New Ornate not eating

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I agree with cichlid savage. Moving your fish around will add to the stress. Just keep it in quarantine or as stress free as possible in the larger tanks. Don't worry too much if it doesn't eat because you can't do anything anyway other than provide it with food and a nice clean home. I mean you can't force your fish to eat. It'll eat when it wants to eat.
 
my little ornate stays hidden in a stump for the most part, but when she gets hungry enough she swims out and will catch a couple silversides
 
I've had my 7'' Ornate for around 2 months now & I've never seen it eat. It never comes out in the day-shortly before I turn the lights out (which is usually the same time) it ventures out but If I go near the tank he hides. I just drop some frozen food on lights out-hes certainly feeding coz hes not skinny.
ROB
 
Someone may have already mentioned this, sorry i just didn't feel like reading the 20 other responses, but try feeding him feeders at night.

Those african bichirs are nocturnal fish. You can tell how they have that cat eye glow from certain angles. My congo bichir wouldnt eat for the longest time, then one day I put in some small comet's and turned off my lights and turned some night light LED's and WAM! scarfed one up with in a couple minutes of me watching him. THey are wildfish too, so most will only eat live fish. Other then that IDK.. Goodluck tho...
 
It was probably close to month before I saw my ornate finally eat. Now I see hime eat every morning. He mostly gets Wardleys sinking shrimp pellets, with ocassional frozen krill, market shrimp, and a few feeders once in a blue moon. Just give him some time. :thumbsup:
 
Well this is really strange and I'm a little.. shocked... but I looked in the tank this morning and he killed the baby albino senegal. He ripped it's tail off (but didn't eat it). I didn't see it happen, but the baby was fine last night, and the ornate is the only fish in there strong enough or large enough to do damage. I think there are a few feeder fish missing, and he still seems quite active so he must be eating at night like you all suggest. One question though... whats a silverside? I assume its a type of feeder but can you tell me more about them? I think I remember the guy at the lfs where i bought the bichir telling me he fed him silversides.
 
Its the common name for small shore fishes, belonging to the family Antherinidae, abundant in the warmer waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, and named for the silvery stripe on either side of the body. Silversides, known commercially as whitebait and found in the freezer case at most petshops-Anne
 
Its the common name for small shore fishes, belonging to the family Antherinidae, abundant in the warmer waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, and named for the silvery stripe on either side of the body. Silversides, known commercially as whitebait and found in the freezer case at most petshops-Anne

How does their size compare to rosies?
 
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