Pygmy sunfish are not true sunfish, so their personality and care is completely different. Unlike true sunfish, which will generally take to prepared foods if started as juveniles, and often even as adults, pygmies rarely will accept anything but live food. I do know some people have had luck getting them on prepared foods, but it's generally with captive bred specimens and often not consistent.
Food for redbreasted sunfish
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Pygmy sunfish are not true sunfish, so their personality and care is completely different. Unlike true sunfish, which will generally take to prepared foods if started as juveniles, and often even as adults, pygmies rarely will accept anything but live food. I do know some people have had luck getting them on prepared foods, but it's generally with captive bred specimens and often not consistent.
You're lucky, I collect a lot myself, I think Ive only bought about 4 fish, and I always have to start on live except for some salt fish Ive collected. When it comes to freshwater I always start with mosquito fish then work on store bought seafood, then if im lucky they will take prepared foods, and thats normally with high price hikari.
You can hardly call it luck when I've been consistently collecting and keeping various species of sunfish since about '05 now and I've never had it fail.
I have had to start or keep other species on live food, such as sculpin (though they eventually went on pellets), darters and the pygmy sunfish, but fish in the Lepomis genus should rarely have a problem getting on prepared foods. Part of the reason they tend to be so prolific in the wild, and so easy to catch on a rod and reel, is they'll eat nearly anything. Some of the less common, more niche species, such as a bantam may be a bit more particular, I haven't kept them so I don't know, but redbreasts are not one of them.
It is often the case, in fact, that in the wild you can drop random foods such as chips, lunchmeat, etc. into an area with sunfish, and the babies especially will feed heartily.
Unless you overfeed, which MOST people DO, most sunfish should take to a high quality prepared food in very little time.
I have had to start or keep other species on live food, such as sculpin (though they eventually went on pellets), darters and the pygmy sunfish, but fish in the Lepomis genus should rarely have a problem getting on prepared foods. Part of the reason they tend to be so prolific in the wild, and so easy to catch on a rod and reel, is they'll eat nearly anything. Some of the less common, more niche species, such as a bantam may be a bit more particular, I haven't kept them so I don't know, but redbreasts are not one of them.
It is often the case, in fact, that in the wild you can drop random foods such as chips, lunchmeat, etc. into an area with sunfish, and the babies especially will feed heartily.
Unless you overfeed, which MOST people DO, most sunfish should take to a high quality prepared food in very little time.
Having some minnows in the tank helps get the sunfish on prepared foods more quickly. They're very competitive feeders and will eagerly consume anything they see their tankmates chowing down on.
Thats so funny even before I read this I was planning to do the same thing. He's eating blood worms.
If you feed young Sunfish live food only for awhile will they become spoiled and refuse prepared foods?
My sunfish is so small he could barely eat live foods...he has trouble with bloodworms as it is!
It shouldn't really matter. Even when you catch them out of the wild where they've been eating live foods they can generally be acclimated to prepared or frozen foods. You may have to wait a few days for them to realize they're not getting anything else (like any other animal, they will try to wait it out and see if you'll give up and give them their regular food). But as far as refusing it altogether, it's unlikely that a Lepomis sp. will actually starve itself when not given a preferred food.
Any frozen food, as long as it's fresh, should work. With flakes and pellets you may have to experiment with brands. Some foods may not smell appetizing or taste as good.
I feed Prime Reef Flake to all my small fish (yeah I know, sounds weird since it's a sw flake, but even my picky fish such as my bumblee gobies eat it, and it even says on the can it's appropriate for fw also). It's kind of expensive, but I don't feed it to my larger fish, so I don't use too much. Cyclop-eez is also a good flake food that most fish like immediately.
For pellets I feed HBH products, or Hikari Carnivore pellets or food sticks. For something cheaper, Wardley shrimp pellets are liked by most fish, and will easily soften in water for small fish or fry to pick at, though they are a bit messy.
I think that's a pretty good idea for most fish. That's how my LMB got on pellets. He was with a big group of voracious sunfish, and soon he joined into their feeding frenzy and starting snatching up whatever fell in the tank.
Small sunfish (not just Lepomis, but even bass, crappie, etc.) actually often shoal and feed with minnows in the wild. So it stands to reason they should do the same in a tank.
Yeah I so them curiously biting at stray plant material or a falling snail. So I think they are willing to try almost anything. Only reason I have been feeding live cause I got it on hand for the pygmies.
