3-4 In. Largemouth Not Interested In Food

[Sanitarum]

ok, i have had experiance with largemouths for a while, but i have never had one so small, he recently bit 2 mouthfulls out of a much larger carp in the tank i was housing it in, and now he wont eat a thing, i tride minnows, with no succes. he seems a bit interested in the earthworms, but never bites into them. My guess is hes simply not hungry, but i just wanted to be sure.

 

[Shovelman]

ok, i have had experiance with largemouths for a while, but i have never had one so small, he recently bit 2 mouthfulls out of a much larger carp in the tank i was housing it in, and now he wont eat a thing, i tride minnows, with no succes. he seems a bit interested in the earthworms, but never bites into them. My guess is hes simply not hungry, but i just wanted to be sure.

What tank size and did you get him from a local lake?

 

[nmonks]

Well, it'll take time for a wild-caught fish to settle in. If it's in its own tank, make sure it has plenty of shade and you'd do better offering food in the morning and evening, the times these fish naturally feed, preferably with the aquarium lights off. Juveniles consume a lot of aquatic insects, so after waiting 3-4 days, you might start with small, live foods like brine shrimp or bloodworms to see what happens. Earthworms and river shrimps are also good if your specimen is sufficiently large.

And don't expect me not to scold you for using carp and minnows! You should not be using either of these as foods for aquarium fish. Both contain fat and thiaminase that cause problems in the long term. Now, before you say "that's what they eat in the wild", reflect on the fact that [a] carp aren't native to North America at all; and minnows would gut-loaded with vitamin-rich foods anyway, and only a portion of the foods they eat each week. There's good evidence from wild populations of predatory fish that those forced to eat a lot of thiaminase-rich prey are actually stressed in various ways, and not "healthy" as we'd expect them to be.

For what it's worth, Micropterus species don't make terribly good aquarium fish. Feeding them adequately will certainly be one problem. They also get very large and dislike bright light, making them hard to house in a way that suits both fish and aquarist.

Cheers, Neale

ok, i have had experiance with largemouths for a while, but i have never had one so small, he recently bit 2 mouthfulls out of a much larger carp in the tank i was housing it in, and now he wont eat a thing, i tride minnows, with no succes. he seems a bit interested in the earthworms, but never bites into them. My guess is hes simply not hungry, but i just wanted to be sure.

 

[Sanitarum]

i see your logic with the minnows, il go get some brine shrimp today.

and the carp wasnt food, he was a tank mate, a much larger one