Help with Training Peacock Bass?

[creekchub]

I am trying to train three peacock bass that I have (2) Kelberi in the 11 inch size and one Orinoco (6”) to eat pellets. They were fed feeder fish most of the time. kelbs have not eaten in four weeks now -while the Orinoco just this week has eaten shrimp and frozen The Kelberi are watching the smaller Bass eat the frozen food offerings however still show no interest in even trying to eat even at 4 weeks. I have thrown in massiveore pellets as well and those are not even looked at by any of the three fish.
My guess is the Kelberis will eventually learn to eat even if it’s another 4 to 8 weeks with no food.
My question is once I get them on the frozen food how do I get them to eat just massiveore as that is my goal???

 

[creekchub]

The mono is now accepting the frozen killie fish cut in half but the kelbs even at 4 weeks show zero interest in anything - looking for some advice as to if I should stay the course or change it up ?

 

[Rocksor]

Soak the pellets in de-frosted frozen food juice when at least one of the fish will eat frozen consistently. I find floating pellets work better at soaking than sinking pellets.

 

[kno4te]

Bloodworms to pellets

I've got a couple kelberi that aren't quite eating straight pellets yet. 1)get your pellets and thaw out your bw cubes. 2)crush up your pellets 3)add em to your thawed bw cubes 4)I use tons of pellets to the amount of bloodworms so I add water til it's pastey. Stir it up and put in the...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[creekchub]

Has anyone ever had a peacock Bass starve to death because you wouldn’t feed it feeders anymore? I know the two that I have are definitely hungry but again shows zero interest in any food I offer after four weeks

 

[tcav88]

I’ve had to starve a 8” xingu for a month and I reactivated it’s hunger by tossing in some bloodworms and the next day he took pellets like the rest of the fish in with him, can go multiple routes though including soaking the pellets, using frozen whole lake smelt.. most fish that are on live take it and can easily stuff pellets in em or soak in vitachem, or you could try tying a piece of shrimp or tilapia to a string and jerking it in the water to imitate live fish etc. I’ve had the most luck in starving in 3 day intervals, feed what you want it to eat for 2 days then if it doesn’t eat it give it what it’s eating on day 3 after another pellet attempt of course. The bigger the bass the longer I stretch out rationalization

 

[creekchub]

TTT

 

[LBDave]

Bloodworms worked for me. When I bought my bass (about 4-5") these "pellet trained" kelberi's wouldn't eat for over 2 weeks. Finally ate some blood worms. After a while they started hitting FD krill.
BTW having the other fish eating will help them learn.
Personally I wouldn't feed massivore. I feed mine Hikari sticks.
Take it all with a grain of salt because I'm a bit of an oddball. I feed no "deli" fish or shrimp to any of my fish. All dried and freeze dried.
I also use VitaChem (no I'm not a salesman). I think I'm the only one that feeds freeze dried minnows (can be a bit pricey).
Luther (and Theo) is looking pretty good on his diet. A bit fat. I will trim down when he gets larger.