Stubborn bass

[Caveden]

I suggest what TheWolfman stated about stuffing but bloodworms into the prawn. The Silver Arowana and Gar should eventually except the prawn. Honestly don't have experience with peacock bass.

The arowana just ate one arowana floating pellet. I was surprised it rather The pellet than the prawn. However it chewed the pellet so much that there was so much pellet particles in the water in wondering if it even ate anything. Good sign though. Now for the gar and bass, I’m just going to continue starving them since it’s unlikely for them to starve to death? It’s an Asian arowana btw

 

[tlindsey]

The arowana just ate one arowana floating pellet. I was surprised it rather The pellet than the prawn. However it chewed the pellet so much that there was so much pellet particles in the water in wondering if it even ate anything. Good sign though. Now for the gar and bass, I’m just going to continue starving them since it’s unlikely for them to starve to death? It’s an Asian arowana btw

Oh that's great to hear . Personally never kept a Asian Arowana but know that small Silver Arowana can be difficult to get them to eat but once at 1ft wouldn't worry. Florida Gar are not that hard to get them to eat. Fish also will learn from other fish what is food.

 

[Matteus]

The bigger the fish, the more stubborn they typically are.

I have trained over 100 fish to eat pellets that were typically hard eaters. Some harder than others.

my experience is that all these methods above can be used. But one thing that has really been an extremely big factor in the training process that I haven’t seen anyone mention here yet. Teacher fish. Get some silver dollars (my favourite) or tinfoil barbs. They eat anything with gusto.

always feed in the same spot so they get used to food being there. Start with smaller amounts of dusting as was previously mentioned. Then slowly decrease the food they are eating, and increase the dust into bigger chunks and eventually full pellets. Always soak the pellets so they are easily chewed. Once they get used to the pellets you don’t need to soak them as much.

in training roughly 40-50 different bass to take pellets in this way I have only lost 1 to starving itself. It never ate from the beginning and started out very skinny. It lasted 2 months at 2-3” and never ate as much as a single bloodworm as far as I saw. I suspect it had worms before I landed it as a wc ocelaris.

also I typically dump the new food in really fast in short bursts to trigger the feeding response. Pump returns are great for this as well depending on the set up.

 

[Caveden]

The bigger the fish, the more stubborn they typically are.

I have trained over 100 fish to eat pellets that were typically hard eaters. Some harder than others.

my experience is that all these methods above can be used. But one thing that has really been an extremely big factor in the training process that I haven’t seen anyone mention here yet. Teacher fish. Get some silver dollars (my favourite) or tinfoil barbs. They eat anything with gusto.

always feed in the same spot so they get used to food being there. Start with smaller amounts of dusting as was previously mentioned. Then slowly decrease the food they are eating, and increase the dust into bigger chunks and eventually full pellets. Always soak the pellets so they are easily chewed. Once they get used to the pellets you don’t need to soak them as much.

in training roughly 40-50 different bass to take pellets in this way I have only lost 1 to starving itself. It never ate from the beginning and started out very skinny. It lasted 2 months at 2-3” and never ate as much as a single bloodworm as far as I saw. I suspect it had worms before I landed it as a wc ocelaris.

also I typically dump the new food in really fast in short bursts to trigger the feeding response. Pump returns are great for this as well depending on the set up.

Damnnnn this really helped. I’m not sure about adding any more fish if not my tank would become overstocked. What is dusting?

 

[Matteus]

Damnnnn this really helped. I’m not sure about adding any more fish if not my tank would become overstocked. What is dusting?

Check post 14 funwow describes a method of dusting.

I usually start out with bloodworms or mysis shrimp in a container with some warm water. Crush up some pellets (hikari food sticks work great) and let it all soak in together for a few mins, swirling it around so it is all mixed in together. Then dump it really fast in 2-3 bursts so it stimulates a feeding response from the bass. They can’t help themselves when something moves quickly- they have to go for it. Almost like a cat with catnip.

If you get the teacher fish, you can get rid of them once the students are eating properly. It may cost a bit of money to do but it’s better than loosing your prized kel

 

[Caveden]

Check post 14 funwow describes a method of dusting.

I usually start out with bloodworms or mysis shrimp in a container with some warm water. Crush up some pellets (hikari food sticks work great) and let it all soak in together for a few mins, swirling it around so it is all mixed in together. Then dump it really fast in 2-3 bursts so it stimulates a feeding response from the bass. They can’t help themselves when something moves quickly- they have to go for it. Almost like a cat with catnip.

If you get the teacher fish, you can get rid of them once the students are eating properly. It may cost a bit of money to do but it’s better than loosing your prized kel

Thanks so much. I’ll try to get feeders tmrw and kill them with clove oil or smthg. The bass won’t be affected if it ate fish killed by clove oil right? I’ll then try stuffing the feeders with pellets/ dusting them with pellet particles and throwing them into the tank.

 

[Matteus]

Right now I am currently almost complete on the process of training 7 brand new wc bass that were in a River 2 weeks before I landed them about 2 weeks ago.

I have some super aggressive silver dollars tometes kranponha that have made my job stupid easy. The second day I had them, the bass already knew the pellets were food because of the silver dollars. They cost money but worth my time and stress free training period.

 

[Matteus]

Thanks so much. I’ll try to get feeders tmrw and kill them with clove oil or smthg. The bass won’t be affected if it ate fish killed by clove oil right? I’ll then try stuffing the feeders with pellets/ dusting them with pellet particles and throwing them into the tank.

Don’t use clove oil. Put them in a net and smack them on a hard surface. I don’t like doing this kind of thing but desperate times call for desperate measure. You don’t want to feed your fish another fish you poisoned to death. Lol.

but if you don’t already have feeders- have you tried smelts or shiners first?

 

[jjohnwm]

Or you could just buy Tiger Barbs wholesale...

I think that presentation is another key factor in fooling difficult eaters. If they eat only live feeders, then starve them for a couple days before throwing in one small live feeder. When they take it, follow up with another thrown in the exact same place and way. After a couple small feeders, maybe over a couple different feeding sessions like this, they are waiting for it and hit the live feeder as soon as it touches the water. Once they are at that stage, throw in a live one...and then, when they take it, immediately follow up with a dead one. Odds are they will hit it. From there, it's an easy progression to pellet-stuffed feeders, then feeder-scented pellets, and then just pellets.

The smaller the feeder, the better; smaller ones mean that more of them can be fed at each meal, so the training goes much more quickly.

And, as stated before...no other foods should be offered until the fish are completely comfortable with the pellets as an ongoing food source.

 

[Ferretfish12]

Did you try nightcrawlers? That might work