In my 55 gallon i have three sunfish that have been in there for a couple months, a warmouth and 2 gills. I also have a green that i have had for over a year. Since i have had them they have been fed only live food such as crickets and mealworms. I was woundering if it would be possible to pellet train them. They are all tame enough that the eat out of my hand. Any recomendations on how to get them to pellet train them and on which pellets i should get to feed them?
Teaching old fish new tricks?
- Thread starter MinnowMagnet
- Start date
i pellet trained all my sunfish after they had been in my tank for probably close to 7 months.
i just really slowed down on feeding them live foods, like feed them a little bit one day, then don't feed them for a few days, then feed them a little bit more. then i didn't feed them for a few more days and instead of putting mealworms in i put in pellets.
at first they'd take them and spit them out, and they did this for several days. eventually one caught on that this was all the food they were getting and started to eat. then competition kicked in and the others started to eat pellets too.
so basically just cut back on feeding live foods, then provide them with ONLY pellets until they catch on.
as for what pellets to use, i'm using Hikari Cichlid Staple, but i hear a lot of people prefer Hikari Cichlid Gold. i haven't bought any gold yet because i'm afraid if i buy a bag and try to feed it to my fish, they won't accept it because its not like what they're used to. but if you train them on gold you should be alright. make sure the pellets are small enough that they can be EASILY swallowed by your fish, this is key in training them to eat pellets is that they can easily be swallowed.
i just really slowed down on feeding them live foods, like feed them a little bit one day, then don't feed them for a few days, then feed them a little bit more. then i didn't feed them for a few more days and instead of putting mealworms in i put in pellets.
at first they'd take them and spit them out, and they did this for several days. eventually one caught on that this was all the food they were getting and started to eat. then competition kicked in and the others started to eat pellets too.
so basically just cut back on feeding live foods, then provide them with ONLY pellets until they catch on.
as for what pellets to use, i'm using Hikari Cichlid Staple, but i hear a lot of people prefer Hikari Cichlid Gold. i haven't bought any gold yet because i'm afraid if i buy a bag and try to feed it to my fish, they won't accept it because its not like what they're used to. but if you train them on gold you should be alright. make sure the pellets are small enough that they can be EASILY swallowed by your fish, this is key in training them to eat pellets is that they can easily be swallowed.
do you think the fact that they are used to hand feeding will help because they are trained to the point where if i touch my finger to the water they will bite it.
i also have a few sunnies and a warmouth in a 55, the sunnies were easy to break to pellets but the warmouth has never taken pellets, so i just gave up and stick with a wide variety of frozen, which they all eat like crazy naturally, I know the pellets are probably better for them, but i just like to see them enjoy their meals.