How to get them to eat?

[yznj99]

I just got a pair of apistogramma bitaeniata about 3/4", male is slightly aggressive toward the female, they appear to be healthy and exploring the tank all day, my trouble is I can't get them to eat with all the tetras and cories in the tank, my tank is lightly planted 50 gallon with 11 cardinal tetras, 4 bronze cories and 4 otocinclus. If I add floating foods cardinals will grab them, if I add sinking food cories will find them first. The dwarf cichlids seem uninterested in my flake or dried food, they occasionally nib my plants maybe for alage.

 

[Cichlid Junkie]

Have you tried any frozen or live food?

 

[Peter Lovett1]

The reason bitaeniata are exploring the tank is more than likely in search of food.If you apisto is pecking at the gravel than what you are seeing is there natural feeding behaviour. I would not worry to much about feeding them as long as some food makes it to the bottom of the tank they will find it and will be okay and as time goes on they will get know when you are feeding.

 

[yznj99]

so far I've tried flakes, dried blood worms, shrimp pellet, sinking wafer, and frozen brine shrimp with no luck at all, I even put some food in a hiding cave but my cories went right in, guess they'll need a few more days.

 

[scott]

i feed my apistos a totally live food diet consisting of blackworms, brine shrimp, grindal worms, daphnia and for the fry microworms, walter worms and baby brine shrimp. i understand that not everyone has the time to culture and harvest all these foods but the fish love them and definetly thrive when fed a varied diet of live foods. the next best thing is probably frozen foods such as daphnia, bloodworms, krill, brineshrimp, etc. even fish that are used to live food will take frozen when they are hungry. i've never had much luck with flake food or pellets although i'm sure many people feed them with success. the easiest live food is probably black worms. all you have to do is keep them in a plastic container in the fridge with a little dechlorinated water and rinse them every day. good luck.

 

[Electric Snowman]

I'm having the same problem. I just got a pair of cacatouides two days ago I haven't seen them eat yet. I put them in a 29g that already had Tiger Barbs in it. Every time I feed them the barbs go nuts and eat everything I put in the tank, I've tried flake food, cichlid pellets, shrinp pellets, freeze dried tubifex worms, and frozen bloodworms. I hope they get a little more brave as time goes on and eat while they have the chance.

 

[fishboy20]

I agree, try some live or frozen food and see if they go for that. Snowman, I am not sure tiger barbs are the best choice for Apistogramma. They may be too active for the Apistos to get enough food. You might want to try medium sized tetras, pencilfish, rasboras, smaller barbs (cherry barbs come to mind), smaller to medium catfish and even other dwarf cichlids (Crenicichla wallaci group, Nannacara sps., smaller Laetacara sps, etc.) if the tank is large enough.

 

[Griz]

Of the frozen foods that I feed (BS, bloodworms, daphnia) my cacs seems to like the brine shrimp best. One thing I like to do that may help is to thaw it in water and then suck it up with a plastic syringe, the one I use came with a water testing kit. This way you can place the food where you want to insure that everyone gets their share. I find it is an easy way to cut down on waste and overfeeding. Get the cardinals feeding in one area and then try to place a few BS close to your cacs. Good luck.

 

[Apistt_ed]

with any kind of frozen food, I have found it best to let it sit and thaw in the tank water from the tank itself. I have found complications with feeding not properly thawed foods such as bloat and such. Make sure when you feed them frozen foods, throw away anything not fed, DO NOT RE-FREEZE to FEED LATER! The pippette/syringe method is the best method I've found. thaw completely and throw away any uneaten foods. Brine shrimp, mysis shrimps, and even the occasional beef-heart mixes have all been great. Mix up the diet and your fish will be happy! cheers john