changing eat habit???

[CN]

i bought some new fish and the breeder fed it only live bloodworm....these fish are picky eater and don't eat tetrabit or bh....what can i do to change their habit???

cn

[darcy]

Hi there
in the past when I have had picky eaters I starved them for a day then fed the foods that they wouldn't eat!!
I usually have pretty good luck doing that. I only have one pair that will not ever eat beefheart!! And to this day they will not eat it. Other than those two all my other fish eat whatever I feed them. Good luck and let us know what happens.

Darcy

[RyanH]

I've found that hand-feeding also helps. I try to hand-feed all of my fish at least once a day. They come to associate my hand with food and will eat just about anything I give them.

[CN]

hand feeding????never heard of that?? do you hold them with one hand and use the other hand to push food into their mouth???

cn

[KARINA]

no silly ::) he puts his hand into the tank with the food on it and the fish nibbles on the it from your fingers;)

[KARINA]

;)

[KARINA]

:D :)

[RyanH]

oh boy........ ::)

[Joel]

hand feeding????never heard of that?? do you hold them with one hand and use the other hand to push food into their mouth???

cn



:o I highly doubt that will work... even with sick fishes. lol

[GulfCoastDiscus]

I can imagine someone doing that.hahahahahaa

[DonnaMite]

Oh whew.
THAT was worth a good chuckle!

Donna :D

[CN]

lol!!! :D....anymore advise??? lol

cn

[Howie_W]

Hi cn,

Why don't you start with what you know your fish do like...blood worms. Have you tried frozen blood worms? If they are use to live blood worms, try some of the frozen kind and see if they will eat it.

Step 1.

If you've never used frozen before, the best thing to do is take a small measuring cup, glass, or whatever, and fill it with water from your tank. Place the frozen blood worms inside the cup of water to thaw them out and then feed to your fish.

Step 2.

If your fish will accept the frozen blood worms, then on your nxt feeding, try mixing some flake food in with the blood worms and see if they eat both. If you have success, then you should gradually be able to switch them over to all flake food on a given feeding.

Overall, there are lots of different foods you can try...and variety is a good thing. I find that my Discus love frozen brine shimp in place of blood worms, and serve it regularly as a treat...they can be served the same way as frozen blood worms. If your fish are used to live food, you may also consider serving live brine shrimp, which are quite easy to raise in a small seperate tank.

Hope this helps.

Howie