EBJD and the switching of food

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Buphy

Buphy

Dovii
MFK Member
Jun 10, 2015
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So since recommendations on diet changes from this site, I've been working on getting every one on pellets. Tried mixing it in with their old diet which I had little success with. I've tried starving them out and it's been about 4 days. Everyone has reluctantly started to eat a few accept for my 2 EBJD in both tanks.

Is this a tactic that will work for them and they just need more time or do y'all have another recommendation?
 
Hunger has always worked for me. You might try to give me a mixture of the old food and the new food, with just a little of the older food mixed in with more of the new food.

What is the old food and what is the new food you are trying to introduce?
 
Can't remember the new foods name, I'll post when I get back home. Old food was an assortment of frozen stuff. Originally I though it was just a diverse diet but people here pointed out it was more like junk food.
 
Not super surprising, it can be a little like trying to get your kids to eat their vegetables when they're used to hot dogs and ice cream. Might also depend on what the new pellet is, some are more appealing than others or some fish will like some better than others. Only thing with EBJD ime is if they're small still, you don't want them to go into a funk and stop eating. Had one do that, though I got him out of it with freeze dried mysis shrimp (had the dempseys some years ago).
 
Wouldn't call them small but on the scale of nothing to full grown they're on the smaller scale. 2-2.5" and 3.5-4". And the pellet brand is new era CA/SA cichlid pellets.
 
Yes , starving is the most popular technique used .
That is what i do for all my stock , only thing is I feel bad seeing them refuse to eat and stay hungry.
Something that also works is , if you have competition (many fishes ) as one picks and eats the other atleast try and then slowly start eating too.
 
Kinda what I'm hoping for since the normal JD and Bleekeri are now picking at it
 
Something which worked for me was feeding pellets at the same time as (defrosted) bloodworms.
I soaked the pellets in the bloodworm juice for a couple of minutes prior to feeding. I then dropped the pellets and bloodworm in the tank and as usual they gobbeled up the bloodworm, and some pellets by accident in the feeding frenzy. After a couple of times, they all ate soaked pellets. Then I stopped soaking the pellets in bloodworm juice and they continued to eat them.
However, also depends on the kind of pellet used. I am using two staple pellets and some fish show a very clear preference for one or the other, so if after trying for a while still no success, maybe look into another pellet they might find more palatable?
 
I always starve to new foods. I'm no expert on cichlids by any means but when you say frozen food, what exactly were you feeding them that the "pellets or you'll kill your fish" crowd on here jumped on you for?
 
Not "kill your fish" just a lot of stuff they didn't need nutrianse wise where as pellets met those needs. Was feeding them tetra flakes, blood worms, beef heart, kril and mysices (once again I'm sure I butchered that spelling)
 
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