I bought my australian arowana when he was ~4" and it has always been a struggle to get him to eat the "proper" nutrition of hikari sticks and pellets. At first he would eat then spit out, then he wouldnt even look at them. Tried to feed him freeze dried krill and he ate 3 after I starved him for a few days, but then said no to that too 
.
I had to resort to feeding him mealworms, which worked out for a bit, but then made the mistake of feeding him crickets gutloaded with carrots. BAD MISTAKE. Now he gets so picky that he actually swims up to the food to verify its a cricket before he pounces on it.
I recently moved my fish into a 100g tank and due to my set up (I have an overflow/waterfall slots in the back of the tank) I had to semi-kill the crickets so they wouldnt jump onto the filter media that I clogged up my overflow with.
Well now the joke is on aussie! I got the idea that I would kill the cricket and shove the hikari stick into the cricket and then dump it into the tank. A little cruel I thought, but hell its better than having a colony of crickets kicking it on top of my filter media and eventually dying and leaving mold everywhere.
The first time I tried it, aussie went after the cricket as expected, but I guess he knew something was up because he started to "chomp" on his cricket more than usual, and I half expected him to spit out the stick. But nope he's been duped!
AND I AM FREAKING HAPPY!!!
not sure if he will eventually go to sticks, but at least I know he's getting the stick in his diet.
Not the most humane way, but maybe this can help anyone who has a jardini that is almost as finicky as mine!
. I had to resort to feeding him mealworms, which worked out for a bit, but then made the mistake of feeding him crickets gutloaded with carrots. BAD MISTAKE. Now he gets so picky that he actually swims up to the food to verify its a cricket before he pounces on it.
I recently moved my fish into a 100g tank and due to my set up (I have an overflow/waterfall slots in the back of the tank) I had to semi-kill the crickets so they wouldnt jump onto the filter media that I clogged up my overflow with.
Well now the joke is on aussie! I got the idea that I would kill the cricket and shove the hikari stick into the cricket and then dump it into the tank. A little cruel I thought, but hell its better than having a colony of crickets kicking it on top of my filter media and eventually dying and leaving mold everywhere.
The first time I tried it, aussie went after the cricket as expected, but I guess he knew something was up because he started to "chomp" on his cricket more than usual, and I half expected him to spit out the stick. But nope he's been duped!
AND I AM FREAKING HAPPY!!!
not sure if he will eventually go to sticks, but at least I know he's getting the stick in his diet.Not the most humane way, but maybe this can help anyone who has a jardini that is almost as finicky as mine!
That's just wrong! 
