Gatf can't get to eat 5 inch

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Peacock bass is a bad idea, they will out hunt and out eat the Gatf.
He wont have a chance to eat while in with a pbass. "especially if your trying to train him to eat."
Ive always minnow trained my Gatf at a small size until they are ready to take larger prey.
I recommend switching from minnows to frozen right away so they can grow quicker and promote more color.
 
all said here^^^^^ Also, starve it for a few days.
 
yeah, goldfish might be a little big for him, try rosies, or guppies, and i agree i wouldnt hesitate to try and get him eating silversides, krill or pellets.... but to get him eating initially nothing is better than live IMO... find out what he has eaten before you got him

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My guy at that size was absolutely murdering goldfish. How long have you had him in the tank? What's the temperature? What are your water perimeters?

GATF are fairly sensitive to water perimeters and temp. Mine won't eat if it's cooler than 82 or warmer than 84. If the water is not pristine, he will not eat. When he was first introduced to the tank, he would not eat. If I rearrange the tank, he will not eat. If I just turned the lights on, he will not eat. If another fish is stressing him, he will not eat. These are extremely sensitive and aware fish. They are extremely cognizant of their surroundings and won't eat if anything is off. At least that's my experience with mine.

Also, what happened to his tail? In the pic, it looks like the bottom part of the lower lobe was either bitten off or damaged in shipping.
 
I got the pbass thinking of monkey see monkey do so he will see to eat the fish what would be some good fish to put in with him so he will feel more comfortable and he's doing the whole tiger spaz thing where he swims against the glass and stuff I put paper on the sides of the take so he won't see his reflection ( I think that's why he was swimming against the glass) I also heard leaving the lights off for a few days will calm him down also what else can I do to make him feel more better what do I want to have my water at the temp is 82 maybe its to cold for him also the pbass I have in there is half the size of the GAtF I put a few plants in there also and a lot of flow
How can I try to train him to eat dead food can you tell me how you got him to switch over


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If the pbass is that small, once he settles down it'll probably get eaten. FWIW, mine only does the atf spaz when nitrites get over 40ppm. If I can keep nitrites down, he happily swims in the current all day long.

As for good tankmates / teachers for the gatf, you can't beat a tarpon. My tarpon is what taught my gatf to eat dead food. Gatf are extremely alert, aware fish and mine would observe the tarpon feeding from the top, so he saw another fish eating dead food. Eventually, he understood that pellets were food. After a while if a freeze dried krill or a pellet got waterlogged enough to sink and get caught in the current, he would start to take them. At that point it was just a matter of him working up nerve to go to the top and snarf some carnisticks. It took about a month to break him.

Nowadays, he NAILS the pellets when he grabs them. It's dramatic and quite fun to watch. I like watching him feed, too, because unlike most pellet trained fish who just swim up and take their food. This guy hunts the pellets. Exactly the same way he hunted live food before he ws broken. If he lines up on the pellet in such a way that he's not behind it, but at the side, he'll break off the attack. It's really cool watching him eat! lol
 
Hell yeah!

Post more pictures. :)

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