Cream Puff GATFs

[yourockit]

So i just bought five atfs, 4 of them are gatfs. I fed them feeder guppies for their first meal in their new home. they apparently love hunting and eating guppies. now they won't eat the shrimps i bought for them. nor will they touch the blood worm cubes. so what should i do with these $400 fishes? do i cater to them, spoil them or treat em like i did my piranhas and given them food once a day for fifteen minutes and if they do not eat it right then and there they will have to wait til tomorrow. and if they don't eat the next day then they will have to wait for the day after that. and this process will carry on until they eat dead shrimps.

what should I do?

 

[West1]

What size are they? Did you pay $400.00ea Goliath? if so, again what size??
Depending on their size, you can starve them longer. MOP... Cut them off from live feeders (I recommend Minnows from Petco) to maybe once a month, and just chop pcs of frozen shrimp. Throw in maybe one shrimp (pcs) a day and more pcs as they eat or take shots at the shrimp. I give my ATF's earthworms, beef-heart, shrimp, and algae flakes.
You can continue to give feeders, but it will be VERY HARD to get them off live food when they get bigger (like the old saying "you cant teach an old dog new tricks"). Plus your pockets will be lighter. I'm guessing about 4dz feeders every other day for all your fish as juvies (12" each?), plus its not healthy to give your fish feeders, especially goldfishes because of their spines.
I say minnows because they swim a lot and make your fish exercise for their meal and its cool to see the little chases

 

[R1_Ridah]

ATF's will ween themselves off live as they get bigger. They are probably the easiest fish to ween off live because they do it themselves.

You have 4 Gatfs and 1 Vitattus. If you want to keep all of them alive you have to have their bellies full. If not they will start taking each other out. You keep those guys starved it will become more of a competition between themselves to stay alive. They look extremely skinny so keep them on guppies till they get some girth.

 

[West1]

I never kept an ATF from young to adult, so I was just going off feedback that I received on their diet.

 

[yourockit]

What size are they? Did you pay $400.00ea Goliath? if so, again what size??
Depending on their size, you can starve them longer. MOP... Cut them off from live feeders (I recommend Minnows from Petco) to maybe once a month, and just chop pcs of frozen shrimp. Throw in maybe one shrimp (pcs) a day and more pcs as they eat or take shots at the shrimp. I give my ATF's earthworms, beef-heart, shrimp, and algae flakes.
You can continue to give feeders, but it will be VERY HARD to get them off live food when they get bigger (like the old saying "you cant teach an old dog new tricks"). Plus your pockets will be lighter. I'm guessing about 4dz feeders every other day for all your fish as juvies (12" each?), plus its not healthy to give your fish feeders, especially goldfishes because of their spines.
I say minnows because they swim a lot and make your fish exercise for their meal and its cool to see the little chases

the fishes are 4-5"

so do you still recomend the same course of action? thanks

 

[yourockit]

ATF's will ween themselves off live as they get bigger. They are probably the easiest fish to ween off live because they do it themselves.

You have 4 Gatfs and 1 Vitattus. If you want to keep all of them alive you have to have their bellies full. If not they will start taking each other out. You keep those guys starved it will become more of a competition between themselves to stay alive. They look extremely skinny so keep them on guppies till they get some girth.

ok. how much shoul di be paying for guppies cause i bought 90 very small guppies for $15 and they were all gone in three days!thanks

 

[Bsixxx]

i suggest you feed them feeders quarentine them for atleast a couple weeks..how big is your tank?

 

[yourockit]

i suggest you feed them feeders quarentine them for atleast a couple weeks..how big is your tank?

If i quaranteen them then what do i feed my fishes in the mean time? I have a 240. and two empty 100s. I'm setting up one of the empty tanks as a sump and the other i have started to set up as a guppy breeding tank.

 

[Bsixxx]

If i quaranteen them then what do i feed my fishes in the mean time? I have a 240. and two empty 100s. I'm setting up one of the empty tanks as a sump and the other i have started to set up as a guppy breeding tank.

get a power head and throw little pieces of shrimp into it so they will notice and eat it..you upgrading anytime soon?

 

[yourockit]

get a power head and throw little pieces of shrimp into it so they will notice and eat it..you upgrading anytime soon?

can't upgrade. room maxed out. will sell fishes when they get too big for their tank.


well, i just tried again with the blood worms. and they are eating it! which is great!great!wonderful. I have buy some fnacy guppies for the breeding tank.