Help with Butterkoferi

extraclip

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Hey I own a Butterkoferi cichlid. I had him for a year and he is about 5-6 inches long. At first I had him eating anything (flakes, pellets, worms) but now he when I put pellets in he will stare at them like two inches away. He will not go to eat from for some reason. If i pushed the pellets down he would go in to get them. Sometimes he might get one but he snag it then freak out and swim to the buttom splashing water everywhere. I was feeding him flakes for awhile but he isnt getting enough. I noticed my other fish getting the pellets because the cichlid isnt eating them. I bought a bunch of feeder fish and seems not to go after them even when a small one strays away from their little school near him. What should i do?

Right now I have a 50 gallon tank.
1 Butterkoferi
1 black ghost
4 rapheal catfish
about 30-40 feeder fish

All levels are where they are suppose to be. it's the same pellets i always feed him. Cichlid 10 i believe. HELP!
 
buttikoferi are riverine fish. they are large and very aggressive. i cannot get mine to eat pellets. may take one or two every now and then. i feed him bloodworms, brine shrimp and feeder fish. i raise convicts for feeders for him. he may have acquired a taste for his previous meals and is no longer interested in pellets.

is his coloring good? if you are feeding flakes, you will need to supplement with something more substantial though.

buttikoferi also get quite large. up to 14" full grown. the 50g will not be large enough for him. also keep an eye on the other fish. buttikoferi are known to attack from the belly
 
Yea the rapheals have thorns so the cichlid doesnt mess with them. The block ghost hides a lot and is a bit eletric as i've heard. So they are good. He's killed about 40 dollars worth of other fish... Its been these fish together for a good 6 months with no new deaths. I think my cichlid is VERY aggressive he killed a pleco almost 2 times his size... a hole in his stomach :X Another pleco well... i was cleaning rocks and found a skull :crazy:

The color is good depending on his mood. usally he is dark and the stripes are kinda defined not too bright but not dull. He has a lot of blue tints also. What does that mean.
I think he started eating the feeder fish i walked by and saw a tail in his mouth :drink:
 
I have two and they both eat pellets, brine shrimp, algae wafers (especially) and their favorite is formula I. Have you tried that at all? They love it :nod:
 
I would have to agree with semper on this one, they do get very large and with their size their agression level increases. One thing that concerns me is the feeding of dither fish whatever the species you choose. With the budda getting to be such a large size I would be concerned with the possibility of HITH. While the jury is still out on what cause HITH, poor nutrition is believed to be a cause of it. Feeding dither fish is a poor way to suppliment your larger fishes diet as their is little if any nutritional value in live fish as food. Try to find other foods to feed this beauty, and keep trying to feed pellets and such. You will eventually find a food that he accepts and hopefully he will get back to normal


HTH


Les
 

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