tiger shovelnose catfish expensive to feed

[dudefish82]

my tiger shovelnose catfishes is about 20 inches long he only eats prawns and chicken. it is very expensive for me to buy prawns everyday for him i tried silver sides and frozen smelt he seems to have a intrest in them he swallows them then he spits it back out should i starve him for about 2 days and try again this tsn is not the tsn i mentioned in the prior threads about not eating this one is my old tsn the other one that does not eats i gave away

 

[dudefish82]

and also he like eating live fish but i dont feed them to him

 

[MonsterMinis]

feed the things he likes 1x a week... offering other things in-between... I also found my guy is very finicky as to the quality of the fish he gets, and prefers his food live vs dead. But that's how I got him to eat anything that hits the water now and at 20"+ hes large enough to sustain a few weeks of lean feeding if hes stubborn, It's enough food to keep them from trying to eat tank mates but hungry enough to be more willing to try new things. Now as long as its clean/quality fish or pellets he'll eat it, though he will puke up pellets to eat fillets/live if I try and feed them in the same sitting

 

[houie925]

Going a few days without feeding isn't starving him for a few days, it's allowing him to digest his last meal before eating again. at 20" and likely very thick from the daily feedings you could starve him for a month or more to get him taking something other than prawns with no ill effects.

 

[dudefish82]

he is showing intrest now i feed prawns twice a week hes belly never gets full but the good thing about him is he comes to the surface to handfeed since he was 8 inches long got him at 6 inches and 10 months later 20 inches