My 5 inch Indo Dat... Need help to Pellet train!

[T1KARMANN]

its not a case of starving the fish you are offering pellets every day its up to the fish if he eats them or not EAT OR DIE thats the rules if you feed feeders every other day you have no chance at all to get your tigers eating pellets

you have to be strong as it can take up to 6 weeks of no food before the tiger gives in and eats the pellets

its not cruel in anyway to use this method if you don't put any food in the tank at all staving them then yes thats cruel but you are feeding pellets daily so its not cruel its just a foolish fish that would rather die than eat pellets

 

[frootloops]

My indo actually chose to die lol

Everyday I would drop some massivore pellets into the area of the tank where he is at and he would just look at the pellets drop to the floor. He did not eat anything for about 2.5 months. Got real skinny and eventually became too weak and died. Tried giving him a bit of shrimp at the end but was just too weak.

I really thought that he would eventually take the massivore since he can see that all his buddies are eating it too but no

 

[Joao M]

All animals can strave themselves to death if they don´t recognize as food, what WE CHOSE to offer them to eat.

So, when we make a choice of not offering what they´re used to eat for a long period of time, we take the risk of starving them to death.

Sometimes it works (to our mutual benefith) and they start eating what we want and know its best for them; sometimes it doesn´t and they die.

 

[T1KARMANN]

My indo actually chose to die lol

Everyday I would drop some massivore pellets into the area of the tank where he is at and he would just look at the pellets drop to the floor. He did not eat anything for about 2.5 months. Got real skinny and eventually became too weak and died. Tried giving him a bit of shrimp at the end but was just too weak.

I really thought that he would eventually take the massivore since he can see that all his buddies are eating it too but no

What size was the indo that die ?

If the fish is small then you can't use massive as it's to big you need to feed sinking carnivore it's more of a bit size for smaller fish

EAT Or DIE I have used this method on much more expencive fish than a indo and nothing had die

I think if you lost the indo it had some other problems as I don't think the fish would be to weak to eat prawn if that's what he was eating before you started with the pellets

 

[frootloops]

What size was the indo that die ?

If the fish is small then you can't use massive as it's to big you need to feed sinking carnivore it's more of a bit size for smaller fish

EAT Or DIE I have used this method on much more expencive fish than a indo and nothing had die

I think if you lost the indo it had some other problems as I don't think the fish would be to weak to eat prawn if that's what he was eating before you started with the pellets

He was about 3-4 inches. Chopped the massivore into tiny bits so he could eat them.

I had that indo for around half a year and looked very healthy before I tried to do the eat or die method.

It could be something else that killed him but I will never know for certain. I think it was because of starvation since he became so thin that I could see the bones on his head protruding. He eventually became lethargic. That's when I tried to feed him shrimp but died around 2 days later. I doubt it was the water quality too as the water is always kept in pristine condition.

Here's the little guy. I was really sad to see him die

 

[T1KARMANN]

Most fish can go 6-8 weeks easy without food
If he was that hungry I don't think he would have been to weak to eat

What I would have done is once I started to see the bones I would have fed him for one day only then continue with the eat or die method

Did all your other tigers start eating the pellets before this one died

 

[Ade]

I have employed eat or die method with success re: tigerfish in past.

U will normally get 1 or 2 really stubborn tigerfish that ate very hard to convert. U just have use judegment for when it strts to get waifer thin, then feed prawn for ONE day only, then keep on pellets only.
I did this with a 4 inch NGT, it tools 7 months to convert 100% to pellets. So it was fed prawns ONCE a month for 7 months as it kept getting too thin.

I just converted 2 more small indos to pellets . Took 8 weeks. I fed prawn ONCE a week only, and pellets 7 days a week. The tigers just got pissed off with being hungry and watching all the other tigers eat every day.

Just 1 out of 10 tigers left to convert. I don't think I can be bothered though .. Lol

 

[frootloops]

Most fish can go 6-8 weeks easy without food
If he was that hungry I don't think he would have been to weak to eat

What I would have done is once I started to see the bones I would have fed him for one day only then continue with the eat or die method

Did all your other tigers start eating the pellets before this one died

Yes. I easily got my other tigers to eat pellets since they were all so tiny. Around 1.5 inches

 

[frootloops]

I have employed eat or die method with success re: tigerfish in past.

U will normally get 1 or 2 really stubborn tigerfish that ate very hard to convert. U just have use judegment for when it strts to get waifer thin, then feed prawn for ONE day only, then keep on pellets only.
I did this with a 4 inch NGT, it tools 7 months to convert 100% to pellets. So it was fed prawns ONCE a month for 7 months as it kept getting too thin.

I just converted 2 more small indos to pellets . Took 8 weeks. I fed prawn ONCE a week only, and pellets 7 days a week. The tigers just got pissed off with being hungry and watching all the other tigers eat every day.

Just 1 out of 10 tigers left to convert. I don't think I can be bothered though .. Lol

So for 7 months your NGT only ate 7 times?
How long did it take the NGT to start taking pellets?

I also tried the eat or die method on my NGT (7 inches) and another indo (3-4 inches).
After around 3 months i got worried since the indo got thin and the bones on his head were starting to appear. The NGT lost little weight but I stopped starving both of them and I just give them shrimp now.

I want to try your method of feeding shrimp only once a month until he eats pellets but I'm scared that I may eventually lose my NGT as well
Have you ever had a tiger die from this method?

 

[T1KARMANN]

The way I always look at it is there was something else wrong with the fish to let it's self stave to death when it can see other fish eating