Is my flagtail eating or not?

[cpm6t]

I have a flagtail prochilodus with 7 peacock Bass (bass is 3"-4" long, Flagtail is 5" long). The problem is I do not know whether the flagtail is eating or not.

I have put in some leaves for him to eat but he doesn't eat that.
I feed fish fillets & prawns to the pBass. As soon as they are done eating the flagtail moves in on the pieces left on the bottom, takes it into his mouth, grinds it and spits it out. He keeps on doing this. But I don't know whether he takes in tiny pieces while he grinds in the piece in his mouth because he definitely puts it back out. But keeps on doing this for a while.I've never seen him taking a piece and swallow it like the pBass does. He has been in my tank for about 4 weeks now. Probably would be dead if he didn't eat anything. But I'm still worried cause I want him to grow properly. Please advice.

By the way, I got 2 Flagtails and the one left in my tank killed his partner within 2 days.

 

[Water]

Flagtails do not tolerate any of their kind so that explains why one of your flagtails killed the other. Try breaking the pellets into smaller pieces/cutting the prawns into smaller pieces. Cichla have bigger mouths than Flagtails. Good luck.

 

[Allan01230]

Is the flagtail cleaning glass and decorations? Try feeding flakes to it. I had a 9 inch flagtail and it would eat flakes off the surface. As was said flagtail wiil not tolerate each other the stronger will eradicate the other. I have seen larger schools work out but the tanks were massive. Let us know how the flakes work out.

 

[cpm6t]

Upon closer examination, I think the flagtail is taking small bites when he grinds in the big piece inside him mouth. He keeps on working on the same pieces and it keeps on getting smaller, looks like. I also put in a hydrilla plant hoping that he would eat that, but doesn't look like he is interested in that.
From what i've read even though they are omnivores, they need a herbivore diet, but looks like my one is more onto carnivore stuff.