Gettin DATS to eat Non-live food for DUMMIES?

[Jesse]

IMO, the larger the dat, the more difficult to wean off live. It took me 3 weeks to wean a 5" thinbar off live foods, but 2" dats seem much more willing to take frozen foods. Don't worry about pellets, many dats won't ever eat pellets.

 

[AquataHolic420]

IMO, the larger the dat, the more difficult to wean off live. It took me 3 weeks to wean a 5" thinbar off live foods, but 2" dats seem much more willing to take frozen foods. Don't worry about pellets, many dats won't ever eat pellets.

So for a 2" i should try bloodworms, silverside pieces...and?

 

[is300zx]

I have 4 thin bars that are 2" or less. First I fed them live black worms to get them healthy and make sure they were eating. Then bought some small freeze dried krill/shrimp and freeze dried worms. I would starve them for a few days and throw in the freeze dried stuff. I would do this for about a week and watch if any of them were eating. If none was eating for about a week I would bring back the live worms and feed those again for a few days then switch back to the freeze dried stuff. I did this for about a month or two and they eventually learned to eat the dead stuff.

 

[Steve_89]

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.

I agree.

They are the foods I used.

 

[h20man]

Hi ,
I am not new to keeping monster fish, but am new to keeping Datnoids. I purchased 4 datnoids which are between 1 and 2 inches. I feed my datnoids live adult brine shrimp, small white clouds, and ghost shrimp. I keep my datnoids with some large guppies at this time, of course the fish that I keep them with are fish I don't want because I know at some point in time they will become a meal for the datnoid.

I would like to know why is it that some here are recommending that the datnoid becomes 5 inches, before switching them to dry and frozen food? could they be switched to dry food earlier than 5 inches?

This is my first post to this site and I apologize if I missed the answer to my question. Thank you for your understanding and I look forward to learning more about these fascinating fish.

 

[Steve_89]

Hi ,
I am not new to keeping monster fish, but am new to keeping Datnoids. I purchased 4 datnoids which are between 1 and 2 inches. I feed my datnoids live adult brine shrimp, small white clouds, and ghost shrimp. I keep my datnoids with some large guppies at this time, of course the fish that I keep them with are fish I don't want because I know at some point in time they will become a meal for the datnoid.

I would like to know why is it that some here are recommending that the datnoid becomes 5 inches, before switching them to dry and frozen food? could they be switched to dry food earlier than 5 inches?

This is my first post to this site and I apologize if I missed the answer to my question. Thank you for your understanding and I look forward to learning more about these fascinating fish.

Welcome to MFK

I would not hesitate to start feeding the datnoids dry and frozen foods. You will be waiting quite a while before they reach 5"...they are very slow growers.

The frozen and dry foods will be fine.

 

[elykyelsna]

my two 1'' indos eat the hell out of frozen bloodworms, i hand feed my fire eel and tiretrack eel in the tank theyre in, after the dats saw this happen a few times they started taking the bloodworms right from my fingers too!

 

[marvinbaker]

I've got 4 x 6" thinbars and 3 x 3.5-4" thinbars and the little ones will eat some market shrimp but the big guys will only eat live food so i set up a cheap river shrimp tank and they go mad for them. got a load in a 50 litre brackish setup and they breed quicker than i can feed them so hopefully i can maintain a free live food source

 

[Jesse]

I would like to know why is it that some here are recommending that the datnoid becomes 5 inches, before switching them to dry and frozen food? could they be switched to dry food earlier than 5 inches?

IMO, dats are easier to wean off live food when they are small. However, I would recommend getting them to accept frozen food first. I've had only mixed results using freeze dried food.

 

[suckerfish]

the easiest method is get 4 more, when there's competion, they teach themselves. not the least expensive way, but the easiest. i agree with Ichty.. start now or forget it.