Hey everyone I was wondering if somebody out there could help me with my Ornate bichir, He simply will not eat any foods I offer him I have tried red worms, nightcrawlers, Blood worms, dried krill, Hikari carnivore sinking pellets, feeder goldfish, and dried plankton, I have had him for about a week 1/2, any suggestions will help. O ya his tankmates are, 4 inch RTC, 11 inc silver ARO, 3 inch gold tiger DAT, and a phantom pleco, all seem to get along very well. So at this point I am stumped
Ornate bichir problem
- Thread starter dirtydan
- Start date
The tanks I have multiple polys in can be fed anytime since they compete with each other for food. My single poly tanks are fed just before lights are turned off because these single-kept polys prefer to feed at night. I suggest feeding the tank in the late evening but, keep an eye that the polys back and tail stay rounded which is an indicator that he's eating enough. Good luck.
If he doesn't feed, he may be used to live fish. Some of mine refuse any other food. If possible, get bait minnows or shiners. LFS feeders are not healthy and come from farms using very high copper levels.
On a side note, do you realize that your RTC will very shortly make a snack of your dat? A dats growth rate is a snail's pace compared to the growth rate of an RTC. By the short side of 6", your RTC will start eye-ballin' the dat as a menu item. My less than a year old RTC downed 4 1 to 1 1/2lb channel cats in the last week. The cats were all over a foot long and the RTC is barely 16".
If he doesn't feed, he may be used to live fish. Some of mine refuse any other food. If possible, get bait minnows or shiners. LFS feeders are not healthy and come from farms using very high copper levels.
On a side note, do you realize that your RTC will very shortly make a snack of your dat? A dats growth rate is a snail's pace compared to the growth rate of an RTC. By the short side of 6", your RTC will start eye-ballin' the dat as a menu item. My less than a year old RTC downed 4 1 to 1 1/2lb channel cats in the last week. The cats were all over a foot long and the RTC is barely 16".
Thanks for the input I do realize that the rtc will eat the DAT I am just trying to keep it in my 135 tank until it is large enough to go in my larger tank with my other RTC wich is about 1 foot and would make a snack of the smaller RTC
Starvation has always worked for me. Took a certain senegal bichir a MONTH before he started eating cichlid pellets. I didn't give in at all; that little bastard was going to eat the same pellets everyone else. A month of being tough broke him down and I didn't have any problems with him again till I moved him to an uncovered tank whereupon he jumped to his doom.
It possibly hasn't settled into its new enviroment.Mine are almost never seen during the day and only will eat when the tank is dark.It will eat when it gets hungry like most predator they can go for sometime without eating -Anne
Also the rear section of the Bichir seems to be losing its color it looks as though it is turning a dull grayish color, is this due to the fact that he isnt eating