Training a FH to eat NLS pellets

[IrnGynt]

The 7.5 mm floating I can understand, as being a floating pellet it has tiny honeycomb voids in the pellet which makes it much easier for most large cichlids to crush up & swallow. The 6mm are hard as rocks. lol

Makes sense because the Omega 1 floating I fed him are roughly the same size as the 6mm TherA sinking but mine didn't have a problem with them. Chew, crunch, swallow. No mess.

But I guess if a fish gets hungry enough they figure it out.
Personally I wouldn't feed the 6mm TherA to my FH, but that's just me.

Which formula do you feed your FH? Floating or sinking?

 

[RD.]

All of mine eat the 3mm sinking pellets, I simply feed a few as I go along to each tank, then keeping going until I feel they have had enough.
I've seen massive 14-15" FH on a diet of just the 3mm. Almost zero waste this way.

Having said that some large CA's/FH do seem to prefer floating, my adult Red Tex pair only wanted to eat the 4.5mm floating (the male was a solid 10"), while my 10-11" Midas preferred to eat the large 7.5mm floating one at a time out of my fingers. Go figure, fish are nuts. lol

 

[papawoody]

Personally I wouldn't feed the 6mm TherA to my FH, but that's just me.

why is that ? just wondering because now i feed those mostly to my pike . and even then as a supplement (couple pellets a day ) because it does stink up the tank if i feed alot .

 

[IrnGynt]

You've been very helpful RD. Thanks!

Mine is more of the hand feeding type when it comes to pellets. If I just drop them in there and walk away they'd be sitting on the bottom when I came back. Tonight I'll cut them in half and see if that helps.

I think I'm going to eventually have to go with the floating formula. Feeding 3mm one at a time isn't going to cut it.

With 3.5mm Omega 1 floating, I could drop 4-6 in a feeding ring, keep them in a tight bunch with my finger, and he'd come up and gulp them all at once. Do that around 5 times and he'd be done.

Feeding a fish shouldn't be such a PITA!

With all my little guys, I just drop a pinch or two in and I'm finished.

 

[RD.]

I consider the TherA to be more of a conditioning food for newly acquired or imported fish, or sometimes for conditioning females for spawning. The protein/fat levels aren't required for maintenance of a mature fish, nor is that level of garlic. (all NLS formulas contain garlic) It's design is more for fish under stress, but many people do feed it as their main staple.


IrnGynt - no problem, glad to help. Personally I enjoy the one on one with the big bruisers, so even feeding one pellet at a time to a large FH or CA cichlid is fine by me. BTW - my 8-10" flowerhorns will eat
4-6 of the 3mm pellets at a time, no problem, and the pellets seldom make it to the bottom of the tank.