Firemouth help
- Thread starter mofisher
- Start date
they may just not feel comfortable enough yet to go to the top, how long have you had them and how large are they? just try getting sinking pellets and they should be fine
you can try some floating plants or some top swimming schooling/shoaling fish. that might help to make the firemouths feel more comfortable in the environment. 
The reason is that firemouths that firemouths typically feed off the botton. In the wild they dig through the substrait for small inverts like insects, shrimp, etc. Sinking foods are the best. Mine does come to the surrface once in awhile to feed on swordtail fry though.
Mine is a mid-level to bottom feeder too, and he is definitely not shy or scared of the other fish.
nothing unusual ... lots of cichlids are mid-to-bottom level dwellers anyway ...
maybe instead of flakes, try feeding slow-sinking pellets, that way they can feed at top, middle or bottom as the pellets sink ...
but either way, if they don't want to feed at the top, there's no reason to be concerned ...
maybe instead of flakes, try feeding slow-sinking pellets, that way they can feed at top, middle or bottom as the pellets sink ...
but either way, if they don't want to feed at the top, there's no reason to be concerned ...
That is true, that Thorichthys generally are substrate sifters but in the right environment I think most will come to the surface once they figure out there's food there. In my 75 gallon I have 2 T. pasionis and a firemouth all around 2-2.5" and they come to the surface anytime they see me. I've also got about 8-10 platys in the tank so they instinctively know that there aren't going to be any large predators around if the platys are out and swimming about.