I really want to get him off live, and onto a solid base diet of cichlid gold and massivore pellets, however he is refusing to egknowledge that the pellets are food, what is the best way to get him to realize they are food and get him to eat them? Is fasting the best way?
Getting my RTCxTSN on pellets
- Thread starter Diskboy12
- Start date
Either starve him or try a transition onto non-live food such as frozen krill, shrimp or tilapia. Once he is off of live you can work on pellets.
I've never had a catfish that didn't take right to pellets, though. Strange that yours is so picky.
I've never had a catfish that didn't take right to pellets, though. Strange that yours is so picky.
A pet shop near me a recently visited me showed me a large tigrinis type cat that they caught wild and shipped up to there shop some four or so months earlier. The fish was so stressed it would not accept food for two months before finally deciding he would eat again. This is what the shop employee told me, i have never personally had a fish go this long. However, even if the story was embellished I feel that many of these ambush predatory bottom feeders can go through extreme periods of fasting. Starve that mudda sucka till he has no other choice than to accept what you give him. They are not entirly dumb animals and like mentioned above a slow acclimation from live -> frozen/fresh -> prepared should be completely probable as long as you stay patient and observant.
Give it a few months, instead of one worm lasting a day it will be one dozen didn't last 30 seconds... And he'll still want more.
Vary the diet to include Pellets, Cut up Shrimp (Whole once he is big), cut up fish fillet (again he will eat them whole when he is bigger), Worms, etc... And keep the water clean, you'll have a 2' fish in a year that will cost you more to feed than it does yourself especially if you do pellets only.
Which you won't because once he grows you'll realize that $20 bag of Massivore won't last long at all and a $5 bag of Tilapia Fillet lasts much longer.
Vary the diet to include Pellets, Cut up Shrimp (Whole once he is big), cut up fish fillet (again he will eat them whole when he is bigger), Worms, etc... And keep the water clean, you'll have a 2' fish in a year that will cost you more to feed than it does yourself especially if you do pellets only.
Which you won't because once he grows you'll realize that $20 bag of Massivore won't last long at all and a $5 bag of Tilapia Fillet lasts much longer.
Mine didn't touch pellets when it was a baby. How big is he? When mine was 2-3" I gave him blood worms. When he hit 6", I took him out of his own 55g and put him in my 120. I tossed in pellets for the other fish and he went for them as well. I didn't have to train him or anything. He'll get it. They're pigs.
Mine can now take out about 50 massivore pellets in a matter of seconds.
Mine can now take out about 50 massivore pellets in a matter of seconds.