help getting my fry to take non living food

[ErtyJr]

Ok so I have a batch of about 20 apistogramma cacatuoides fry that are about a month and 1/2 old. They were born in a community tank that is packed with lots of micro fauna and in addition scuds, which are a small freshwater amphipod. They stayed in this tank with the mother, father, some hatchetfish and celestial pearl danios for one month.

After a month I moved them into a small planted tank that was also stocked with scuds. They have since birth pretty much only hunted for food. I was feeding them vinegar eels for a time as well.

The problem is the time is growing near for me to sell them. I only have these two tanks and I am not currently allowed by the gf to get any more. I need to train them to take pellet before selling these fish but they refuse. I even fed frozen cyclop-eeze and they would bite only the white ones (which look very much like baby scuds) and then spit them out immediately. They refuse any food and only hunt for baby scuds. Luckily the population is booming so they will not starve, but what can I do?

 

[regani]

I mix finely crushed flake with freshly hatched brine shrimp, take up some of the mix in a small syringe and squirt it to where the fry are. They all go for the BBS but get some of the flake as well, probably more by accident at first. Over time I change the ratio to more flake and after a couple of weeks they usually eat the flake by itself without any problems.

 

[ErtyJr]

Ok thank you, I will try this out tomorrow!

 

[Ekona]

Also check Aquabid for foods - I've had good luck with LotsOfFishe's #2 mix - it's got everything small fish could want in terms of small prepared foods. There are other "mixes" offered as well.

 

[ErtyJr]

Will do thank you! Going to check now.

 

[ErtyJr]

Just an update my fry are now picking food off the ground and will accept it that way. They however will not take any food that is not alive from the water column. I watch them snag frozen cyclop-eeze and spit it back out immediately and it drives me nuts! They are currently accepting ground up dainichi color fx and repashy "spawn and grow" gel food(with garlic added) but only from the ground and only pick at it slightly. They will however stuff themselves on blackworms, daphnia moina, and scuds all of which are alive.

 

[Mike Wise]

Well, apisto fry are oriented toward motion, food-wise. Being geophagines they eventually begin to sift through the substrate for food, too. I wouldn't be overly concerned if they are eating what you give them.

 

[ErtyJr]

Thank you mike for the response. Yea I'm no longer "concerned" with them not eating but I wish they would just eat more when the food isn't alive. Trying to bulk them up a bit, but I think blackworms may be the key.

 

[regani]

Don't forget that they will search for food and eat all the time, not just when you add some food to the tank. All the 'dead' food will travel with the current and eventually sink to the bottom where the foraging fry will find and eat it once they are past that initial period where they only respond to the visual stimulus of something moving

 

[ErtyJr]

Yea, I have been doing a test and I leave small pellets in a spot I can remember and then check the next day. They do without a doubt eat it, just drives me mad that they always have to spit it out first and let it settle on the bottom lol. My big male is a pig, food rarely makes it to the ground and if it does he's right behind it!