Geophagus Tapajos Not Used To Floating Pellets?

[ecoli73]

Do you have any aggressive midlevel feeders? If so, floating food pellets might not be a good option even if the fish learned that food is on top.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Azedenkae]

I refrained from posting here earlier, because well, you probably didn't want to hear this, but eh wells.

In general, fish will take time to switch from one food to another. They can be picky, and this can take up to weeks of starvation.

However!

In this case in particular, there is a worry that they may never switch. Why? Eartheaters are exactly that, eaters of the earth. They are bottom feeders, and whilst you CAN get them to accept floating pellets (heck, I had a pleco that went to the surface to eat once), but the problem here is if there's food at the bottom, especially if you have sand or gravel, they'll never ever think of ever going to the surface. They'll stick to the bottom and manage to scrape by with scraps from there, but will slowly be starving and dying. By the time they realize that they need a different food source, it might be too late and they're just too weak to care.

But! On the other hand, a few of your tapajos have found their food, which is good. Cichlids do learn from each other (I've had fish that never eat pellets, and then I toss one in that went for it, and suddenly the entire tank start eating pellets), so given that, the other tapajos could eventually learn to follow the lead.

So yes, in the end, in this case in particular, it's gonna depend on a lot of factors as listed above, and it's up to you if you want to take the risk. Perhaps just try your best, but purchase a small bottle or whatever of sinking pellets just in case they can't get used to floating pellets in time.

 

[PayaraMan]

Do you have any aggressive midlevel feeders? If so, floating food pellets might not be a good option even if the fish learned that food is on top.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

No, But I plan to add some, Which is another reason why I will most likely be switching back to sinking pellets.

 

[PayaraMan]

I refrained from posting here earlier, because well, you probably didn't want to hear this, but eh wells.

In general, fish will take time to switch from one food to another. They can be picky, and this can take up to weeks of starvation.

However!

In this case in particular, there is a worry that they may never switch. Why? Eartheaters are exactly that, eaters of the earth. They are bottom feeders, and whilst you CAN get them to accept floating pellets (heck, I had a pleco that went to the surface to eat once), but the problem here is if there's food at the bottom, especially if you have sand or gravel, they'll never ever think of ever going to the surface. They'll stick to the bottom and manage to scrape by with scraps from there, but will slowly be starving and dying. By the time they realize that they need a different food source, it might be too late and they're just too weak to care.

But! On the other hand, a few of your tapajos have found their food, which is good. Cichlids do learn from each other (I've had fish that never eat pellets, and then I toss one in that went for it, and suddenly the entire tank start eating pellets), so given that, the other tapajos could eventually learn to follow the lead.

So yes, in the end, in this case in particular, it's gonna depend on a lot of factors as listed above, and it's up to you if you want to take the risk. Perhaps just try your best, but purchase a small bottle or whatever of sinking pellets just in case they can't get used to floating pellets in time.

Great advice. But yeah I don't want to jeapordize the health of my fish. So if they don't seem to be getting fed properly in a few more days I'm going to go buy some sinking pellets. Honestly I don't see the point in taking the risk.

 

[Espeso]

Don't buy new food. Just soak the pellets and squid them and they will sink. My geo's have always been Fred on sinking food aswell but I will feed them floating pellets from time
To time and they do take it. They will get use to what you want to feed them.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[PayaraMan]

Don't buy new food. Just soak the pellets and squid them and they will sink. My geo's have always been Fred on sinking food aswell but I will feed them floating pellets from time
To time and they do take it. They will get use to what you want to feed them.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

If I soak Cichlid Gold the pellets break up into small pieces and float around in the tank and the fish don't eat it.

 

[dxdx]

I've never been able to get the floating cichlid gold to sink until it's breaking up like you said. You may just want to get new food and be done with it. Why try to train them on something that you only have an extra bag of?

I use Tetra color tropical granules that I can pinch and put them under the water and most of them will sink. The geos do come up near the surface and eat, they're pretty aggressive feeders, but I've never seen them picking off the pellets that float up to the top.

 

[PayaraMan]

I've never been able to get the floating cichlid gold to sink until it's breaking up like you said. You may just want to get new food and be done with it. Why try to train them on something that you only have an extra bag of?

I use Tetra color tropical granules that I can pinch and put them under the water and most of them will sink. The geos do come up near the surface and eat, they're pretty aggressive feeders, but I've never seen them picking off the pellets that float up to the top.

Buying new pellets will probably be my best bet, I'll try to buy some sinking pellets soon.

 

[ryansmith83]

Hikari Cichlid Gold comes in both floating and sinking form. Read the bag before you buy. I only feed the sinking varieties, otherwise it gets sucked into my overflows.