fry will not eat Hikari First Bite

[freestylez_14]

hi all, i have 13 fry that is 6 days old. I fed them this food since they were at 1 day old. The problem is that i dont see them eat the food everytime i drop in it into the tank. I only see them feed on the parent. The way i fed them is by dropping the food right on the back of their parent and have my bright light turned on too see if theyre eating but theyre not. Right now theyre at 1 cm long and the at 2mm in height. Is this normal in their growth rate? I want them to eat the Hikari first bite. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.

[diamond_discus]

hi all, i have 13 fry that is 6 days old. I fed them this food since they were at 1 day old. The problem is that i dont see them eat the food everytime i drop in it into the tank. I only see them feed on the parent. The way i fed them is by dropping the food right on the back of their parent and have my bright light turned on too see if theyre eating but theyre not. Right now theyre at 1 cm long and the at 2mm in height. Is this normal in their growth rate? I want them to eat the Hikari first bite. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.

I also tried that Hikari First Bite without luck... it ended up fouling the water too much .. So I decided to have the frys to feed on the parents for the first couple weeks (even up to 3 weeks) .. then introduce chopped frozen blood worm ...

You can try giving them some baby brine shrimp earlier .. Since I have to work on the weekdays .. I found it too difficult (and not possible) to prepare live baby brine shrimp and feed them during the day. Instead, I used an automatic feeder to feed them some Golden Pearls from Kensfish (http://kensfish.com/kensspecialtyfood.html). It works very well for me.

If you have time, I think the best is to feed them live baby brine shrimp .. they will hunt for them like crazy.

[doc3toes]

i tried mixing with fresh BBS when i dump it in. seemed to work. then gradually they started eating crushed flake and pellet.

[freestylez_14]

hi, thanks for your replies. It seems that the fry is 1cm long and 2mm in height at 1 week old. Is it a normal growth rate? I just dont want them to get stunted so i must get them to eat some kind of other food. thank you.

[bs6749]

A breeder of rams once suggested to me to put some small guppy fry that were the same size as the rams into the tank with them. He said the guppy fry will "teach" the ram fry how to eat the food. It may be worth a shot with discus fry. If not, I'd suggest something small like microworms, walter worms, or vinegar eels for them until they are large enough to consume BBS.

[Peachtree Discus]

hi all, i have 13 fry that is 6 days old. I fed them this food since they were at 1 day old. The problem is that i dont see them eat the food everytime i drop in it into the tank. I only see them feed on the parent. The way i fed them is by dropping the food right on the back of their parent and have my bright light turned on too see if theyre eating but theyre not. Right now theyre at 1 cm long and the at 2mm in height. Is this normal in their growth rate? I want them to eat the Hikari first bite.

i would not be so worried about their growth rate yet. As long as they are not running out of fuel and :angel:. let them eat off the parents as they want. Try to get them to take bbs agressively. the more aggressive about bbs the less interest they will show in the parents. when they show less interest - pull the parents. the batches i have raised never really seem to peck at the hikari first bites either, but i add it anyway. i typically feed 1st stage: bbs & hikari 1st bites. 2nd stage at about 3 weeks: less bbs, hikari 1st bites, 1/2 cube daphnia. 3rd stage, 1 cube daphnia, finger crushed flakes, and any reasonable food that sink to the bottom. be sure to clean all the stuff out of the bottom and give them lots of clean water.

[stanlee]

it is a waste of time feeding hikari first bite to discus fries, cos they will not eat them .
end up fouling the water most of the time.
for other fishes like guppies or bettas excellent food though.
imho.

[back_to_basics89]

hello,
The fry at this early stage will definitely prefer the parent's food over Hikari First bite. Hikari First bite is actually a good nutritious food if your fry accepts it. My fry accepted it when they were 2 weeks old. But you should also feed them BB, too. I recommend that you leave the fry with the parents for about two weeks if possible- while gradually feeding the babies something else. If you left your fry with the parents all this time and you've kept the water clean I don't think that they are stunt because the parents have been feeding the fry for you. And if you decide to use Hikari First bite later remember to feed only enough so that your fish can consume it within several minutes- just to avoid fouling up the water. good luck.:)