Midas not eating.

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PuppetKnight

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2010
15
0
0
Ohio
Hello,
Some guy brought a large midas into work last week. It is about 7 in and all white but it has a orange bandit mask over its eyes. After watching it for 3 days i took it home. It is in a 75 gallon with a lace catfish. But i cant get it to eat. I know it is normal for a fish to be stressed and refuse to eat for sometime but i was just wondering if any one has some pointers on how to get a stressed midas to eat. So far i have had the lights off for the last 2 days. I have tryed floating/sinking pellets, bloodworms, live/frozen brineshrimp, krill, feeder goldfish, rosy reds, ghost shrimp, crickets, and meal worms. I have had no luck. Ill post my tanks stats below.
Size 75g
Aqua clear 110, Fluval 305
some off brand powerhead i got from amazon but it kicks ass lol
Stealth heater not sure on wattage but does its job
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Ammonia: 0
PH: 7.6
Temp: 76
Iam not sure what else to do and my nitrates have been at 20 ppm for the 3 years the tank has been set up i cant get it down, but it also doesnt go up so..lol. I was gonna get a crawfish and take its claws off from work tommarow and i hope it works. If anyone got any other suggestions post away =).
 
I wouldnt worry about it too much give it a couple of more days hopefully it will eat do you know what the previous owner was feeding it? good luck
 
Iam not really sure. I do know that he ate a goldfish his daughter won at a fair and thats why he brought him in lol. Other then that i would assume pellets. I have sold him hikari cichlid sticks before though..maybe i should pick up a pack tommarow.
 
Sometimes you have to mix it up to find out. I am just know finding that my Midas likes Wardley and Top Fin pellets. He won't touch hikari except for the high end pellets. the others he picks out and leaves. Eats all the bright orange and brown pellets, but red and green forget it. Luckily my Plecos like it. Just be patient, buy a few different types and mix it up. when he finds what he lieks stick to that.
 
Fish can be finicky sometimes. My RD will only eat Fresh shrimp and Tetra Crisps. He will not take NLS or Hikari Cichlid Gold. He's still quite young, so I'll see how long it will take for me to break him.
 
Yeah, like others have said, it could be that he's a picky eater and is set in his ways. How is he acting??? Does he look to be a good weight? If he's acting tired and bored or is skinny, he could have an underlying issue. But if he's interested in his surroundings and is a good weight, he's probably just waiting for his ideal food to be dropped down to him.

I'm dying to see pictures of him!! I love white midas. :)
 
Wish i had a camera to upload pics, but hes finaly starting to swim around and rearange plants/driftwood. Has yet to eat though. I did pick up 4 rosy reds and 3 goldfish that he now swims with lol. Was gonna go try a frozen food called cichlid delight tommarow if he still hasnt ate.
 
I did pick up 4 rosy reds and 3 goldfish that he now swims with lol.
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Hopefully not from your LFS, if so you have just potentially introduced pathogens to your tank, and new fish. Not good from a overall risk factor, and not good from a dietary standpoint. (if that was your intention?)


Don't allow the fish to train you, pick a quality food & stick to your guns.


Temp: 76
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Over the next 24 hrs slowly increase the temp to 82F. The rise in temp will increase the fishes metabolism, which will stimulate his appetite.

Make sure that you have plenty of surface agitation at the warmer temps (for 02 exchange), which shouldn't be a problem with your filtration & powerhead. If need be, take it to 84F for a few days, it won't hurt your fish, and may be the kick start that it needs to trigger a feed response.

Once he's eating on a regular basis, slowly decrease the temp to 78.
 
I have raised my Midas from a little 1-1/2" guy to the 8" size he is at right now. He has went through phases where he just would not eat anything including earthworms which used to be his favorite. He then started eating only algae wafers for awhile. Now he seem to be back to the point where he eats normally. So I guess I would just keep trying different foods and see what happens. A healthy fish would not starve itself to death, it will eventually eat something.
 
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