has anyone been successful in training this species into eating anything other than live food. If so how did you do it?
training A. falcatus to eat non-live food
- Thread starter YOULOOKLIKEAFISH
- Start date
Try getting it to eat live crickets on the surface then start slipping in floating pellets, might work, I just fed them live food.
It's pretty much impossible to get them to eat pellets and manufactured food, but I did get my 'cudas to eat frozen smelt and shrimp (after being bought from the grocery store and thawed). The key to acclimating them to that diet is to feed them one live fish at a time (never just dump a whole bag of feeders in there) and eventually they'll associate your presence with food (this is the most important thing when it comes to keeping predatory fish IMO). Once the 'cudas are practically grabbing the goldfish out of your hand, try dropping a smelt in there and see what happens.
The FW Cudas have a high metabolism, and they are not a 'glutton' fish with a bulky body, so I DOUBT they could live for 'months, easy' without eating.. Especially if they are juveniles. I wouldn't go more then 3-4 weeks at a time..
Xoluotun had some great info, and his method is AWESOME. Associating food with human presence is the key, definately.
There are some floating carnivore pellets that are soft, which I have heard alot of people have had sucess with.
Heres a trick I was told to use for pure preds:
First get them hungry, feeding only every other day.. So when you do release a single feeder fish into the water, they quickly snap it up. After that, use a freshly chopped worm, so it wiggles as it hits the water. Hopefully you can get them lunging at the worms as soon as they hit the water.. Then after that, they should just lung at about anything.. Offer frozen seafood, as it has taste and texture that manufactured foods do not..
Good Luck!
Xoluotun had some great info, and his method is AWESOME. Associating food with human presence is the key, definately.
There are some floating carnivore pellets that are soft, which I have heard alot of people have had sucess with.
Heres a trick I was told to use for pure preds:
First get them hungry, feeding only every other day.. So when you do release a single feeder fish into the water, they quickly snap it up. After that, use a freshly chopped worm, so it wiggles as it hits the water. Hopefully you can get them lunging at the worms as soon as they hit the water.. Then after that, they should just lung at about anything.. Offer frozen seafood, as it has taste and texture that manufactured foods do not..
Good Luck!
Way to go Xoltotun, That is IMO the way to feed predators and it also helps condition skittish fish to peoples presense, I had red belly piranha that were agressive feeders and anything but skittish because I conditioned them that way.