eat the pellets curse you!

[Cisc]

I have a little red devil, fairly certain it's a female not that it's important. She just wont eat any prepared foods. Well she eats enough to stay alive I guess because I have been trying to force her onto pellets for over a month now. She just eats very little and doesn't grow much if at all.

The only thing she seems interested in eating are live worms. I am at a bit of a loss here. I have never had a cichlid that didn't eat like a pig. Is she sick? Stubborn? Or just too lonely in her 55g so she keeps the feeders as company?

 

[Lupin]

What is the appearance of her poop? Try adding garlic on the food. This might coax her to eat more.

 

[perfect_prefect]

stop feeding feeders..... if you want it on pellets, dont offer anything for a bit, then drop in some pellets, they should disappear, how big is it?

 

[Cisc]

She's 4-5 inches long. Poop looks normal. I've tried offering nothing but she still just mouths the food and spits it out again.

How do you add garlic to pellets?

 

[Lupin]

There's Kent liquid garlic you can buy online or shops and soak pellets with it.

 

[fishwhisperer]

try crickets then shrimp or jumbo krill that will get her hitting stuff on the surface that duznt move, then try a combo then just pellets, thats how i got my gar eating pellets

 

[Sarah88]

yeah make sure you watch her poo and see it several times, one time a fish of mine had parasites but it only had white poo some of the time and then as it got worse then it had it most of the time but it still had the occasional regular poo (this is when i treated and it was then fine) but yeah just keep an eye on that, and yeah dont feed anymore feeder fish from the petstore as they can carry parasites and give them to her, stick with insects or frozen stuff

as for soaking in garlic you dont have to buy the specially made stuff just go out and get some fresh garlic or the diced stuff in a can/jar and put some in a cup and ad just a little bit of tank water (just enough to soak the food in) and mash up the garlic in the water really well and let it sit for a bit and then soak the pellets in it for like 10min before feeding

 

[shinigami]

go buy a few good size feeder gold fish and put them in the same tank. feed everyone with pellets. your fish will take pellets once it sees the gold fish eat the pellets. If the gold fish get killed, replace the gold fish. They are real cheap.

 

[Sarah88]

go buy a few good size feeder gold fish and put them in the same tank. feed everyone with pellets. your fish will take pellets once it sees the gold fish eat the pellets. If the gold fish get killed, replace the gold fish. They are real cheap.

this is exactly what he shouldnt do, those goldfish are usually riddled with parasites, but yes some tankmates eating the pellets might help it feel more confident but def dont get those feeder goldfish

 

[shinigami]

this is exactly what he shouldnt do, those goldfish are usually riddled with parasites, but yes some tankmates eating the pellets might help it feel more confident but def dont get those feeder goldfish

I think you are over reacting here. the gold fish is not being fed - not being eaten. Any fish can bring in parasite not just gold fish. I guess you can be extra careful and buy a few more non-feeder fish to train your fish. this will cost you significantly more... easier to flush gold fish down the toilets that fish you spent much $$ for.