JD eating problem; she's addicted

[ColeFishing]

Problem:
My female jack Dempsey will only eat Hikari carnivore pellets. I have tried countless times feeding her NLS cichlid pellets and Hikari Floating cichlid pellets. She will nip them once and thats it. I have starved her for 2.5 weeks hoping shed eat something else. Is this bad if she only eat Hikari carnivore? Will she still color up?

Tank stats:
Tank is in normal condition. She is 4.5" long. Tank mates are 1" female convict, 5 petricola's, and one L129 pleco. Tank is a 26 bowfront with fluval G3, black sand, flat rocks, drift wood and fake plants. Its a temporary tank.


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[nbruce2]

Honestly 2.5 weeks is kinda long IMO. If you want to train her on something honestly I think the best approach is to feed her the pellets at the same time along with what you are tying to train her on. Eventually lower the percentages in a week or two. Like less pellets and more of what you want her to eat. I that doesn't work I dunno what to tell ya.

My JD is also very picky. He's still a juvenile though so that makes sense. So far I've only been successful with bloodworms and brine shrimp. I haven't been able to get him to eat any pellets or flakes yet. So I have the opposite problem as your self. Good luck though!

 

[ColeFishing]

Honestly 2.5 weeks is kinda long IMO. If you want to train her on something honestly I think the best approach is to feed her the pellets at the same time along with what you are tying to train her on. Eventually lower the percentages in a week or two. Like less pellets and more of what you want her to eat. I that doesn't work I dunno what to tell ya.

My JD is also very picky. He's still a juvenile though so that makes sense. So far I've only been successful with bloodworms and brine shrimp. I haven't been able to get him to eat any pellets or flakes yet. So I have the opposite problem as your self. Good luck though!

2.5 weeks is the longest. I've also tried every time in between. I also feed NLS pellets at the same time because my catfish, pleco, and convict like them. My JD has refused every food except the carnivore pellets. I have a 2.5" male in another tank and he eats most of what I put in the tank. He will not eat NLS but he eats bloodworms, floating cichlid pellets and cut fish.


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[Aquanero]

Your JD looks pretty good. The challange with trying to getting fish off carnivore pellets and onto NLS is like trying to get a kid off Jelly beans and start eating Brocccoli. You know the Broccoli is better for them but the Jelly beans taste so damn good. I would stop feeding the carnivore pellets get some NLS Thera +A the higher level of garlic is an appatite stimulant and will help them accept it eaiser. Don't feed the fish for about 2 days then feed the fish a couple of pellets every other day for as long as it takes. Feed only the NLS and nothing else while converting, the other fish will benift from this as well. If the other fish in the tank eat the NLS it will help show the JD it's food and the competition sometimes gets them to start trying it. Remember an otherwise healthy fish will not starve itself to death in the presents of food. The NLS is a healthier more well balanced diet for a JD than the carivore pellets so the switch will be worth the effort. GL.

One other thing I just thought of is NLS pellet size. For your fish I would use nothing larger than 2mm pellets. It's imprrtant not to use somthing too large. NLS is a dense food and the size of the pellet is an important factor in the acceptance of the food, it also reduces waste.

 

[RD.]

Another trick that I have used for super picky fish, is to pre-soak NLS pellets in frozen bloodworm juice for approx 10 minutes. The pellets become softer, quicker, which makes them more palatable, and the BW juice helps trigger a feed response. At the same time follow Tom's advice. Once they are eating well slowly decrease the pre-soaking time until eventually you are feeding directly from the jar. Most fish will fully convert in 2 weeks or less.

This has even worked for me on fish that have never seen a pellet, or flake, and were grown out on an exclusive diet of bloodworms.