Pellet conversion Update:

[Rapaz]

I got my fish back in November and was feeding him a couple “baby” feeder guppies a week to keep him alive while trying to convert him to pellets. Week after week he ignored the pellets and pounded the guppies.

I finally stopped feeding him guppies about a month ago because I was seeing no progress and he was not gaining weight from the few tiny guppies that he did eat!

Finally last week he started hitting pellets consistently as they hit the water but spit them out just as quick. Two days ago he grabbed a pellet and held it long enough to break it in half before spitting it out. Yesterday he ate and swallowed his first pellet!!!

Now, today, he ate 8-9 pellets just a vigorously as he was eating the guppies a month ago! So happy I could cry!! LOL

 

[isde02]

Congrats

 

[LBDave]

Congrats. I'm still having problems with my 2 kels not eating sticks. One will (larger one) sometimes smaller one always spits them out.
Eventually I will starve them enough. But gotta keep em growing to stay up with oscars.
Today I stuffed a stick in pieces of krill. They will eat sticks this way - spoiled brats.

 

[LBDave]

BTW - Contacted Hikari for massivore samples. Will arrive in 2 weeks.

 

[kno4te]

 

[TheWolfman]

Keep stuffing the food sticks in the krill they will get a taste for them and very shortly after should be on the food sticks.

 

[LBDave]

 

[Bassjedi]

In my experience, once they start hitting the pellets and spitting them out, it is just a matter of time. I've pellet trained around 15 cichla over the years and only had 2 that I could never get to eat pellets. They ignored them completely; never hit them at all. I probably could have persisted but I just gave them back to the store after a couple months. The others always started by hitting and then spitting them out and eventually came around. Lots of good tips on this forum for converting, but once they start hitting it's just a waiting game in my experience. It means they recognize the pellets as potential food.

 

[LBDave]

Agreed. I am finally getting them to come along. Slowly for the smaller one.

 

[Tony A.]

Congrats.