Satanoperca mapiritensis eating problems

[FluffySackson]

My map eats well but whenever he seems to gulp a pellet he filters it out his gills as if it's inedible. When he sifts the sand for pellets he seems to be able to swallow a few (likely accidentally). 1 or 3mm pellets all seem to fall out his gills.....any solution for this?

 

[duanes]

I remember a long while back, reading in one of Wayne Leibals columns about Satanoperca in nature, stomach contents in wild fish held primarily very tiny crustaceans and other edibles sifted from the substrate, or if feeding in the water column, plankton animals the size of daphnia .
After that read, I started feeding the smallest pellets I could get, and at times even breaking them up.
So for all my Geophagines, I like to use 1 mm or smaller foods.

 

[JK47]

I remember a long while back, reading in one of Wayne Leibals columns about Satanoperca in nature, stomach contents in wild fish held primarily very tiny crustaceans and other edibles sifted from the substrate, or if feeding in the water column, plankton animals the size of daphnia .
After that read, I started feeding the smallest pellets I could get, and at times even breaking them up.
So for all my Geophagines, I like to use 1 mm or smaller foods.

^ this is very good advice. I too noticed my mapiritensis preferred smaller or ground up pellets. If they are newly added to a tank or someone is having a hard time getting them to eat, black worms will make most maps go bananas as with most fish.

 

[ryansmith83]

I use .5mm food for all my small to medium geos, and NLS Grow for 1 - 2" geo juvies (which imo is smaller than .5mm, even though that's what the package says).