How to get my baby Arapaimia to eat other things than bloodworms?

Devgru1359

Feeder Fish
Jan 29, 2020
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Hello, I have a baby arapaimia that is about 6 inches. I have been feeding him frozen bloodworms and he seems to love them. My question is how would I get him to eat other foods, I have tried beef heart, brine shrimp, finely chopped tilapia, and pellets. He won't touch any of them, any advice?
 
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tlindsey

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Aug 6, 2011
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Hello, I have a baby arapaimia that is about 6 inches. I have been feeding him frozen bloodworms and he seems to love them. My question is how would I get him to eat other foods, I have tried beef heart, brine shrimp, finely chopped tilapia, and pellets. He won't touch any of them, any advice?

Mix a few pellets with the bloodworms and hopefully they start eating the pellet's.
 

Matteus

Potamotrygon
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Jan 6, 2018
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My pbass were exactly like this but brine shrimp instead of blood worms.

I crushed up pellets, mixed it in with bs, re froze it and would feed them small chunks of the mixture and they would hit it so hard it would leave a cloud of dust behind them when they would grab it.

it made a huge mess of the tank and took almost a month of this , but eventually it worked and they started eating pellets. Another good thing to have is a teacher fish that is already eating the pellets.
 

JonAsher611

Jack Dempsey
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Aug 17, 2014
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If you’re having trouble getting him to switch over you should cut back on feeding for a few days until the point where he is noticeably more hungry than usual then present him with the food in pieces small enough that he can down them with little to no effort. If he doesn’t seem to be interested in what you have offered him so far try going to the bait store and buying some kind of white bait (or shad), mullet, or shrimp as this is what I’ve noticed to be some of their favorite foods. I have worked with a lot of arapaima in my time and I can tell you with almost certainty that he will be eating everything in no time. They really are voracious eaters.
 
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