How to get big dats to eat pellets?

[nomad]

just got my 12" ST to eat pellets (got him last july) .....I placed the pellets inside small pieces of shrimp, so the shrimp barely covers the pellets....it was just a matter of time until he started eating pellets by themselves. GL

 

[frootloops]

just got my 12" ST to eat pellets (got him last july) .....I placed the pellets inside small pieces of shrimp, so the shrimp barely covers the pellets....it was just a matter of time until he started eating pellets by themselves. GL

I think I'll give that one a try. So from July til present you've been stuffing pellets into the shrimp and only now did it accept pellets only?

 

[nomad]

I think I'll give that one a try. So from July til present you've been stuffing pellets into the shrimp and only now did it accept pellets only?

no ...I did this consistently for about 3 weeks (last month) until he started taking pellets.
Before that I didn't bother trying thinking that a dat this size (10+" at the time) will never switch...comes to show

 

[frootloops]

no ...I did this consistently for about 3 weeks (last month) until he started taking pellets.
Before that I didn't bother trying thinking that a dat this size (10+" at the time) will never switch...comes to show

Oh I see, I'll give that mehtod a go first before trying the starvation technique

 

[keonigt]

Read this thread I made
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314780

so the shrimp you buy is just from the supermarket?

 

[frootloops]

so the shrimp you buy is just from the supermarket?

from the wet market so they're fresh

 

[keonigt]

hmm gotta find the wet market, btw is it ok to convert them when they ar 1.5 inches?
and can i starve them at this age?

 

[frootloops]

How do you place the pellet inside the shrimp so that it sticks and won't just pop out when it hits the water? I tried this and when the ngt tried to eat the shrimp the pellet popped out and so he wasn't able to eat it.

Can I wrap it in Dory fillets instead? That would be so much easier

 

[vaine111]

I would take a knife and stick it threw the fattest part of the shrimp and just shove it in there. Sometimes it will split the shrimp but can't always be perfect.

 

[frootloops]

Wow the advice you gave in the other thread about dicing the shrimp until mushy worked great! Thanks! Now wrapping the pellet in a thin layer of shrimp meat is easy

I just gave some to my NGT and he took it without hesitation. Now all I have to do is gradually lessen the amount of shrimp