Odd situation with my fish's appetite

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apastuszak

apastuszak

Candiru
MFK Member
Sep 4, 2010
124
3
48
Bensalem, PA
www.stamphack.com
Due to the need to buy fish food at the grocery store, I went out and get a small container of Tetra Min. As the food was depleted, and me wanting to get something better quality, I waited 24 hours and bought some Omega One at a nearby pet store. Well, the fish just completely ignored the stuff. I mean, the acted hungry when I put it in, but they didn't even try it. It just floated all around them. Which was odd, because that's what I used to feed them before I got the Tetra Min.

So, I decided to force the issue. No food for 48 hours and then I tried another feeding. I open the lid and the fish all go swimming to the top. I toss the Omega One in and they just swim away like I somehow teased them by closing the lid and tossing nothing in. But they're all still active and healthy by the looks of things.

Next day, I go over to another pet store, and buy some New Life Spectrum, which came recommended as the next step up from Omega One, in terms of flake food quality. I go home, toss some in and the fish at least try it, but immediately spit it out and proceed to ignore the food.

Yesterday, I decided to clean out the canister filter and replace the Purigen in there, and left it running overnight. I didn't feed the fish till about a half hour ago.

I toss some New Life Spectrum in and the fish go to town on the stuff. It's gone in seconds.

My question is, did cleaning the filter and running it overnight remove something in the water that had thrown off the fishes sense of taste, or were they just starving after a week and willing to take anything?

I'm tempted to mix the New Life Spectrum and Omega One together just to use all the stuff up. But I don't know if that's a great idea.
 
I'm confident that its just they were finally hungry enough and accepted the new food. While NLS is a super high quality food, its not exactly most fish first choice compared to some other lower quality brands. Kinda like letting a 5 year old child a choose between Twinkies or Brussel sprouts. Ultimately, they will eat it.....the fish that is.
 
apastuszak said:
So, is Tetra Min the equivalent of Fish McDonalds? The fish like it and want it.
Click to expand...
Just read the first 10 ingredients between different brands.....and they go in order of highest to lowest in amounts used.
 
It's funny how a water change and filter clean brings out such a voracious appetite! :) I mix a few types of flakes together, I don't think there could be any issues.
 
I wish it did, but purigen does not remove nitrates. If it did, Seachem would advertise that it does that instead of posting on it's own website that it doesn't remove nitrate.
http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=3888


Still, purigen is some nifty stuff and it's understandable that a lot of people think it removes nitrates. What it does is it adsorbs organic nutrients that bacteria will eventually convert into nitrates. It's kind of like pre-cleaning the tank of organics so the BB doesn't get to it and start converting it.

My guess is that the fish had enough time to become hungry, although I wouldn't rule out that the water change allowed their appetites to perk up.

Good thread though. It just goes to show that a little patience and some common sense can go a long way in helping out wet pets adapt to changes in their diets.
 
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