Help me! My fish is refusing his meal!

[NyuNyu]

I bought " Nutrafin Max Spirulina Cichlid Pellets", Artmia, and shrimps , but my gar won't eat anything :/ He ate two neon tetras yesterday, and haven't eaten anything since then.....can you guys please give me some advice HOW I can get my Gar to eat pellets or shrimp?
The more info, the better!

 

[oscar n redtail cat]

i dont think they eat pellets they eat shrimps but what is the point of having a fish that in the wild eats fish 2 so u might aswell keep it eatting fish just breed guppys +molly and feed them 2 the gar its cheeper than the pellets in the long run aswell

 

[NyuNyu]

i dont think they eat pellets they eat shrimps but what is the point of having a fish that in the wild eats fish 2 so u might aswell keep it eatting fish just breed guppys +molly and feed them 2 the gar its cheeper than the pellets in the long run aswell

Well guppys and molly's doesn't breed that fast :/
Expensive too...

 

[demjor19]

i dont think they eat pellets they eat shrimps but what is the point of having a fish that in the wild eats fish 2 so u might aswell keep it eatting fish just breed guppys +molly and feed them 2 the gar its cheeper than the pellets in the long run aswell

yes they do. Shrimp and a high quality pellet diet is much better for the fish than most feeders. Gar eat much more than fish in the wild. Do a little research...

 

[Oddball]

Í got my finicky gars onto floating aro sticks, and eventually sinking sticks, the following way...

For the 1st couple of weeks, the gars are fed live minnows ALWAYS FROM THE SAME CORNER OF THE TANK and one-at-a-time.

After a couple of weeks, I'd offer a minnow then a floating aro stick or FD krill or thawed raw shrimp. They'd snap at the sticks/shrimp while expecting a live minnow. By the end of the 3rd week, all of my gars were readily taking sticks.

Now, my trops, shortnose, longnose, and gator gars all take floating/sinking sticks, slow-sink salmon pellets, FD krill, etc. And, they've been off live foods for a year or more. This years newest gars all quickly took to the sticks by watching the others and no minnow weaning was required.

 

[Miguel]

My gars only ate ( and eat ) floating pellets from day one....gators and spotted. ( okay, one gator tried to eat a CK )...

 

[demjor19]

Well guppys and molly's doesn't breed that fast :/
Expensive too...

Oddballs method works great. You can also throw in a few crickets and the gar will usually attack the moving/floating crickets...after a while start mixing pellets in with the crickets. They will mistakenly grab the pellets...thinking they are crickets and eventually start eating them. In the end quit providing crickets and they will just eat the pellets.

Another method i use (for mostly shrimp or smelt) is in the link provided.

Every fish is very different, so you may have to try a few methods before finding success.


http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147279&highlight=feeding+stick

 

[NyuNyu]

Thx for the tip!

 

[headbanger_jib]

i always start my small gars on dried ghost shrimps and then after a week or so i add a few food sticks along with the shrimp, every day i increase the food stick portion
after that you can feed them anything, they will eat it,
they are such hungry little bastards that they even snap at my fingers when i do tank maintenance