handfeeding cichlids

[cichlid savage]

Never thought of hand feeding my cichlids. Though most of my fish are so greedy they are jumping at the food as it hits the water. I took a nip from my jag while cleaning his tank so I think I'll keep my hands out of his water and hope he stays off of my floor.

 

[awdawg]

have hand fed my marbled pim... easy just stick my hand underwater and wait for him to come over, have hand fed my arowana... dont want to experience his food death leap chomp on the fingers again, didnt hurt horribly just startled the crap out of me, that and I've had him jump about 3 inches out of the water just to bite my hand recently while opening the tank lid lol! Scary eh?

 

[JCA]

when i was a little younger my dad used to get a laugh out of his employees trying to feed his fish. when you opened the lid his 20" silver aro would latch onto your finger before you could say "ow". but then they always laughed at him when he tried cleaning the tank...that aro was meeean

 

[mitch4ya]

My Jack Dempsey is the only one of my cichlids that I hand feed. When he wants feed he swims back and forth at the top of the tank and begs kinda like a dog. Then I just put the krill sticks in between two fingers and hold it just outside the top of the water and he gently(usually) takes it right out of my fingers. Not always gently, but most of the time and if he does accidently nip me it doesn't hurt anyway. None of my other cichlids will do this, however my Firemouths eat anything right off the top of the water so I am sure they will eventually do it too.

 

[raceguy333]

My Jack Dempsey is the only one of my cichlids that I hand feed. When he wants feed he swims back and forth at the top of the tank and begs kinda like a dog. Then I just put the krill sticks in between two fingers and hold it just outside the top of the water and he gently(usually) takes it right out of my fingers. Not always gently, but most of the time and if he does accidently nip me it doesn't hurt anyway. None of my other cichlids will do this, however my Firemouths eat anything right off the top of the water so I am sure they will eventually do it too.

My dempsey would do something similar. I could hold pellets about an inch above the water and he'd jump out and get them from between my fingers... then one time he missed the pellet and latched onto my finger and took a few seconds to let go. That's when i stopped hand feeding. He was only 3", but now he's getting his teeth, so I'm done with that.

 

[Taboojen]

i have a dovii that is about 4" and growing fast. His visable canines serves as a good deterent for hand feeding.