Training heckels to take dried food

[illumnae]

My heckels that i posted about in another thread seem to have stablized. They are still prone to panic attacks, but they venture out to the front of the tank more often now, sometimes to greet me when i stick my face in front of the tank to look at them. Other times, they still hide at the back though. They've lightened their colour most of the time now, though 2-3 will remain black for awhile after a panic attack before lightening up again.

I figured since I've had them for coming 3 weeks now and they seem more stable, now may be a good time to train them to take dried foods (NLS Discus and Thera+A formulas). I've tried soaking the pellets in bloodworm juice, using some flour to "stick" the pellets to the bloodworm and introducing dithers to eat the pellets so that the discus can learn that the pellets are food. So far none have worked and I think the discus haven't even eaten a single pellet. The devour the frozen bloodworm piggishly, but at the end of it all i see a small scattering of pellets on the sand that will eventually be devoured by the dithers.

Is starvation the only way? I'm intending to make NLS pellets their staple in the long run.

[Eddie]

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to make NLS pellets their staple diet? Thanks

Eddie

[illumnae]

for convenience we don't have ready access to live foods here in Singapore, and frozen foods are bulky and don't go into the autofeeder. i also believe dried foods give a better range of what the fish needs - frozen bloodworm is like junk food to me. I also don't want to go through the hassle of making beefheart mix (or any other form of mix)

I believe NLS to be the premium dried food, bar none. Hence, i'm trying to wean the heckels onto them

[Eddie]

Ah, okay...I just thought it was the norm or something. I've just got mine to kill my tuna/shrimp mix and he does not mess around. I'm hoping to fatten him up big time. I'm also feeding FBW and freeze dried Mysis Shrimp.

Thanks for the reply
Eddie

[illumnae]

anyone have tips? I just started the starvation regime today...no more worms and only feeding pellets 3 times a day, doing daily water changes to remove excess pellets

[plecocicho]

Try feeding mix of bloodworms and pelletswith slowly progressing pellets precentage.

[illumnae]

I tried...mixed the bloodworms with pellets and in went the mix...after 2 minutes, all the bloodworms are gone, and a neat pile of pellets lay on the ground. these fish are smart!

[illumnae]

36 hours into starvation regime...fish have been begging me for food by the glass, but still refusing to eat the pellets...as of this morning before i left for work, they were sulking at the back. I'm feeling sorry for them at this point Anyone have any other tips aside from the mixing of pellets into bloodworms (which doesn't seem to work for my fish)?

[TankWatcher]

I've had my heckels since March & they completely ignore pellets. I hope it works for you, I think others have succeeded - but I hear it can be tough to get the wilds to recognise this weird stuff as food. Funny - they seem to recognise beef heart straight away LOL

[Moon]

I've had my Heckels two years now. It took a while for them to eat flake food. I tred various types over a few months and one day tried Aquarian from a sample package. They ate this. So they get Aquarian flake now in the mornings. They eat it over a period of a few hours when I am away at work.
HTH

[Apistomaster]

Heckels sure are fickle.
I feed Aquarian flakes to my Grindal worm cultures and never tried it on the Discus.
I recommend continuing to feed frozen blood worms. They are not a junk food if they have been stored properly at all times. Heckels usually take to Tetra Color Granules(formerly color bits).
It is by far the highest priority to allow your new Heckels to eat all of whatever food they like best than to worry or try to change their minds at this time. Think in terms of months not days and weeks. In time, Heckels will accept nearly every fish food you can buy but do not starve them!
These first weeks and months are all about rehabilitation from their ordeals of capture and transit through the distribution chain where no one feeds the fish because fish shipped with food in them foul the water and arrive dead. They have been kept that way for at least 2 or 3 weeks before they arrived at your LfS and for adolescent Heckel Discus, that is an eternity of starvation. Their stomachs shrink and they are often unable to eat more than small portions fed frequently. That is why live worms are such a good initial food for newly imported discus. Live foods trigger the predation instincts and worms, mosquito larvae, Daphnia and blood worms remain alive until they are eaten.
You are more fortunate than I think you have yet to realize that your Heckels accepted frozen blood worms right from the start. Many wild discus come in so starved they can't eat and die. Most wild discus refuse all but live food at first. You just build on the diversity of the diet ever so gradually at their own pace. If frozen blood worms is all they ate for 3 months it will be much better than alternating foods they eat with foods they don't. I remember that my Heckels only took live black worms during their first week, then they began eating small amounts of frozen blood worms and a few weeks later, they were eating freeze dried blood worms from the surface. They were not eager to eat any pellet foods until I had had them about one month. They will be living for many years for you but only if you give them what they want right now. In time, their native curiosity will lead them to try any food you feed your fish. You will find which are their favorites and be able to develop a balanced diet around them.
It will soon be close to four years that I have had my current group of 10 Heckels and the only foods I have tried that they refuse to eat are frozen Daphnia, frozen Cyclops, Frozen Mysis and any Krill. My Heckels are large adults and even though they are so large they eagerly eat newly hatched live brine shrimp I feed to the Green Neons, Paracheirodon simulans!
My Heckels were only about 3-1/4'" in diameter when I bought them.

[Eddie]

Hi Larry,

Although I goofed and only picked up one wild Heckel from the LFS a month ago because the others did'nt look too well. My Heckel eats everything! Initially, the first week he only ate FBW. Now, I put anything in the tank, he devours it like the others. The others are Heckel Crosses. He loves my seafood mix and getting some good size on him in only a month! I am glad he is not a finicky eater. I believe it has alot to do with the other Discus. When he sees the others going bananas over all types of food, he just follows suite. I am lucky I guess.

Eddie

[illumnae]

thanks for the advice larry I was about to abandon the starvation today as I can't bear to starve them beyond 3 days....the good thing was that these guys were already thick and fat from my conditioning them for 2 weeks, that's why I dared to starve them for 3 days. The good news is, this morning i saw one of them pecking at the ground after i threw the pellets in...i hope this means that it's learnt to take the pellets as food! I'll observe again after work tonight, and if they don't...i'll start on fbw again and try again at a later date

[illumnae]

good news! 3 of the 7 have been observed grazing at the NLS pellets. Should I feed fbw now for the other 4, or persevere until all eat? I'm afraid throwing fbw in now will negate the training

[illumnae]

An update:

at least 4 of them are taking dried food now. I've noticed a weird thing. The heckels are usually very peaceful with each other. At feeding time, however, they start chasing each other and pecking at each other...is this normal or should i be worried? Once the food is all gone, they go back to chilling together.

This is why I can only confirm 4 are eating. I saw 4 grazing at the same time before some chasing occurs and they all get mixed up, before 1-2 start grazing again...the most I saw grazing at any one time was 4. will they all learn soon, or should i be worried about the remaining 3?