Eating Habits Help Needed

[Branch]

Hi, further to my recent post on wilds not eating I have continued to review the situation based on advice proposed and have the following questions; Having ruled out water parameter issues, and as much as can be assessed bullying or a stressed eating environment, I've noticed that they go to eat the bloodworm and at times try it and spit it out whereas the older tank inhabitants eat everything within minutes. If they're going for the bloodworm, they don't even move for anything else, does this indicate that they're hungry and willing to eat just not what i'm feeding them or does it point to any other problem? Apart from the eating they appear fine and relaxed in the tank with good color I'm just worried that they'll starve as they've barely eaten in the two weeks I've had them? T

[Sabrina]

Hi Branch,
Do you know what they were feeding them before you brought them? They might be wanting their old foods and not the bloodworms.. Just a thought..
If you like you can always try soaking their foods in garlic guard by seachem or the same thing in another brand, the garlic helps with fussy eaters in most cases..
Are they freeze dried bloodworms? Or live or frozen? Perhaps try some freeze dried black worm cubes, stick them to the glass so they can peck at them..

[Branch]

Hi Sabrina thanks for your post. They were feeding them frozen bloodworms, the same ones I'm feeding them, and discus diet, again the same. I saw them eat during the quarantine period I had them in at the store (they always keep them a month for me and de-worm them so any problems can be sorted out them in isolation. Not sure if we have what you have suggested where I live but I may try online. The odd thing is that they don't look pinched and as I said their color is healthy. My N03 is always around 25ppm but with 50% water changes (RO) per week this has never been as issue. PH is 6.8, KH4, temp 30C. This has been a baffling one.

[Sabrina]

Hi Branch,
Yes you can find garlic guard on Ebay or maybe other online shopping sites in your area. Everything else sounds fine, bit of a mystery! I can highly recommend the freeze dried black worm cubes, the discus really love them, you just stick them to the glass and the fish got to town on them lol Might be worth a try

[Branch]

Hi Sabrina,
Will order both and see how it goes. Thanks for your help.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Branch, I would suggest reducing your nitrates and see if the wilds respond to that. We generally recommend nitrates below 20 and below 10 if possible. Are you adding minerals to the RO water prior to doing the water changes?
Pat

[Branch]

Hi Pat, thanks for your post. I add Tropic Marin Remin as I have done for 20 years without a problem. If I'm honest I'm not sure how I can get the N03 down to that level as the tank substrate is vacuumed and it has 60% + weekly water changes with RO yet it's rarely below 20ppm. All the food is eaten within minutes and I don't believe, from my experience, they're overfed? Any ideas would be welcomed. B

[Second Hand Pat]

You can increase the water changes Branch. Simply add one more WC a week and see how the fish response.
Pat

[Branch]

Thanks Pat. I would change the water everyday if I could however I'm running the RO system 24/7 and as soon as the 20 Imp Gallon water butt is full and the water heated and matured it's pumped into the show tank, in other words my limitation is producing enough RO water. I can't mix with our tap water as that has N03 +25 - 50ppm not to mention all the other nasties. The Wilds have been in the tank for 3 weeks and 2 out of the 3 are now eating? I've ordered the freeze dried blackworms (Australian) to see if that prompts the third to eat. If I can't increase water changes due to the RO production limitations maybe cutting back on the feeding? The problem with this is that whatever food I put in is gone in minutes and I would estimate that each fish gets about 1 cube of frozen food per day which I din't think is excessive would you agree? B

[Second Hand Pat]

Sounds like things are improving Branch. If you want to increase your RO production you could add a pump to the input side of your RO unit which would increase your water pressure and your RO production.
Pat

[Branch]

Hi Pat, this is what I love about our hobby, apart from the fish of course, the sharing of ideas and experience. I checked my N03 levels this morning and they were around 10-15ppm so the water is pretty clean. The Wild Blue that still avoids eating is quite solitary and is constantly facing the opposite end of the tank but doesn't look stressed i.e. color is pale brown with the blue stripes through the body nor is he pinched or looking starved it's such an enigma? PH is around 7.5 should this be lower for the Wilds? it is very soft with a KH of 2 -3. We'll get there in the end :-). Re the RO system it will flow faster soon as the weather picks up we've had a brutal winter. What about my feeding does it sound reasonable to you in your opinion? B

[Second Hand Pat]

Is what you are feeding?

frozen bloodworms and discus diet

Not sure what discus diet is. Do you have a hospital tank and what is your tank temp?
Pat

[Branch]

I do have a hospital/quarantine tank but I've stopped using it as I had so many horror stories happen in it. Three times the heaters have malfunctioned, new heaters each time and have tried different makes, not cutting out when the tank reached 30C resulting in boiled fish. The most recent time I'd quarantined 2 beautiful Blues and 3 days before they were to be transferred to the show tank the heaters killed them. As a result I hate small tanks because if anything goes wrong there's just too little capacity to reverse the problem so it's used for propagating plants. My show tank is 30C.