Difficulty Feeding.

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Jesseliu13

Jesseliu13

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jun 27, 2012
1,129
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Holmdel, NJ
Now all my fish are relatively young. And they have different Diets supposively but they are all carnivores except the pleco. I have an Arowana(eats pellets mostly, quite often crickets-hes the well behaved one), 2 Bichirs, 3 Blood Parrots, 1 clown knife, 1 black ghost knife, 2 clown loaches, and 1 pleco.

The pleco, Arowana, clown loaches, and Blood parrots are of no concern in this topic. But the others are not eating... normally.

Now it is not a water problem. all parameters are perfect if not just a little off. not one that should be noticed.

So I bought some red wigglers from Petsmart with some Meal worms.

My Bichirs for some reason do not like the chopped earthworms (red wigglers). They prefer the meal worms and blood worms. After asking many helpful people on this forum Bloodworms became a no no for my ideal staple. And yes i know that the meal worms have hard shells, that's why i bought the earthworms. But they chew at it and they just spit it out and swims away. The earthworms are small enough to eat after i cut them i made sure. I do not want to keep ANY of my fish on live feeding all the time. Its annoying and difficult. I feed them sinking hikari once in a while but ... they make a really big mess! they chew it and then spit it out repeat. but in the end it eats it. and it sometimes eats the shrimp pellets that i put in for the loaches. (strange no? i thought they would like the earth worms because they are moist so shouldnt they have more flavor?)

My black ghost knife is also a problem. Mine is no bigger than 6 inches including the tail. If not 5. And i raelized he has a very small mouth... i dont believe he would even touch the pellets. He nibbles at the flakes but goes crazy at the bloodworms. which again i do not want to feed often anymore. And the bloodworms are way too big for their mouth.... so i dont really have a good staple for them either. any ideas?

Now here is my main concern.

The clown knife... He is a scared little guy. He doesnt like me looking at the tank whatsoever. He is new i must say. making it 5 days now. I never really seem him eat considering i put in the bloodworm and he jsut flat out ignores it. I know they are Piscavores in the wild. But i do not want to give him any feeders. And no i am not one of those feeding fish to fish is cruel kinda guys. Its just that hes about 3-4 inches and his mouth is way too small for any fish i've seen. I dont really want to feed it guppies either... so i want to find a good staple for him... For the first 2 days he was really skinny not eating (most likely from stress of being moved to new tank for the first day from the LFS) but after i turn out the lights and put in some carnivore pellets, I dont seem him eat but i do notice he isnt thin as he used to be. his stomach does seem to have food in it. so i am glad... but is there something other than carnivore pellets for now? and no he doesnt touch the earth worms or mealworms.... and i asked the LFS what they fed him and unfortunately... they were bloodworms...
so what am i going to do for these guys?

So far my Ideal Staple food for these guys include the non problem fish are Hikari carnivore pellets. I need to but some Hikari food sticks for the arowana. but i digress. anyone have have any ideas to my problems or have problems with my ideal staple food? Suggestions are welcome!

sincerely the fish noob.
 
One thing you could try is cut up tilapia fillet alot of my fish eat it. Far as staple diet try NLS sinking pellets they are a complete diet for all fish. Your bichir chewing and spitting out pellets the pellets may be too large. Try a size they can almost swallow whole. Luve brine shrimp is also a good treat and can get alot of picky fish eating.

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They also make floating sticks for your aro. Or just keep using hikari its fine i use both. Give it time and just try new things youll find they will like more stuff.

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The knifes are not my cup of tea but with the bichirs i feed mine an alternation of a couple things. I get the packs i don't know what you have but i have little cubes of them. What i do is i start on Monday and i feed bloodworms and brine shrimp. 3 cubes of bloodworms and 2 cubes of brine shrimp. Then on Wednesdays or Thursdays i feed them Beefheart and Massivore pellets. Sometimes i include Krill when ever it's convenient but they don't accept most often. Then i either feed them 1 tome when ever over the weekend or i fast them till Monday. Because usually when i go somewhere i go on the weekends (Hunting, trips, etc...) And then it'll be there routine to not eat on the weekends so no harm done when i get back. Usually The bichirs only need to be feed 2-3 times a week they can be known to fast for up to a month. Sometimes (rarely) but sometimes a little longer. But thats when they quickly switch surroundings or they are unfamiliar with their surroundings etc... Hope it helps Dr.B
 
ah ok... well i dont really like the idea of blood worms... because i fed them as a staple and realized it was a bad idea cause of nutrition problem... now im thinking of quicker ways to make them grow. as for beef heart they seem to love the stuff. but they make a very big mess.. and my loaches dont touch the beef heat... so cleaning isnt really great
 
My pleco goes around and picks it up. To me beefheart is like steroids and when the pleco goes and picks up the tiny parts it's like he's growing faster as well it's a double win lol.
 
ah well here the think i dont really want my plecos touching anything other than veges.... generally because of hes with my Bichirs... He hasnt cause a problem yet. And my bichirs are tough. they dont like to be picked on... but none the less i dont want any problems between the 2. I know it is a bad idea but i have seen friends have them together and they never had a problem because of the plentiful amounts of food for the plecos. plants driftwood algae etc.
 
this is why you see few bgks that are big, or knives in general... personally ive had few issues with converting sub adult fish from live... live blackworms would do great for your bgk and ck until they are larger to be fasted onto less desirable foods for them. bloodworms arent going to put size on your fish. Once older both species take to prepared foods better. you may also try frozen mysis shrimp, or krill. unfortunately most juvies of both of these fish die after a few days or weeks in the home because they starve to death. some people will argue this, but young fish being sensitive can and do die from starvation even if food is readily available. they dont always reconize the food as food.

in a nutshell imo your going to have to choose from crossing your fingers they figure it out, or chance loseing them to starvation. or feed them live, and deal with converting them onto prepared diets.
 
Well There really isnt a way to argue. Even if you ahve the same species its not the same fish... They had different conditions from when they were brought up and when they were put in stores. When the pet stores feed them may be different every time... Well Considering that blood worms arent exactly the best foods I need to really find better ones.... I tried hand feeding a red wiggler to the CK... that didnt work. he just swam away or was scared etc. as for the BGK... his mouth is too small.... i need to find a better food really for the BGK because he is may main concern about the blood worms... and I dont think freeze dried tubifex worms would be much better than blood worms... i feel as if it would be the same... i need to get him a meatier food... and there is no pellet that can fit him mouth except micros.
 
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