Getting them off live food...

[Stab]

I think my newly aquired red bay snooks are only used to being fed live foods... I offered them some FD Krill about 2 hours after releasing them into the tank, and while all other fish went crazy (like they always do), snooks just about ignored it. So I ran out to LFS and bought $5 worth of feeders -- this time they reacted and stuffed their faces with gusto! Few hours later I did the usual evening feeding and dropped in a handfull of hikari gold pellets. Again, there was no reaction from snooks...

I know they may be still stressed from being shipped. I have sent an e-mail to the seller asking what he was feeding them. I will also skip morning feeding and wait until this evening to make sure they are really hungry, then offer some pellets and krill again.

Every bit of information on this species that I was able to locate said they were supposed to be voracious feeders and take dry food with ease. I certainly don't want to be stuck feeding them live all the time. What are some of the tricks for getting them switched?

 

[Caveman]

I would try starving them for a few days and maybe then they will accept pellets. I had a Dovii that would at first only accept live but I eventually got it to accept dry foods.

 

[Stab]

Ok, 2 things:

-- First, the seller replied to my inquiry, and apparently these fish were raised on FLAKES, with an occasional feeding of culled fry from various breeding projects. This leads me to hope that they are on a stress related hunger strike and will snap out of it eventually

-- During tonight's feeding I offered the following (and in this particular order): FD krill, pellets, flakes andsinking carnivore pellets. There was little to no interst to krill. It's as if these guys are simply not used to be feeding from the surface. You know how all of your cichlids will rush to the top once you open the lid of the tank? Not the snooks... On the other hand they were definetely interested in floating pellets, flakes and sinking pellets -- all of these were grabbed by each fish but imedeately spat out. I wonder why? Will they actualy try to swollow tomorrow? How long should I continue starving them? I was thinking of trying to feed again tomorrow afternoon, so that if they still don't accept prepared food, I could run out to get some feeder fish (LFS gets a shipment of fresh feeders in tomorrow). I could also try some sort of an alternative instead... Say market prawn or small pieces of fish filet (I think wife has some in the freezer). What do you think?

One last thing... I saw them flaring and displaying to each other few times this evening. I think they are reistablishing their pecking order in the new environment. This must a good sign and hopefully means that they are getting comfortable. Now if I could only get them to eat!

 

[Stab]

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!