HELP! what to feed hifin.

[Whiteboi_J]

I got a spotted hi-fin cat and didn't do enough research before i bought him....what should i feed him? i bought him Sunday evening and he didn't eat none of the floating pellets Sunday, then last night i tried target feeding him sinking shrimp pellets and he didn't take that either. Friend said to use blood worms.

Any tips would be grateful...i'd hate to lose him.

 

[FoxFire110]

I feed mine the sinking carnivore pellets from Hikari. He/she also only liked to eat in the dark at first. Now it's learned to come right out and push the cichlids out of the way to steal their food.

 

[Whiteboi_J]

I feed mine the sinking carnivore pellets from Hikari. He/she also only liked to eat in the dark at first. Now it's learned to come right out and push the cichlids out of the way to steal their food.

I got some Hikari frozen blood worms. gonna try that out tonight. didn't see any sinking carnivore pellets

 

[FoxFire110]

I got some Hikari frozen blood worms. gonna try that out tonight. didn't see any sinking carnivore pellets

the other brands have catfish sinking food as well, at first I fed him before bed and turned the lights out, with a light low in an other room I could just make out what he was doing. Now he eats anything everybody else does but every third day I put a pellet or two of his food in just after the lights are turned off, not because he's still shy but the cichlids like to try and steal his food now too.
The cichlids in the tank get a mix of carnivore and vegie pellets every am, get some combo of frozen brine shrimp, market shrimp, emerald entree, mysis shrimp, blood worms or beefheat every other day. Once in awhile I throw in trout worms, Sprillina tabs, kale or zuccini

After listing this out I think my fish are spoiled rotten lol

 

[Whiteboi_J]

ya i just got the cichlids and hi fin on Sunday afternoon. The Cichlids are still nervous when i go to tank to feed them, so i have to put food out, then go around the side, wait for the 2-3 hungry ones to come out, and drop floating pellets in....once they begin to eat, must the other fish come out and eat too.

I tried the blood worms last night and they LOVED it.....i got the lights on a timer and at 9pm the lights went out and blue LEDs cut on....2 seconds later cat came out of cave and started swimming around....tried target feeding him w/ sinking shrimp pellets and blood worms (i have a 1.0 mL dropper i stole from son's medicine. lol don't worry, he has another one.) and would suck blood worms into there and try and shove them infront of cat....saw him eat 1 or 2 lil shrivels, but not much else....i'm hoping he's finding the shrimp pellets on the ground so he doesn't die from starvation....we'll see what happens.

 

[FoxFire110]

Catfish take awhile to starve you should be fine, just an FYI depending on the size of your cichlids he might choose to eat them instead. As long as he is nervous he porbably won't eat if you target feed him. Just drop some stuff in after the lights are out he'll find it and soon he'll come running when you start to feed everyone else. Blood worms are good as sm part of their diet but having them as thier complete diet is really bad for them incase you didn't know that already.

 

[Whiteboi_J]

Catfish take awhile to starve you should be fine, just an FYI depending on the size of your cichlids he might choose to eat them instead. As long as he is nervous he porbably won't eat if you target feed him. Just drop some stuff in after the lights are out he'll find it and soon he'll come running when you start to feed everyone else. Blood worms are good as sm part of their diet but having them as thier complete diet is really bad for them incase you didn't know that already.

no i didn't know that about blood worms? are sinking shrimp pellets and/or algae wafers okay?

cichlids should be big enough to not worry about them gettin eating. pics in thread below....and yes i know their bellies are sunken...didn't notice it till someone pointed it out, but the 2 orange and the bigger blue/yellow cichlid w/ 5 or 6 spots on fin are the 3 who always down to eat



http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388479

 

[FoxFire110]

All your fish should be okay with the size of your cat, he's really pretty by the way. Yeah a couple of them look like they've been not eating like they should but I'm sure you'll fix that. The biggest thing is a variety, if you can get a good pellet or granual and use that as your base, then add things like the algee tabs, frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp some little bits of shrimp here and there things like that. I also put food in at more then one place at a time so the not so aggressive can eat while the pigs are distracted.
I love your tank, wait till everyone gets a little bigger, the colors with the white will look fantastic. The cat will not starve, just keep putting food in for him after dark so he gets it rather then the cichlids and then when he starts eating with them don't worry about him, throw a couple of peices of shrimp or worms or catfish tabs twice a week after dark he'll grow huge fast. Mine comes to the top of the tank and begs with the rest of the fish, he even eats floating pellets.

 

[Whiteboi_J]

foxfire - thanks. ya i was gonna go w/ syno cat but then i saw that hifin in the back of the next tank, he was active and looked attractive, so i got him instead.

after dark i've gone in and dropped sinking shrimp pellets and the cichlids will try, and sometimes succeed, in eating them, but once they hit the floor they lose interest in it....so i've been making sure 3 or 4 hit the substrate near where the cat will go and hope he finds it....i think i saw him grab 1 yesterday, but couldn't tell cause there were only the blue leds on. I will start throwin algae tablets in too on occasion, or instead of shrimp pellets. thanks for advice.

I may get another pair in a month or two of similar size....right now there are 6 Cichilds and that big cat....the wife really want some yellow labs, and i may end up just doing that.....she's told me "you've got boring fish, they don't have color" i was like WTF! lol. there are 2 ORANGE fish in there, and the johanni has nice contrasting black/blue colors (when he does decide to come out of his cave). just waiting for fish to all get used to new tank so they will start swimming more freely about while lights are on

 

[eatingleg4peanut]

Mine eats pretty much anything it "hoovers" over. Mine is really aggressive and never hides anymore, fights with my Nicaragua cichlid alot. Main Diet is Shrimp Pellets, Raw Shrimp, and sinking cichlid pellets.