Converting Cichla off Live Food

[sabmakj21]

I wish this was always the case. I have six bass in one tank, five of them eat anything that his the water. One simply shows no interest and I go a month before I'll break down and throw in some feeders so the guy can eat. This has been going on for five months and the guy is half the size of the others. He simply won't break.
Any other advice?

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That one fish might not have the right personality to mesh with the group and he may never pellet train. Sometimes they just aren't aggressive enough to fight for food. Separate him and try to pellet train with the methods all the pros use. If that doesn't work, you could always sell or trade him.


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[gacericardo]

About to start the battle

 

[Nusdogg]

I've been feeding mine one feeder at a time. When the pellets hits the water my PB hits it but never goes into its mouth.

 

[RAPALA27]

ha ha loved the part amount the mop

My PB smashing top water...

 

[motoracer110]

Awesome thread helped a lot. My bass are about 5" now and finally got them eating pellets. What triggered my bass to hit the pellets was throwing them hard at the water 1 at a time. If I just dumped a few pellets in they would only look at them but for some reason throwing the pellets hard did the trick ( if they still don't eat the pellets just scoop them out and throw them hard again until they strike). I did have one bass stay stubborn until day 3 of constant attempts got him liking the pellets.

 

[TheAlchemist]

I just put my juvenile peacock bass wit my African cichlids.. just throw the food in where the power head and then the peacock bass and Africans just go nuts eating...

 

[krichardson]

That one fish might not have the right personality to mesh with the group and he may never pellet train. Sometimes they just aren't aggressive enough to fight for food. Separate him and try to pellet train with the methods all the pros use. If that doesn't work, you could always sell or trade him.

I'm beginning to suspect that this might be the case with one of my three spider kelberi that I got from Monster this past February.Ive finally gotten all of my young cichla onto pellets except for this one hold out and it is getting pretty thin.I was already contemplating removing it from the others and try to faten it up with some worms or something.It is too beautiful and expensive a fish for me to come home to find that it has died.

 

[bigshowtank]

figured I'd post this over here as alot of people ask this question, and this is what I do to convert my pbass off live foods.
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Heres what to do to condition them:

--------------DO NOT THROW THE FEEDERS IN ALL AT ONCE! start to feed them by throwing one feeder at at time....let the bass see you in front of the tank and hold your hand right above the water surface with the feeder....when you have their attention..drop the feeder.....if they hit it immediately-great! if not, wait untill they dispatch that feeder...eat it. then repeat with every feeder....this is a little time consuming but will condition them to hit whatever drops to the water.....after a week of using this process the bass will come to the surface awaiting you to drop the food and will hit the feeders with tenacity!!!
-----------------once you've accomplished this...have some freeze dried krill at hand....after approx 2 feeders drop a krill in the tank....it will be hit! but dont be discouraged if they spit it out....keep up the process...feeder....krill....feeder....then cut back to dropping krill only....they will take it. eventually they will nail the krill just as they did with feeders...then you can continue the cycle by trying other foods to see what they may prefer better........and every so often give em some feeders to keep them on their toes!! This is a fool-proof method of breaking them of live food and it works.
good luck....and after they start hitting the surface...add a mop to your aquarium supplies
Also...dont start too early...fatten them up until they are 6-7" before converting them over, by this time they should be nice and healthy and ready for other foods.
*Cichla properly converted feeding on thawed shrimp
____VIDEO CLICK LINKS BELOW____

http://www.youtube.com/?v=PI21NQhbiWQ
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http://www.youtube.com/?v=MnBD8zb9vuw

sounds like excellent advice. Thanks bro

 

[krichardson]

I'm beginning to suspect that this might be the case with one of my three spider kelberi that I got from Monster this past February.Ive finally gotten all of my young cichla onto pellets except for this one hold out and it is getting pretty thin.I was already contemplating removing it from the others and try to faten it up with some worms or something.It is too beautiful and expensive a fish for me to come home to find that it has died.

I might as well post a follow up;the last hold out has been broken and is eating pellets like it's his job!

 

[Aman15]

Sweet! Gonna try this method!