Quick Tigrinus Question

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Where there's a will there's a way....collecting 500-1000 top minnows a day with a valid fishing liscence ($19) does not add up to $500ish a month to feed a growing fish. I in no way attacked anyone's techniques or methods i simply stated my opinion just like everyone else. Starving a fish you took the responsibility of bringing home to care for is not right in my eyes. Yes I'm aware of times during feast or famine which makes the cost of feeders even cheaper. Why spend $50-$150 on a fish but not spend the $5 a week to feed it. Even without collection of feeders/minnows I can get 100 goldfish or Rosie's for $8 which is very affordable in my eyes and can last up to a month when quarenteened. That's cheaper than the 2 packs of cigs I smoke a day. All chain stores like petsmart run specials on reg. community fish almost daily. You can't tell me spending $10 to feed a fish danios once a week is that out of reach for anyone. Just the same as frozen or pellet food. My point was that I've never had a problem of a fish taking other prepared foods while feeding on live food simotaneously so why not feed them something during the time your trying to break them. The o.p. probably spent more money on other foods to try in the 3 weeks than just buying a couple feeders or whatever live conditioned fish he could find.

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Madness is it? To be honest, that comment set the tone for your entire post and even if it was intended to be neutral, the entire thing came across as condescending, arrogant and haughty.

I'd never feed my fish wild caught feeders unless the fish in question were also natives. Wild caught feeders have all the same health issues as goldfish: they're fatty, thiaminase containing cold water fish. That's not something an ATF or juruense would eat in the wild. Some people will argue the validity of the fat content and thiaminase of most temperate fish, but we all know that most of us in the community accept those things as valid and realize that they can present very real health risks.

Yes, you could feed young sunfish but they're generally only available in the spring.

I live in the middle of nowhere. The nearest Petsmart is over two hours away. Many other members also only have access to one or two LFS's. The issue with $10 a week in danios to feed a fish is that it will get one good feeding a week. That's half your typical starvation period between feedings for breaking a baby fish onto pellets. A larger fish, say a 10-12 inch tig, would practically be starving to death even with giving it $10 worth of danios a week.

My entire point is that while you've made some valid points in your reply to me, you could have presented the original post in a MUCH more professional manner.

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I don't think anyone could ever train a tig to start looking at the surface by dangeling a goldfish at the surface! Heck, you can hardly get them to eat by dropping it on their head when they are young. What a joke.
 
When tigs (any size) don't eat, it's almost always because his prime conditions aren't being met. Clean water, low light, solitude (in his little area) will def do the trick unless he has other physical issues. Blackworms till 4inch or so. Then tillapia & shrimp stuffed with a quality pellet for eternity worked several times for me
 
I don't think anyone could ever train a tig to start looking at the surface by dangeling a goldfish at the surface! Heck, you can hardly get them to eat by dropping it on their head when they are young. What a joke.

I specifically said that technique was used for training gar as an example....Have you ever hand fed a catfish or used a pair of feeding tongs??? same rules apply.
 
alot of times its the simple fact of keeping prepared foods "moving" in front of a cats face to intice him to "hit" it. I've had alot of "live only" eaters bite just by using tongs. My bottom dwelling sharks were trained in the same manner with live chromis on tongs. You start feeding at the bottom of the tank and then start pulling the food and tongs closer to the surface until they eventually get comfortable coming up to your hand for meals. Ive never owned a predatory cat that didnt hand feed. Another example is "feeding rings" that float on the surface. The pickiest of open water eaters learn to come and eat floating foods out of the ring with no effort at all. No different than training a dog, most animals get used to daily repitition, even my turtles feed from tongs. $8 for a cheap set of tongs is worth a shot. I'm not gonna lie i was in disbelief at how stupid the idea of tongs were until i tried them. Tongs are also an exellent way to target feed certain fish that are timid during feeding time.
 
Update. He's slowly taking blood worms, but only if they land on his head. He doesn't even venture out at night time so I put his little hiding spot in the current so eventually worms will get to him.


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