Dat diet

[balton777]

As you may know, my Dats are in a small tank with my daughters sailfin mollies. Everyday I've been feeding the mollies a pinch of flake food before feeding the Dats frozen foods. Up until today, the Dats would bite the flake and immediately spit it back out.

Today they ate it and swallowed it. I think all of them ate but I'm not sure. It's hard to watch all 8 Dats mixed in with a bunch of mollies. I then did an experiment. One after another, I put in a a tiny pinch of several other kinds of flake food including Ocean Nutrition Formula 1, Formula 2, Spirulina, OmegaOne flakes and New Life Spectrum freshwater H2O flakes. The only kind they'll take is Ocean Nutrition Formula One. Weird huh?

Well it's a start. It's only been 4 days and they're taking something besides frozen.

 

[TCZeli]

I wouldn't worry to much about getting them on flake. That shouldn't be a food source you should try to get them on. However it wont be a problem if they do eat it.

Frozen foods are great for them. I don't know anyone who feeds flake to Dats

If you really want them to eat some "dry" foods go with some sinking cichlid pellets or shrimp pellets.

 

[balton777]

I wouldn't worry to much about getting them on flake. That shouldn't be a food source you should try to get them on. However it wont be a problem if they do eat it.

Frozen foods are great for them. I don't know anyone who feeds flake to Dats

If you really want them to eat some "dry" foods go with some sinking cichlid pellets or shrimp pellets.

Alright cool...but they're not interested in pellets whatsoever at this point. They keep making this face at me . They're only 1.5" right now. I'll keep on with the frozen and try to wean them onto pellets. I thought I made progress just getting them to eat something other than frozen.


.

 

[Jesse]

Quality flake foods generally have very high protein percentages, typically 45% or higher, so I don't think it's a problem if they're eating flakes. However, as the dats get larger, they'll tend to gravitate towards larger chunks of food. I typically start my small dats on frozen bloodworms, then frozen brine chunks and frozen krill, and then to market prawns. I have had dats accept Hikari sinking carnivore pellets, but they are the exception, not the norm.

 

[balton777]

I'm sorry I'm new to Datnoids. So you're saying most likely they'll never convert to dry pellets? It's ok, I can feed them frozen or even live food their whole life...I just need to know if I'll be wasting my time trying to convert them to pellets.

Please reply.

 

[TCZeli]

I'm sorry I'm new to Datnoids. So you're saying most likely they'll never convert to dry pellets? It's ok, I can feed them frozen or even live food their whole life...I just need to know if I'll be wasting my time trying to convert them to pellets.

Please reply.

It is deff worth a try as the more the diet is varied the better. I have all my Dats that are 4inch or bigger on shrimp pellets.

I agree with ichy that Dats eating flake is not a problem but they will not want small pieces of flake as they get bigger. All my small dats eat blood worms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, and cut up market shrimp. I will even give them small pieces of krill, and silver sides.

 

[balton777]

Thanks you guys.

As of now they get chopped up market shrimp, chopped up krill + mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, bloodworms and San Fran Bay Emerald Entree.

I'll keep at it as they start to get bigger.

 

[AquataHolic420]

keep up the good work, its great your dats eat flakes! The more different food sources they eat the better! So keep up the good work, of experimenting what they will eat.

I have 1 of my 2.5-4" Dats that will eat "Tropical Crisps" when i fed my geos. One time i counted him eat 22 crisps in like 2 minutes. I was suprised. My dats wont even TOUCH brine shrimp.

Worms, Crawler pieces, Ghost shrimp(VERY RARELY),Hikaro bloodworms(they wont eat alot of omega one, but FEAST on hikari), Tropical crisps. Havent tried makret shrimp yet, but im waiting for a good sale.

 

[balton777]

keep up the good work, its great your dats eat flakes! The more different food sources they eat the better! So keep up the good work, of experimenting what they will eat.

I have 1 of my 2.5-4" Dats that will eat "Tropical Crisps" when i fed my geos. One time i counted him eat 22 crisps in like 2 minutes. I was suprised. My dats wont even TOUCH brine shrimp.

Worms, Crawler pieces, Ghost shrimp(VERY RARELY),Hikaro bloodworms(they wont eat alot of omega one, but FEAST on hikari), Tropical crisps. Havent tried makret shrimp yet, but im waiting for a good sale.

Won't touch brine? Interesting cuz mine really eat it up. With market shrimp or krill, I use a pair of scissors and cut it up into teensy little pieces and they'll gobble it down. Never tried Tropical Crisps but I'll see if I can find some next time at the lfs. These little guys are so cool.