New Buetti not eating...

[Kaiden]

It's been about 3 days since I got my little 5" Buetti and I've noticed that it doesn't really seem interested in eating. I've tried NLS pellets and bloodworms, no go on both. It only seems to want to hide behind the heater/intake of my canister filter. Should I be worried (more than I already am anyway)? Now I'm thinking of maybe adding some driftwoods back to make it more comfortable but I'm not sure if that's what's causing it to ignore food in the first place. The only other occupants in this tank is a 1x 9" and 1x 6" Palmas, 6x common SDs and 1x red hook SD.

Help?

 

[Dr.B]

It's common for them to not eat for the first few days. Just give it some time. Hiding places will make it feel more comfortable so I would definitely do that if you can.

 

[DMD123]

Put ketchup on it... everything is better with ketchup, lol (joke, don't really try this!)

The little guy is probably stressed from the new environment. You had removed the driftwood and stuff because the other poly was getting all territorial if I remember correctly...

 

[Kaiden]

Thanks, Dr. B!

And yup, I did take out all the driftwood because the big Palmas was a little territorial over one particular wood. I guess I'll try without that particular piece and rearrange the rest so hopefully she won't try biting off the smaller ones' tails (again).

 

[jaws7777]

I too hate when the little ones dont eat

 

[Kaiden]

Still no luck on the little Buetti eating I just bought some frozen Krill and will try cutting that up after it thaws to see if that will do the trick. I just did a water change yesterday and tested parameters. All normal. Nitrates are a little high at 40 ppm but the tap line down in the basement has a 20 ppm so that's as low as I can get it. Ph is low at 6. Probably because of the driftwood. I added them all back and formed 3 caves as hiding spots but the Buetti still sometimes prefers to hide at the top right by the heater/intake. My big Palmas used to do that too when it was little so maybe juvie polys just like being at the top of the tank for some reason?

 

[DMD123]

With the aggressive upper feeders like silver dollars, is enough food making to the little guys?

Something you might try is to feed after dark. Hopefully silver dollars are asleep. My weeksii would not feed at all during daylight hours. It was suggested to feed at night and sure enough I wake to a weeksii with a bulge in its belly and not a trace of tilapia or other food left.

 

[jaws7777]

Not telling you to rehome your fish but i had a group of sd's and absolutely hated them. They out competed the cichlids for food i wasnt comfortable constantly over feeding had to rehome them

 

[Kaiden]

I've kinda been overfeeding them since I got the 2 small ones. I drop more than enough pellets on opposite sides of the tank to make sure the polys would have something to get. The little Palmas has no issues getting food, it comes out and eats like a pig even with the silver dollars around. But the little Buetti doesn't seem to care about food even when it's right in front of it. I do normally have the moonlight on during feeding. My tanks are in the basement so it's always dark unless I turn on the lights.

The only other thing I can think of is moving the Buetti to my grow out tank. It's a 55 gallon with 6 juvie angel fish (also eats like little pigs) and a baby black ghost knife. I'm just worried that it might make a snack out of the BGK since it's only around 3".

Edit: No kidding, I honestly have thought of rehoming my silver dollars...or putting them on a tank of their own lol. They're like vacuums...always no wasted food no matter how much I put. I have to do 2x water changes per week since I've been feeding more than I normally do before I got the small polys.

 

[DMD123]

Yep in the same group. SD haters unite! lol
I had silver dollars for years, loved the look of them schooling but my bio load was out of control. That's probably what got me on to multiple large water changes to try and keep the tank clean. Happiest day was when I sold off my seven big red hooks!