Gettin DATS to eat Non-live food for DUMMIES?

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AquataHolic420

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 20, 2006
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HElp me, i just got a new 2" thinbar and he only eats Guppies. I threw in some tiny pieces of earthworm, bloodworms, brine shrimp and i got no response. What are some of the TRICKS of the TRADE on doing this?
I like that he eats Guppies, i just only want him to eat them as dessert not EVERYMEAL!
 
Stop feeding it guppies and start feeding cubes of bloodworms, chunks of frozen krill, or chunks of frozen brine or mysis shrimp, not "tiny pieces." Dats will ignore tiny pieces.
 
AquataHolic420;602874;602874 said:
HElp me, i just got a new 2" thinbar and he only eats Guppies. I threw in some tiny pieces of earthworm, bloodworms, brine shrimp and i got no response. What are some of the TRICKS of the TRADE on doing this?
I like that he eats Guppies, i just only want him to eat them as dessert not EVERYMEAL!
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2" thinbar and you are already trying to starve it? keep feeding it live food until it becomes healthy enough to withstand a week without food. but i would wait until it gets to about 3 - 4 inches at least. that is just a baby. good luck. let it get healthy first then, try to kill it, i mean starve it.
 
Mine is 4", I am feeding krill, and the occasional silverside, although it is a finnicky eater. Should I throw in the occasional feeder, or keep him on frozen?
 
if the fish is weaned out of live food, and then introduced live food again, it gets finicky, and kinda waits for the next live food feeding. that's what i noticed about my dats. so after you feed live food, you might want to hold off on frozen food until they get hungry again. i only like to feed live food to juvenile fish to fatten them up fast..then start on frozen foods, and on to dry foods. first thing to be certain is that the fish gets healthy first. thats priority.
 
Vince;602991; said:
if the fish is weaned out of live food, and then introduced live food again, it gets finicky, and kinda waits for the next live food feeding. that's what i noticed about my dats. so after you feed live food, you might want to hold off on frozen food until they get hungry again. i only like to feed live food to juvenile fish to fatten them up fast..then start on frozen foods, and on to dry foods. first thing to be certain is that the fish gets healthy first. thats priority.
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i only like to feed live food to juvenile fish to fatten them up fast..


When do you consider the fish to be a non-juvenile; Just wondering?
 
Vince;602991; said:
if the fish is weaned out of live food, and then introduced live food again, it gets finicky, and kinda waits for the next live food feeding. that's what i noticed about my dats. so after you feed live food, you might want to hold off on frozen food until they get hungry again. i only like to feed live food to juvenile fish to fatten them up fast..then start on frozen foods, and on to dry foods. first thing to be certain is that the fish gets healthy first. thats priority.
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My fish is finicky already, should I feed him some live foods, or just leave him on frozen and let him eat when he feels like it?
 
Vince;602895; said:
2" thinbar and you are already trying to starve it? keep feeding it live food until it becomes healthy enough to withstand a week without food. but i would wait until it gets to about 3 - 4 inches at least. that is just a baby. good luck. let it get healthy first then, try to kill it, i mean starve it.
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I definately agree with Vince... I would wait till your thin bars are about 5" IMO my dats just refused frozen foods and I did the starving technique; It took almost 2 weeks before they took the MP; and they only took a few; but eventually they just started taking MP down like there was no tomorrow. I just started giving them beef heart which they all took also. so now I'm gonna switch they diet every now and then between beef heart, market shrimp, dried krill just for variety. Also beef heart is real cheap. I got over 1 lbs for 6 bucks.
 
Good to know. Thanks,once he gets 4-5", Im going to try harder to get the thinbar to eat dead foods.
 
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