I got a Kelberi from Rapps looks great but will not eat much and is not very aggressive. I have 4 Orinos, 1 Tem, 1 Mono all about 5-7" Kelberi is 7". I have had it almost 3 weeks and still will not eat anything but worms blood and tubifex. I feed Live feeders comet and rosey reds, frozen krill, dried krill, market shrimp, hikari food stix others eat everything Kelberi eats worm and very daintily at that (no killer instinct). Anyone have any suggestions?
Kelberi Feeding question
- Thread starter Wrestler 4 Life
- Start date
I would seperate the fish from the pack and get him started off on the right foot. A lot of times the newest fish will have a tough time to break into the pack and eat as aggressively as they should. Rapps' Kelberi as a whole are poor eaters I've noticed, so I would definetly consider partitioning off a section of tank or setup an entirely new tank for him until he settles down.
mines the same way.. try small guppies... mine guy only eats live black worms too.. feeder fish just swim right by him and he has no reaction at all.. he would rather starve then eat a feeder.. over time this will change. my first guy from rapps was similar but came around by now.
lol the two i got dont eat anything but feeders.. Ive threw in bloodworms, krill, shrimp everything and they do not even go after it.. Also they are not really agressive.. When ever i go near the tank with other peacock bass they come right to the top and are ready to eat. But these run away from me.. Idk why but i hope they start eating diff things and i hop they get use to me.. also they are pretty dark colored
I kept my two separate and once they acclimated they started to eat more aggressively, even picks at pellets once in a while.
orinocensis1;2579630; said:
does your guys turn purple or just get dark? my new kelberi from rapps turns purple and under his chin gets aqua blue.. no lie. my guy won't touch feeders but once i put blackworms in then he's your best friend.. loses the spookyness and hangs and waits with a slow swim at the surface. time is key, they are wild caught fish. if not sell him to me.
This is just the nature of this batch of fish. Mine is just now starting to realize that I = food. (4 months) But even though he is starting to realize he is still very timid. He doesnt run from me as much but he still does. And he will only eat live feeders. Nothing else, and he is almost always last to eat. The only way for him to eat is either wait untill the more agressive ones get their fill, or I gotta commit a cichla felony and throw a whole bunch in at once. Hes getting a little better about feeding but it is VERY slow going. Ive tried the divider thing, that just freaks them out even more. He spent the entire time pacing the divider, wouldnt eat, and eventually squeezed his way between the glass and the divider to get to the other fish, scratching himself all up in the process. In my opinion this batch needs to be bought as small as possible, and need to be kept only with other Kelberi of the same size, or if with other cichla the others need to be smaller, so that the Kelberi can be dominant atleast for awhile. My other fish are eating so well and growing so fast that when my 350g is cycled and they move into it, the Kelberi is going to stay behind in the growout untill he gets some size. I understand that they are smaller and grow slower but my Mono that I bought in the same order at the same size (4") is almost triple the size of the Kelberi. If the Mono wanted to, he could probably eat him now.
Wrestler 4 Life;2579278; said:
Exactly same thing happened to me. 2 of my smaller kelberi only ate blood worm for the first 10 days after I got them. I emailed JEFF about this issue. He told me to try guppies as he was feeding them cichlid fry prior. When I threw guppies in, they attacked and became very aggressive. I am not sure was it the color or size of feeder made the difference.
The feeding issue was less obvious in BIGGER kelberi from same group. They started off eating feeder right away. Stayed aggressive and competed food with other tankmates. That kind of made me wonder if the smaller kelberi were cranky and picky to start with and that made them smaller... haha. If I had a chance to go back in time, I would have ordered the bigger ones.
