Im a proud owner of a 13inch ornate birchir, i have raised him since he was about 3-4inches. While he was small i feed him frozen and live bloodworms, at about 7-8inches i noticed that he was eating the frozen silversides i put in for my lobster. Now i recently bought a 6inch tiger shovelnose cat who eats nothing but live feeders but the birchir wont touch them. he is my first o.b. and i just assumed he would eventually be on feeders. is this normal?
my ornate birchir wont eat live food!
- Thread starter N.C.
- Start date
Yeah thats all he will eat, he wont touch bloodworms or shrimp or feeders. and i keep my feeders in a 29 gal tank quarantine, ive made that mistake before. it just seems a lil unusual to me that he wont take the feeders. but on the other hand he has been raised around smaller fish since i got him.
He's spoiled why hunt down feeders when he can dine at leisure on the silversides.
predators select prey size carefully. There's something called optimal foraging strategy that means animals will get food in the most profitable way, i.e., the most energy gained from prey compared to the most energy used up getting that prey. This applies equally to herbivores as well as carnivores.
Work done several decades ago on sunfish demonstrated that they will swim a small distance to catch small daphnia but a longer distance to catch bigger daphnia. Small daphnia at a far distance will be ignored if small daphnia closer by are present. Since small daphnia provide little energy, the sunfish will only expend a small amount of energy catching them. Bigger daphnia return more energy, so it's worthwhile swimming more to catch them. If less food is about, the sunfish becomes less picky, swimming further to take smaller prey. When food is abundant, the sunfish is more picky, and will swim shorter distances for smaller prey.
This is a classic piece of work and should be mentioned in most animal behaviour test books. Optimal foraging has been demonstrated again and again, so even though still a theory, it does appear that animals largely work in an optimal way
I'd caution against using optimal foraging theory as an excuse to mix small fish with big predators though. While I've seen it done with, for example, piranhas in big tanks with guppies, it isn't 100% reliable. In an aquarium fish will adopt learned behaviours, connecting the presence of humans with the appearance of food. That's probably going to override their optimal foraging programming.
Optimal Foraging and the Size Selection of Prey by the Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis Macrochirus)
Earl E. Werner and Donald J. Hall
predators select prey size carefully. There's something called optimal foraging strategy that means animals will get food in the most profitable way, i.e., the most energy gained from prey compared to the most energy used up getting that prey. This applies equally to herbivores as well as carnivores.
Work done several decades ago on sunfish demonstrated that they will swim a small distance to catch small daphnia but a longer distance to catch bigger daphnia. Small daphnia at a far distance will be ignored if small daphnia closer by are present. Since small daphnia provide little energy, the sunfish will only expend a small amount of energy catching them. Bigger daphnia return more energy, so it's worthwhile swimming more to catch them. If less food is about, the sunfish becomes less picky, swimming further to take smaller prey. When food is abundant, the sunfish is more picky, and will swim shorter distances for smaller prey.
This is a classic piece of work and should be mentioned in most animal behaviour test books. Optimal foraging has been demonstrated again and again, so even though still a theory, it does appear that animals largely work in an optimal way
I'd caution against using optimal foraging theory as an excuse to mix small fish with big predators though. While I've seen it done with, for example, piranhas in big tanks with guppies, it isn't 100% reliable. In an aquarium fish will adopt learned behaviours, connecting the presence of humans with the appearance of food. That's probably going to override their optimal foraging programming.
Optimal Foraging and the Size Selection of Prey by the Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis Macrochirus)
Earl E. Werner and Donald J. Hall
that makes perfect sense, i should have guessed that. thank you for your info so now what to do just keep feeding him the silvers or switch 2 live foods?
isn't it kind of good that it will not take feeders though? it's more work to prepare foods, but your ornate is less likely to catch diseases from prepared foods than feeders right? my ornate loves tilapia filet, shrimp, and it'll chase rosy reds on occasion. i would keep it on frozen if i had a choice though
if you think that your ornate wont eat feeders, well.. just wait and see, all animal are wild, bichirs are predators, it will start hunting its prey whenever they are hungry; it happens to mine too; my ornate wont eat anything before, but now it gets fat suddenly,
so just relax, enjoy the show... cheers
so just relax, enjoy the show... cheers
I wouldn't worry about it. Feeders are such a hassle to deal with anyways.
Stick to frozen foods, or wean the fish onto pelletized foods.
I have a wild caught ornate that would only eat frozen shrimp when I got her. She would not touch anything else. I was so happy the days she began to eat shrimp pellets, and other pellet type foods.
Less of a mess with any leftover food (which there really isn't any now that I deal with a few fish that basically eat the same amount of food at each feeding). Less cost for the food, and she's still a fat beautiful fish.
Granted, when I used to get leftover minnows from my brother and put them in with her, well, they didn't last long if it was close to her feeding time. Her natural instincts are not lacking at all.
I feed all of my fish a variety of foods. Their staple however is a higher quality pellet food though. The fish don't complain, and they are healthy.
Stick to frozen foods, or wean the fish onto pelletized foods.
I have a wild caught ornate that would only eat frozen shrimp when I got her. She would not touch anything else. I was so happy the days she began to eat shrimp pellets, and other pellet type foods.
Less of a mess with any leftover food (which there really isn't any now that I deal with a few fish that basically eat the same amount of food at each feeding). Less cost for the food, and she's still a fat beautiful fish.
Granted, when I used to get leftover minnows from my brother and put them in with her, well, they didn't last long if it was close to her feeding time. Her natural instincts are not lacking at all.
I feed all of my fish a variety of foods. Their staple however is a higher quality pellet food though. The fish don't complain, and they are healthy.