young Cichla kelberi : different grow rates ?!?

[ElTofi]

Hi you all,

I read part of the sticky thread about "how to train Cichla's off live food", but still... I can't get my Cichla kelberi used to fish or shrimp bites...

and based on this failure, 3 of them grew quite well (taking sometimes bites of pangasius filets) and 4 of them stays smaller (not starving, but the right before status)...

any help would be very appreciated ! any new information, tips ?

 

[cape33]

are you planning to put them on pellets?

 

[ElTofi]

Nope... not yet... I got them in late November 2011 and they were tiny little cute things of around 4''

I immediatly began feeding with red-black-white mosquito larvae and they did well with it... growing to their actual size of 6'' (for the largest)... BUT... I've tried different foods such as shrimps, mussels, crickets, nightcrawlers... and I'm unable to make them eat that... I was astonished to discover they didn't even get a hunting reflex on nightcrawlers !

They tried to hunt a school of old 2.5'' Hyphessobryon "bleeding heart" I introduced for them only ! As they can't eat it in one bite, they hunt and kill them at night, and on next morning, I cut in decent bites the "fresh dead" fish. I thought, taking bites of dead fish on the bottom, would help to train them to "inert" preys... They are glad to hunt every guppy or xypho I introduce in the tank... but for inert food, I still have to work on it :-(

I'd love them to eat shrimps and pangasius bites (as the Arowana do). This would be much more easier to provide than live feeders or even deep frozen larvae...

maybe a question of age-size ?

I keep on trying every week to change and offer them something new during 3-4 days, with every trick I can... But after 2-3 days, when it's obvious they are almost starving, I feed them again with mosquito larvae...

Maybe I should go on with larvae for another 2 months till a bigger size... and then, try again...

what do you think about it ? any strategy ?

 

[Houdini89]

Start giving them pellets at 6+....Good luck and post some pix

 

[gangster]

have you tried frzn blood worms?

 

[ElTofi]

have you tried frzn blood worms?

it's what I call "deep frozen red mosquito larvae"... they go nuts after it...

2 pictures of late November 2011...





I only have vids from these last days... and not especially on Cichlas alone...

[video=youtube_share;D597ZN5TdHg]http://youtu.be/D597ZN5TdHg[/video]

enjoy !

 

[sebnash]

Try smaller pieces of panga soak with the bloodworm 2 or 3 h before feeding !!!!

 

[ElTofi]

Try smaller pieces of panga soak with the bloodworm 2 or 3 h before feeding !!!!

J'avais pas réalisé que c'était toi, Seb...

nice trick, I should have thought about it on my own... I'll try that this week...

 

[gangster]

since they like the frzn bloodworms so much try this...

Get your blood worms and put em in a small dish. Let em thaw out. Then take some pellets and crush them up. Let that soak a couple minutes. When you feed dip in a bit at a time. When i trained my bass i would feed by spoon. My orinos would eat the mixture right off the spoon. But the key is a little at a time so they get the pellets too. Over a few days gradually add more pellets to the mixture. Eventually they should eat straight pellets. This method allows them to realize that the taste of the pellets equals food.

 

[Chizzle]

since they like the frzn bloodworms so much try this...

Get your blood worms and put em in a small dish. Let em thaw out. Then take some pellets and crush them up. Let that soak a couple minutes. When you feed dip in a bit at a time. When i trained my bass i would feed by spoon. My orinos would eat the mixture right off the spoon. But the key is a little at a time so they get the pellets too. Over a few days gradually add more pellets to the mixture. Eventually they should eat straight pellets. This method allows them to realize that the taste of the pellets equals food.

Worked for me, key is perseverance. Keep at it, even if they aren't taking to it immediately. If you are doing it right should take 2 weeks tops.