onto what is food IME.

 

[sevenspeed]

Really? They seem pretty smart I thought. My tropical tank has all the stupid fish :\ Almost want to ditch them for something else after having smarter fish. They're still neat looking but all the other ones actually know I feed them and swim to the top when I walk up. And I've had the tropicals the longest, even the Oscars caught on like the 2nd day they'll hang out together on the bottom and when hungry swim up to the top and look out at me, then after they get a piece of food they sink back down, kinda cool.
Anyway....(blabbered on too much), he can go a whole month without eating? I would guess 5" I'll have to check. Yeah I tried being a puppet master, he just swims up to it to look at it and maybe follows it around. One mistake maybe was I got the cooked shrimp, just looked up this morning I'm supposed to get the raw.
How long have you had yours? I saw a pic of it. They seem really cool to me, dunno why noone has them, would be sweet to get a whole pond full, that is if they can overwinter. Here's a pic from last week. That's a peanut butter jar btw for size reference. It's there for the BGK but he's the only one I've seen in there.

 

[rallysman]

Mine was about 17", so that's part of the reason he went so long. I wouldn't push it that far with a smaller one like yours. Keep trying. He'll get the hint.

 

[sevenspeed]

Thanks, so how long before I get reasonably worried (since I already was)?

 

[rallysman]

I would give it another 2-3 days.

 

[señor_pescados_felices]

sweet,where'd you pick that up at?any more?