PBASS NEWB

[gman]

Im going to go against the concencus here and say that you should see if they will accept frozen foods or pellets right off the bat. I have had small peacock bass (2-3") accept frozen mysis shrimp and blood worms as well as live blackworms. If they dont accept prepared foods then go to live. The key is a varied diet. I do not like to feed goldfish, I prefer rosys. When feeding rosies drop them in one at a time so that the fish make a connection between something hitting the water and food. This will allow you to convert your bass to freeze dried krill and other prepared or frozen foods like silversies and pellets.

 

[Plowed]

With my juvi Monos and Orinos, I got them on frozen bloodworms at 2" by softening the bloodworms up a bit. I found that the bird-feeder sort of things (not sure of the exact name, the conical bloodworm holders with slats) weren't conducive to their natural hunting behavior (quick and hard strikes). So, I scoop a cup of water out, dump the bloodworms in, thaw them for 20 seconds or so, then dump back in. The bloodworm tablets "wiggle" as is they're alive with the loose worms on the outside making it appear to be alive. The peacocks hit the crap out of the wiggling tablets and accepted them greedily off the bat, and I've seen growth of an inch per month utilizing this method. The ones who didn't accept immediately, did so after a day or two from natural competition. I've had the same success converting Datnoids who would never take bloodworms prior to my receipt of them, who would accept live only.



Edit: I second gmans notion of dropping feeders in and making certain that they recognize that sound/action and relate it to feeding time. This helped me convert the larger guys to market shrimp and chopped fish

 

[neonmadness]

do they really grow that big in a tank though????? like I was looking on youtube and a lot of people had videos of feeding there fish and they had like 10 of these guys all about 10+ inches and the tank did not look like it was a 150 gallon it was smaller for sure????? how big of a tank would you really need to keep one fish alone????? and how long does it take for them to grow larger then one foot???

when they dont get as big in a tank its stunting, which isnt good, and for pretty much any fish(its debateable with things like aros) you should get a tank thats at least as wide as the fish will get long, but thats just my opinion.