New Jags only eat live food!

[TexasMomma]

After 5 months I finaly got my new Jags. They are about 2 1/2 inches long and apparently only eat live foods. I've tried pelets, flake and frozen baby shrimp. One of them did take a pellet and spit it out. So my oldest daughter and I have been hitting our ditch pretty hard for baby crawdads. I've also purchased some small feeders.

My mother has quite a collection of mosquito fish in her koi pond and I'm about to knock down that population too.

I've never had fish that would not eat prepaird foods, so this is all new to me. Y'all got any ideas?

Thanks!
Alicia

 

[Vitaliy]

When a fish is used to live food they will never accept regular fish food just for the hell of it, starvation is the only way. Do not feed them for about two days and then drop some pellets in there, they will have to eat eventually.

 

[ewurm]

I assume they like the food to move. Hold the live food above the water, they will learn to come to it. After they learn to recognize your feeding system, move your hand around, then THROW the pellets at the surface and they will strike on impact. Eventually they will figure out that the pellets are food.

 

[ROSS]

HI welcome to M.F.K .. VITALY is right starvation is some time's the only way . try live worm's from walmart or from a bait shop instead of feeder fish from a pet store unless you trust the owner's .. gold fish carry dieases .. your jag's are worth more then those lowsy feeder's here's a pic of mine hope u like..

 

[TexasMomma]

I'll try out the top of the water thing ewurm...they do come to the front of the tank when I come by, but they usually hang out towards the bottom though. I really dont want to keep the food from them though, they are a bit thin to me. Bit it is poobibly natural for them to go without food for a day or so in the wild.

They ate 16 rosies yesterday and they never looked like they ate. They still looked thin, just their mouths and gills were FAT.

I've wanted these guys for so long I dont want to screw up anything.
Thanks!

 

[TexasMomma]

It is a beautiful fish you got there Ross!
Unfortunatly I live in the middlel of no damn where so Wally world is about the only thing around for us. They do love worms out of the garden, so I'll get some of those and try to lure them to the top of the tank.

I'm so freaking excited about them, they are so neat to watch! I will have to take pics of them soon for ya. Even at 2.5 inches they are awesome!

They are still taking a lot of crap from the little Texas Cichlids though. I rearranged the whole tank and removed the small female J D. I'm just waiting for the tables to turn! LOL

 

[ewurm]

I'll try out the top of the water thing ewurm...they do come to the front of the tank when I come by, but they usually hang out towards the bottom though. I really dont want to keep the food from them though, they are a bit thin to me. Bit it is poobibly natural for them to go without food for a day or so in the wild.

They ate 16 rosies yesterday and they never looked like they ate. They still looked thin, just their mouths and gills were FAT.

I've wanted these guys for so long I dont want to screw up anything.
Thanks!

Maybe wait until they fatten up a bit.

 

[ridether]

It is a beautiful fish you got there Ross!
Unfortunatly I live in the middlel of no damn where so Wally world is about the only thing around for us. They do love worms out of the garden, so I'll get some of those and try to lure them to the top of the tank.

I'm so freaking excited about them, they are so neat to watch! I will have to take pics of them soon for ya. Even at 2.5 inches they are awesome!

They are still taking a lot of crap from the little Texas Cichlids though. I rearranged the whole tank and removed the small female J D. I'm just waiting for the tables to turn! LOL

Jags are really nice looking fish. I would recommend staying away from gold fish -& worms that have been dug out of the garden they could been exposed to pesticide.

 

[TexasMomma]

I'm not worried about pestisides( is that spelled right? LOL), we dont use them around here. We have little kids, and we'd rather have a few bugs than sick children. I purchased wroms a long time ago from pets mart and I was real dissapointed, I'd rather get them myself when I have to do my weeding.

Good thought though, alway better to be cautious!

 

[sajica]

fish can go for days without eating. Starve them for a couple of days then throw a couple of pellets in that float. If they don't eat after a couple of mins scoop them out and try again the next day. They will give in eventually. I once had a buttikoferi that was so stubborn he refused to except pellets for almost 2 weeks. It eventually got the message. If you do get them on pellets don't give any more feeders for awhile until they're used to the pellets or they may just hang out again waiting for a feeder going back to sqaure 1.