TSN not eating....

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lozza

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 24, 2008
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Torquay
ive had a nice 12" tiger shovie for around a month now but he isnt eating anything that i give him. Ive tried prawns, smelt, muscles, hikari sinking carnivore pellets etc. The people who i got him from said that he ate prawns all the time, but he doesnt. The thing that i have noticed though is that my shoal of small/medium firemouths have all disappeared and he has a big fat belly so i know he has eaten them. He is very active like a TSN should be and is always at the glass swimming around. He is in a 6' x 2' x 2' tank which will be upgraded as he gets bigger.

Water quality is fine:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 7

I just wanted to ask what i could feed him that he would eat and that is relatively cheap and healthy for him. Ive tried getting him onto the prawns but he just wont take them so live food is the only option. Cheers.
 
He probably was just full if he has eaten all of your firemouths. I'd tried market shrimp/live nightcrawlers/massivore pellets. Now that your "feeders" are all eaten he will be more apt to eat provided foods I would think.
 
As above, and would leave him for a few days now, then try some other foods, i find a good food is salmon, just sma;; chunks my hybrid goes mad for it as soon as it hits the water.

Not sure it is causing any probs but i was always told that the nitrate is best around 20-25.
 
If there are better food around such as firemouth he would just eat that and ignore other food. Just remove all the firemouth or other food that you don't want him to eat, then starve him a few days or a week, and try again with the food you want him to eat, like prawn, Hikari, and etc.
 
It doesn't have to be live. The reason he isn't eating is because he ate your firemouths. Just separate them, and after a couple of days he'll eat whatever you give him.

waynes world;4784285; said:
As above, and would leave him for a few days now, then try some other foods, i find a good food is salmon, just sma;; chunks my hybrid goes mad for it as soon as it hits the water.

Not sure it is causing any probs but i was always told that the nitrate is best around 20-25.

20-25 maximum... a nitrate reading of 5 is awesome.
 
thats the problem he has eaten all of the firemouths and hasnt eaten for like 2 weeks now. The problem i have with feeding live shrimp is that my other fish are faster and will get to the shrimp quicker than he will
 
I just went throught the same thing. Had a nice school of oscars that he hadnt bothered for forever and they started disappearing one by one. You can try using one of those retractable claw thingies.
http://www.petworldshop.com/penn-plax/claws-tank-tongs.php
Or reptile tongs to get the food closer to him since you have faster tank mates.
 
Mine goes nuts for sinking carnivore pellets, the kind with the redtail on the bag, but I have to wean him off soon, getting too big for those. Also try earthworms, and when you feed prawns maybe dump some of the shrimpjuice by his whiskers to get him hungry?
 
if it's been more than a few days since he ate anything at all (be sure he has had nothing at all before you worry) and his belly is still full you need to watch him carefully. he may have eaten something he shouldn't, like rocks or in one case with one of my catfish, a plastic plant (major reason why i no longer allow plastic plants in my tanks).

if there are still other fish in the tank that he can eat, he will eat them before he will touch any offered food. my best advise is to get him alone and be very sure what you're offering him is the only food available to him.

if he can, he will regurgitate whatever is keeping his belly full, if he can't and can't eat because of whatever is in his belly he may not make it.

TSN are wonderful catfish, i would own 10 more if i had a place to keep them that all my other fish wouldn't become food.. bichers are easier to keep and aren't nearly as likely to eat their tank-mates.
 
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