New AZUL: need advice please

[888fish]

I purchased a 4" Azul a couple of days ago. It looks good, but a bit skinny. I've tried feeding frozen bloodworms (dipped in garlic extract), krill, pellets, floating sticks, massivore but with no luck. It does play around with the bloodworms. I thought it would be a bad idea to continue starving it, so I believe I going to give in since its expensive and skinny! It now lives in a 40G alone.

Should I just feed it feeders? I was planning on feed it dead feeders though!

Any other advice? Thanks so much!

JJ

 

[jcardona1]

quarantined feeders would be the best way to go. def dont wanna starve young cichla

 

[888fish]

I was thinking of giving the feeders a salt bath, then freezing them 24hrs to potentially rid it of parasites. Then, just feed 1 feeder a day while still trying to get it on krill. ????

JJ

 

[haynchinook334]

quarantined feeders would be the best way to go. def dont wanna starve young cichla

Agreed....

And don't feed the azul dead feeders. Stuff the live feeders with crushed pellets and then feed the feeders to the azul.

 

[West1]

When I get my new guys in and they dont eat, I just toss in feeders... the 2nd time and on is usually when I put the feeders in a Q-tank. JMO

 

[ado124]

Agreed....

And don't feed the azul dead feeders. Stuff the live feeders with crushed pellets and then feed the feeders to the azul.

Sorry for the slight derail but this reminded me of a funny story. As a young MFK'er (over 10 years ago) I read that you should gut load and stuff live feeders, so I did. LITERALLY. I remember stuffing pellets into the mouths of feeder goldfish before throwing them to my arowana...

Good times so for young MFK'ers out there, when we say stuff and gut load, we just mean to feed them before you feed them to your fish.

Or was I doing it right before?

Back on topic. Feed them feeders or try live black worms from a good clean source. You can try to convert once they put on some healthy weight.

 

[jcardona1]

lol, i think the end result would be the same either way

 

[West1]

Sorry for the slight derail but this reminded me of a funny story. As a young MFK'er (over 10 years ago) I read that you should gut load and stuff live feeders, so I did. LITERALLY. I remember stuffing pellets into the mouths of feeder goldfish before throwing them to my arowana...

Good times so for young MFK'ers out there, when we say stuff and gut load, we just mean to feed them before you feed them to your fish.

Or was I doing it right before?

Back on topic. Feed them feeders or try live black worms from a good clean source. You can try to convert once they put on some healthy weight.

... I think you probly got better results back then... More for your money too if you stuffed them

 

[channarox]

make sure those dead feeders were already quarantined...
i think freezing doesnt actually kill off most parasites and diseases.

 

[The True Guapote]

I really wouldn't worry about it, if this fish isn't taking to frozen foods, then it needs the action of something live to trigger it to attack/eat. I used to be all freaked out over feeding feeder fish but now that I'm into Cichla, it's something that they really like and I have had no problems thus far personally. With it being an Azul, 4" and not eating and looking skinny, I'd do whatever I could to start fattening it up, once it's stabilized, then worry about getting it on something non-live. Just my 2 cents...