Endlicheri Feeding Amount + Growth Rate

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dizee-d

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 2, 2008
48
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Sydney, Australia
Hello Everyone,

Just a question, I have a baby endlicheri (approx 10cm) and the little guy eats a very small amount a day.... eats about 1/8 - 1-10 of his body size in chopped up prawn a day... sometimes even once every 2 days. He just doesn't seem to be that hungry and he hasn't grown much in the last couple of months I have had him..

Is this normal? I mean, I have read up on past threads and some people have said their endli have doubled in size in a few months... mine is not getting anywhere near that! nor is he growing at any astounding rate like all the others are said to be... not really too sure what to do.. any advice would be good. He is currently housed in a largish fry box within a larger tank if that accounts for anything.

Oh and I have tried to feed it several types of food with no success... carnivore pellets, fillets of fish, white bait, bloodworms.... doesn't like any of them.. will eat the occasional feeder though. Should I possibly try massivore pellets or are they pretty much the same as the sinking carnivore ones?

Regards

Dan.
 
It wont hurt to try massivore, exept maybe your wallet. Ime it should be growing more. Give it a protien rich diet and it should grow more. If it accepts food more than once try feeding twice daily, until it grows out more. Mine love kens sticks http://www.kensfish.com/kenssticks.html. Endli's usually aren't that picky, so just be persistent, and it should accept new foods. You can also try mealworms or superworms.
 
i think he should b eating more have u tried mealworms earthworms or beef heart my endli luved all those and grew super fast and i dont think he will eat much n that fry box its 2 small 4 him that may have sumthin 2 do with lack of growth mayb u should try a 10gal or sumthin 4 now
 
what temperature is the tank? Mine ate like pigs and grew very very quickly. When they were smaller, i fed sinking cichlid gold then as they grew I moved them up to chopped earthworms, market shrimp, massivore (or equivalent protein based sinking pellet).

How logn have you had it and is it otherwise acting well?
 
I have had the little guy for about 3 months or so now. Probably grown from 8cm to 9.5cm... not much at all. He rarely eats, when i first got him he had quite alot of prawn, pretty much til he had a massive belly... now he will only eat a little. I might try and set up a new tank for him but I currently don't really have the room.

The temperature ranges between 26-28 degrees celcius and he acts ok. sometimes he gets spooked and skitz's around the tank bumping into the walls... I think he might need a change in scenery... not really too sure. I have a small 30L tank i might try to store him in for now and see how he goes in there....

any other suggestions would be great!
 
At least he's eating. You might want to look into the tank location. Is there too much light? is it loud, like the tank is near a speaker or something that vibrates? But he might just be a slow starter, no big deal. Just keep up with the water changes and feed as much as he will take
 
I'm in a similar situation with my Dehezi. He (or she) seems completely indifferent to food. He'll eat when he wants and thats it. I bought him at 5" in January, today he's a little over 7"s. I feed him worms, shrimp, tilapia and massivore.

Not sure why, but sometimes he just doesn't eat for a few days. I tried adding more hiding areas and more cover, even blocked some of the light, none of it mattered.

Either way, he seems healthy and does eat when he feels like it. So I'm not worried.

My baby Endli though, he's a damn pig. He managed to get an entire massivore pellet in his mouth. The pellet is bigger than his head!
 
The fry box size could be an issue, as stated before, more space and some hiding areas may reduce stress and encourage feeding.

Another thought, what time of day are you feeding??
My ornate from the time he was 2" would only feed at night. To this day I have only ever seen it eat once (an earthworm thrown in for the bullhead)

Early on I worried allot that it was starving, however it turned out that it would just feed after lights out. 4 years later and many inches longer it is still the same.

Good luck with your fish.
 
just went to the fish shop to get myself a new filter and some Cycle as I am going to set up a separate 30L tank for the fish.... bit of a pain but hopefully he will grow so I can put him in a tank with some bigger fish.

The guy at the fish shop said it is probably the fact that he is in the fry box... as it kinda floats at the top of the water causing the box to move around a bit which is prob not so good for the fish... It was also that there isn't sufficent hiding spots...

gonna start up a new tank with the Cycle and cycle it with some cheap fish in it for about a week... I'll see how I go and let everyone know...
 
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