Long Time Lurker, My New Flowerhorn

[CaliFishKid]

Welp... he hates the Northfin as well lol. Really frustrating. Wouldn't even touch it at first, then same thing, ingested and spits it fully right back out. For the record, he also won't eat the Hikari Parrot Blood pellets either, or other pellets I had laying around.

I thought he was eating the NLS from day 1, but I quickly realized it was the same behavior as mentioned above--except he actually fully swallows some of it (he spits out less than the whole and his stomach expands a bit after feeding). So I'll I'll stick to the NLS/Northfin strategy for the next five days since he's at least getting some food in. Don't want to drag out much further, so if at that point it's the same deal, I'll just forgo it and try again in a month or two.

 

[Randles]

Try soaking the food in garlic.
I've used Seachem garlic guard for fussy fish in the past and its worked wonders, maybe worth a try? Keep at it he'll 100% come round, the last thing he'll want to do is stave himself. There's also another Seachem product called Entice I but I haven't used it so I'm not sure how good it is.

 

[CaliFishKid]

Try soaking the food in garlic.
I've used Seachem garlic guard for fussy fish in the past and its worked wonders, maybe worth a try? Keep at it he'll 100% come round, the last thing he'll want to do is stave himself. There's also another Seachem product called Entice I but I haven't used it so I'm not sure how good it is.

Thanks for the reply! I've been using Seachem GG the whole time and this week tried soaking in the juices of thawed bloodworms and shrimp as well. After these last five days I'll pause for a bit, just to give him some time to get enough actual nutrition in since I've been doing this for about two weeks. If so, I'll definitely try again in the future. I expect eventually it will work.

He also plays with dry foods and stopped with that entirely. I think he's just in a really picky phase and I'll need to just keep at it. Will keep reporting back, and will also check out Entice.

 

[Bassmaster360]

Thanks for the reply! I've been using Seachem GG the whole time and this week tried soaking in the juices of thawed bloodworms and shrimp as well. After these last five days I'll pause for a bit, just to give him some time to get enough actual nutrition in since I've been doing this for about two weeks. If so, I'll definitely try again in the future. I expect eventually it will work.

He also plays with dry foods and stopped with that entirely. I think he's just in a really picky phase and I'll need to just keep at it. Will keep reporting back, and will also check out Entice.

My bet is that he's not eating dry pelleted foods because you're feeding him things that are live or close to being live (frozen, freeze-dried, etc.). When I got my new flowerhorn recently, he didn't eat the first day obviously, and the 2nd day he ate a cricket but refused to eat pellets. This confirmed to me that he has a healthy appetite but just being picky. I fasted him for about 4 days until he finally accepted the pellets I had. Now he eats nothing but 3 types of pellets, and he eats like a pig. If I didn't control the amount of food, he'd probably kill himself overeating. Live stuff is like cheeseburgers to fish... why would they have their broccoli (pellets) if they can have cheeseburgers? hehe

 

[CaliFishKid]

My bet is that he's not eating dry pelleted foods because you're feeding him things that are live or close to being live (frozen, freeze-dried, etc.). When I got my new flowerhorn recently, he didn't eat the first day obviously, and the 2nd day he ate a cricket but refused to eat pellets. This confirmed to me that he has a healthy appetite but just being picky. I fasted him for about 4 days until he finally accepted the pellets I had. Now he eats nothing but 3 types of pellets, and he eats like a pig. If I didn't control the amount of food, he'd probably kill himself overeating. Live stuff is like cheeseburgers to fish... why would they have their broccoli (pellets) if they can have cheeseburgers? hehe

I don't think that's it in this case, as he's only eaten frozen/dried about twice since I've had him and more importantly, I started by only feeding pellets when I got him and he was doing the same thing--I just hadn't realized it. The food I listed on the first page was just what I intended to feed and how, but it definitely didn't turn out that way lol. He actually never ate the freeze dried either, same deal (again didn't realize the first time before posting). Ingest, spit out and play with it. So I stopped feeding it entirely. Once I realized that he was picky, I did away with frozen altogether as well. So he's only been on pellets (NLS/Northfin only, not Bug Bites) for the past 10-12 days, with 2 starvation (2-3 days) periods in between. But again, same behavior both before and after the frozen food. And he does go after the bug bite pellets ferociously.

But I'll keep sticking to it. He did start to do the same thing w/northfin as he does with NLS, which is after he plays with it the 1st time and after 10min or so, he'll graze the bottom and play with the food again lol (and in this case he does swallow just a bit of it, maybe even by accident--can see his belly bulge a bit after a while). This is annoying because it makes an absolute mess, but I'll stick with it while upping the water changes.

 

[Bassmaster360]

I don't think that's it in this case, as he's only eaten frozen/dried about twice since I've had him and more importantly, I started by only feeding pellets when I got him and he was doing the same thing--I just hadn't realized it. The food I listed on the first page was just what I intended to feed and how, but it definitely didn't turn out that way lol. He actually never ate the freeze dried either, same deal (again didn't realize the first time before posting). Ingest, spit out and play with it. So I stopped feeding it entirely. Once I realized that he was picky, I did away with frozen altogether as well. So he's only been on pellets for the past 10-12 days, with 2 starvation (2-3 days) periods in between. But again, same behavior both before and after the frozen food. And he does go after the bug bite pellets ferociously.

But I'll keep sticking to it. He did start to do the same thing w/northfin as he does with NLS, which is after he plays with it the 1st time and after 10min or so, he'll graze the bottom and play with the food again lol (and in this case he does swallow just a bit of it, maybe even by accident--can see his belly bulge a bit after a while). This is annoying because it makes an absolute mess, but I'll stick with it while upping the water changes.

I see. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and hypothesize that perhaps the Bug Bites are packed with stuff that just tastes absolutely amazing to your fish and thus he refuses other pelleted foods. He has an appetite, but just picky. I'm saying this based on all my experience with picky fish in the past when I fed them a particularly tasty food, even if it's processed and pelleted.

I don't really see a problem with just exclusively feeding him the Bug Bites for his whole life. The fat content is a bit high with the Bug Bites, but nothing atrocious. The protein content is moderate and healthy. People on here may rant about how you need variety and blah blah blah, but feeding a fish early in its growth development is more important than forcing and starving it just to get "variety" in there. Pellets, by their very nature as processed foods, contains multiple food sources. That inherently is variety of feed.

 

[Bassmaster360]

Again, picky folks on MFK may argue against my previous statement, but let's be real... having your fish EAT and grow properly in the first place is much more of a concern than "variety". The Bug Bites is a high-quality pelleted food, and your flowerhorn can in actuality live the rest of its life healthy on just the Bug Bites. Anybody who says otherwise is just theorizing and parroting statements put out by fish food manufacturers who just want you to buy more fish food.

 

[CaliFishKid]

Again, picky folks on MFK may argue against my previous statement, but let's be real... having your fish EAT and grow properly in the first place is much more of a concern than "variety". The Bug Bites is a high-quality pelleted food, and your flowerhorn can in actuality live the rest of its life healthy on just the Bug Bites. Anybody who says otherwise is just theorizing and parroting statements put out by fish food manufacturers who just want you to buy more fish food.

I appreciate this. And I agree. I already knew it was pretty good food, but this is where I was struggling, because it seems like it's going to be the main feed option. But I did a bit more research on how it's made and the ingredients and it seems really high quality. The only thing is it has higher fat content, but I'll balance that with a bit of frozen here and there and just not overfeed in general. Appreciate all of the pointers.

 

[Bassmaster360]

I appreciate this. And I agree. I already knew it was pretty good food, but this is where I was struggling, because it seems like it's going to be the main feed option. But I did a bit more research on how it's made and the ingredients and it seems really high quality. The only thing is it has higher fat content, but I'll balance that with a bit of frozen here and there and just not overfeed in general. Appreciate all of the pointers.

It's a beautiful flowerhorn. A classic-looking super red dragon with excellent body-shape, finnage, flower-line, etc. It looks very different from my SRD, mine is a more modern-looking one that perhaps has some kamfa ancestry. You don't see many nice examples of the classic SRD like yours, in fact I'm willing to say they're rarer now than the ones that look like mine nowadays. I want it to grow well

 

[quicklynx]

I've been feeding Nori on a clip and mine love it. It's real messy so if you choose to try it keep a turkey baster handy. I also feed some NLS Algae pellets.

It's a gorgeous fish.

I'm going for more competition looks so my feeding regiment is changing up some and less of the nori and algae will be fed in the future.