help -- almost dead sterlet sturgeon ?

[Moontanman]

what do you recommend feeding? and how do i ween them off of worms?

he is swimming 90% of the time, and looking much better

A good quality sinking pellet, small koi or tropical fish pellet like Hikari, I liked to feed mine frozen cyclopsezze, live black worms, live ghost shrimp and small earth worms. if you can get fresh fish roe from your local fish market he would like that as well. Most important to feed a variety of foods. If you must feed mostly one food I would recommend Cyclops-ezze.

 

[new2natives]

mine wont touch hikari sinking pellets, but the other day i had a dead fedders fish, so i cut it up into smaller pieces, and later that night it was gone. another feeder may have eaten it, but it may have been the sturgeon

my question is, since they are scavengers, they often take a long time to find the food (unless its bloodworms). when i put in the pellets it will be several minutes before they would even mouth it, then spit it out.
then with the dead feeders, it was over 5 minutes before i walked away and they still hadnt found it

 

[oscar n redtail cat]

get the water colder as they like very cold water, and more oxygenation in the tank aswell.

 

[blurock]

Sterlets actually do fine in warmer water than other sturgeon, and I see no issues with his current tank temp. If he's had them this long, I would believe there's enough oxygen too, though some extra probably wouldn't hurt at the moment.

When I had mine, everyone said feed bloodworms, but I've noticed a trend of suggesting against it now. I had tried feeding mine broken up silversides, perch fillets, and sinking pellets (shrimp and cichlid) and neither one would touch any of it but the bloodworms...

 

[Moontanman]

mine wont touch hikari sinking pellets, but the other day i had a dead fedders fish, so i cut it up into smaller pieces, and later that night it was gone. another feeder may have eaten it, but it may have been the sturgeon

my question is, since they are scavengers, they often take a long time to find the food (unless its bloodworms). when i put in the pellets it will be several minutes before they would even mouth it, then spit it out.
then with the dead feeders, it was over 5 minutes before i walked away and they still hadnt found it

Dude, sturgeon are not scavengers! They eat small animals, insects, crustaceans, mollusks, and small live fish, not dead stuff they happen to find. If you want to keep them healthy, feed a variety of small live or frozen foods or good quality pellets. Live food is best, live daphnia are good for small sturgeons, live black worms for bigger ones and live shrimp and live earth worms for bigger ones. They can adapt to frozen or pellets but in the wild they eat live foods.