juvie cichla

[gekkecichla]

hey everbody
ive seen you talk about feeding pellets and stuff but my orinocos 6 cm
only like living things. why cant i get them to eat anything else?
greetings ben

 

[Nick660]

There's a lot of chat about this subject on MFK!
Seems it depends on the individual personality of the fish, the particular species, what they are used to eating from young, degree of hunger, competition for food, etc.

It seems they can be trained with patience though - http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33661

 

[cichlaguapote]

It's hard to get them on prepared food when small because every meal is critical for good growth, and sometimes they can be stubborn. Feed them feeders for a while and then when larger get on prepared food when they're less subject to starvation.. IMO..

 

[Taboojen]

If you get a chance you should definately read the post in this section about converting cichla off live food. I followed the methods suggested in it and it worked like a charm. My cichla are conditioned to take pretty much any food i give them that hits the water -- pending that they will chew anything unfamilar for a bit before they eat it.


My sugguestions (esp if you have small cichla) is to to keep them in a small tank (like 20-30gal) and train them. (That way you can control the food, etc). Once they eat prepared food, i put them into the big tank and they continue to eat prepared food.

They'll come around. Just give it some time.