Jardini is stressing me out!!!

[the big kahuna]

In all my years of fish keeping have I ever come across a fish as stubborn as my 20" Jar. I've had him now about 6months and when I got him the previous owner stated he was only eating live foods. For the first week I fed him live foods then I didn't feed for the next 7-10 days. On the third week, I feed fresh market shrimp which at first ignored then he began swallowing them and spitting it out. This went on for a few days then he eventually ate a few, and now he's eating 7-8 large shrimp at a time. Fast forward to 1 month ago. Desperately wanting him to eat massivore like ALL of his tankmates, I started stuffing the pellets inside of the shrimp. When I did this, the Jar would eat the shrimp and spit out the pellet each and every time. Now for the past 2 weeks I've only been feeding massivore and absolutely no shrimp and the Jar has been totally ignoring the pellets. Once he actually ate 1 pellet and as I celebrated this accomplishment the Jar spit it out lol. Its now been officially 2 weeks and the Jar hasn't eaten AT ALL and I'm getting concerned. Should I cave in and go back to the fresh shrimp or continue with denying the Jar anything but pellets. I've trained many bass and dats using this method but it's not working here. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Have you tried soaking the pellets in ...Well, I guess there's not really any juice in shrimp, but maybe blend them up and soak the pellets in water with the blended shrimp. Just to get them the shrimp flavor a bit?

 

[the big kahuna]

Have you tried soaking the pellets in ...Well, I guess there's not really any juice in shrimp, but maybe blend them up and soak the pellets in water with the blended shrimp. Just to get them the shrimp flavor a bit?

I also tried that but after I saw the fish eat the shrimp and spit out the pellet, I know he's on to me.

 

[kno4te]

I’d try to let the jar fast a bit longer. Keep retrying the pellets. Have u tried a floating pellet?

 

[Kashif314]

So he is ahead of you in his game lol. He ate the shrimp and spill the pellets.

Have you tried arowana sticks made by hikari? Maybe pellets are too small to his liking.

Really I don't know why people start giving their fish live feed. Packaged food have more nutritional value and they are free from parasites. Your arowana developed that habit because of the previous owner.

If you trained your cichlids then I am sure you can train your arowana to accept package foods. Try with some arowana sticks or something. Maybe some krill? I don't mean frozen krill. Krill which are freeze dried.

 

[Blakewater]

Awe man trying to break a 20" Jars feeding habits is killer. My best advice is hold out as long as you can. I've never owned an adult fish that starved to death over taking pellets. He'll give in eventually

 

[the big kahuna]

Thanks for all the advice. I've tried both the
Hikari floating pellets and the freeze dried krill. And he ignores them. Seems as soon as his mouth feels the texture of anything
Lbesides fresh shrimp he swims away. I'm going to reluctantly give him another 2 weeks before I give in.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The fact that the fish took the pellet in its mouth is already a big step in the right direction.

IDK about jardini but my alpha silver arowana male goes through courtship for a month, holds babies in his mouth for 1.5 months, may or may not grab a single meal then goes back to courtship and again mouthbrooding the babies. All in all, the male may have one small meal over 4-5 months.

If this is of any indication, arowana can fast as long as catfish.

You could try the known tongs training until it takes anything and everything you give it with tongs.

 

[the big kahuna]

The fact that the fish took the pellet in its mouth is already a big step in the right direction.

IDK about jardini but my alpha silver arowana male goes through courtship for a month, holds babies in his mouth for 1.5 months, may or may not grab a single meal then goes back to courtship and again mouthbrooding the babies. All in all, the male may have one small meal over 4-5 months.

If this is of any indication, arowana can fast as long as catfish.

You could try the known tongs training until it takes anything and everything you give it with tongs.

Thanks that was very informative info. I wasn't aware that Arowana can fast for that long period of time. I'm gonna wait this out.

 

[islandguy11]

If it's any consolation I can relate, my Blue Base Gold Xback has been causing me similar grief but in a way it's even more frustrating because for first 8 months since I got her she was eating pellets just fine (along with frozen shrimp/fish) every feeding. But then recently she's almost entirely stopped eating pellets and usually spits them out. And I gotta say it just pisses me off to no end lol.

One part of me wants to starve her for a few days but she has what might be a minor case of HLLE and I don't want to possibly aggravate that, it's slowly been getting better.

Good luck and hope both our obstinate fish come to their senses.