Advice on Feeding Picky Fish

[mulva]

So that colony of A. calvus I got are VERY picky eaters. They show no interest in the foods I give them. Ive tried Spurilina20, hakari gold......2 of them are eating the Hakari, but the rest arent.

they do however like frozen krill. I asked the guy I got them from what he has been feeding them, and apparently he was trying to spark the breeding process, so he was using many diferent types of frozen foods.

Anyways, I dont mind giving my fish frozen foods, but I dont like tht to be the main food. I have great results with Hakari gold for most of my meaty eaters.

The calvus to me already look a bit skinny. Is it best to fatten them up a bit with foods they like, then try to get them to eat something else? I dont want to starve them

[YeW]

Mulva -

Why not mix a little of your dry food with the frozen each day. Slowly increase the percentage so they have time to get used to it.

HTH -

[Willy Wombat]

Mmm mulva - a bit tricky

You will have to wean the fish onto any new foods - especially if they are wild caught and have only been feds on frozen stuff. It wont happen overnight - but if you keep at it you will get them onto dried foods after 2-3 weeks.

Good luck with that - i like Yews suggestion

WW

[mulva]

thanks guys

I have a few other fish in the tank, so I am still using my main foods.

A couple of them have started eating the hakari, which I am really happy about. I hope the rest will follow.

I do see a few that appear to be a bit thin. Infact most of them are thinner then my big white calvus. I am just a bit scured that I should be trying to fatten them up at this point, and worry about attempting to convert them later.

But Ill give that a try.

ty

[Link2Hell]

Hi Mulva

Try pre soaking the pellets so they are softer when they mouth them and as YeW said mix some frozen shrimp in it maybe even let the shrimp thaw with the soaking pellets so the shrimp flavour is absorbed by the pellets

The fact they are wild caught might be the prob along with the previous owner only feeding frozen food to them, piscavores get hooked on live and frozen foods when they aren't weaned to also take commercial foods

Be as persistent as you can without letting them loose too much condition

L2H

[mulva]

thanks link........I noticed last night one ate some spurilina, which is great. I have a couple non wild ones that wont even eat that stuff.

Maybe this will be easier then I thought.

Your right though, my main concern is to not let them get under nurished. A few already appear to be slightly skinny.

I have the medium sized pellots, so I crush them up, then dump them in. Usually the bits sit at the top for a min or so, then start droping. Kinda works really well that way because by the time they usually drop, they are a bit softer.

Thanks for the advice

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