Hi , I've gotten my 9" Payara Armatus a week ago , it's previous owner was feeding live. I want to break it off and offering Market Prawns for a week now. Just now it has an interest when I threw in a market prawn , it looked at it and then swim away. Helppp!!!
Payara Armartus is still not eating Market Prawns
- Thread starter MitakaJin
- Start date
Gotta keep trying. It’ll take more than a week to get it to feed.
Blakewater
just got his on pellets.
Blakewater
just got his on pellets.
Breaking an armatus off of live is definitely challenging. Payara aren’t like most fish where they’ll eat before they starve themselves to death. They have absolutely no problem dying for their preferred food convictions. One good piece of advice I’ve tried is to take a fish hook and cut it to about 1/4” below the eyelet, then tie the hook to a very fine piece of monofilament and pierce a piece of shrimp onto it. Then during feedings jerk it around a bit to simulate a living bit. This will act as a good middle ground to help them adjust and consider the market shrimp “food”. I had the luxury of bass that will hit anything I throw into the tank as well. If you have other fish already on market shrimp it will significantly help. But just remember, from what I’ve seen, when it comes to payara take it safe and slow. Feed him live every few days if he isn’t eating what you’re throwing in. Payara already have a tough time adjusting to aquaria And you’re basically trying to rewrite its basic instincts so don’t make them hate life. If you’re patient I’m sure he’ll adjust. Also just want to say I’m in no way a Payara expert these are just the methods that helped me and hopefully they can help you
its hard but you can starve it. If you drop live food in only give him enough that he eats it while you are there then when he associates you with food he might bomb whatever u drop in
Do you have other fish in there with your armatus? It would help if you had some dithers in there with him. Your armatus would see the dithers eating the market prawns and copy them. You also need patience.
All solid advice from everyone. When I had my armatus back in the day I would only feed him live. My armatus was part of the very first shipment of confirmed armatus brought in. My armatus’ name was Raider. He was owned by 3 people here on MFK. I was the 2nd owner. Dovii Kid May remember.
I will attach some old pics of Raider that I dug up from my old profile. Been a long time since I’ve been on MFK.
All solid advice from everyone. When I had my armatus back in the day I would only feed him live. My armatus was part of the very first shipment of confirmed armatus brought in. My armatus’ name was Raider. He was owned by 3 people here on MFK. I was the 2nd owner. Dovii Kid May remember.
I will attach some old pics of Raider that I dug up from my old profile. Been a long time since I’ve been on MFK.
i agree on the dithers i suggest putting fish like silver dollars or bala sharks or even an Oscar because most always copy oscars for some reason.
Try dropping the shrimp where a powerhead is or wherever your return is so it creates some action to entice him. When I was training my armatus, I would drop the tilapia strips into the waterfall of my Aquaclear. If he still doesn't take the shrimp, as a last resort, freeze the goldfish and you can feed him dead gold fish so at least he gets something to eat then try to train him back on shrimp again.
