So I have a 17" Giant Snakehead fish, and all he eats is live goldfish. Now I know its not recommended and the guys from PITA who post here will be on my ass soon for saying this. Basically I want to switch him to frozen fish, it'll be healthier and along the same lines of what he is used to eating so he wont go all sad. What are some tips for doing the switch, and what can i not feed him? For example if i buy the fresh salmon at Costco could I just feed him chunks of that
it will eat any meat or fish gladly, mine even eats boiled egg white... avoid red meat and you'll be fine... offer a variety and starve it like miguel says after two or three weeks it'll show interest... be 6 weeks before i'd worry if it still wasnt eating! try earth worms, mussels, white fish, white bate every few days....
if all else fails could try dead gold fish, then get him used to where you drop them, then start slipping a sneaky bit of alternate food in!
good luck, i starved a manuelli piranha for a month once! ate mussel in the end...
I prefer frozen feeders to live only because frozen is cheaper and takes away the risk of introducing disease / parasites .
Converting should be easy enough, snakeheads are not typically picky eaters, and at that size he can go without food for quite a while without any ill effect, so even if he's picky just wait him out.
My suggestion is to try some shrimp &/or Smelt/silver-sides from the local grocery store or fish market. Chop it up if need be to make it bite sized and drop a few pieces in. If they dont eat it right away leave it for a while. If it's still there after a few hours scoop it out and wait a week then try again, a week without food should be enough to get them snapping at anything that hit's the water, if they for some reason still dont eat wait a few days try again, as long as the snakehead doesn't start to look skinny i'd keep starving until he eats whatever you want.
In my personal experience skipping one feeding is more then enough to convert a snake head, Mine will switch from live to frozen to pellets without any hesitation, they could care less, if it fits in their mouth they eat it.
I'd say yes, If it's accustom to live prey then you may need to use chopped frozen meaty foods as a stepping stone, but once they get the hang of grabbing food as it sinks to the bottom/hits the surface instead of hunting it then they will quickly stop looking before they grab at food and will eat just about anything you chose.
I also find fish , and most animals, eat better on a schedule . If you always feed at the same time of day and establish a routine then it's easier to switch them from one food to another. They quickly learn when it's "feeding time" making anything that hits the water food.
