HELP

[vantgE]

My venustus is about five inches now and does not seem to eat anymore, I have seen it take food but spit it back out, so i'm a little worried. Itnever comes to the top for food anymore either. I pretty much only been feeding Nutrafin cichlid food (flakes) and Nutrafin cichlid spirulina sticks. But it isn't intrested in either. It is in a 90 gallon tank with, kennyi, johanni, and elongatus, and labidochromis caeruleus

It's been suggested that this is bloat, but I'm not sure

 

[Colin_BC]

Does it look at all bloated or is it skinny? How long has it not been eating for? If it's a recent problem and it's not fat and bloated, then I'd guess it's a little bored with its menu. I feed Omega One Vegetable flakes usualy, but every 3rd feeding they get a treat of frozen mysis shrimp. I had a few finicky eaters that wouldn't eat anything but bloodworms. Flakes were ignored, shrimp pellets got an odd pick at, but not much more. Since throwing some mysis shrimp into the mix, all my finicky eaters now go nuts when the frozen mysis shrimp are fed to them, and they have started to take the flake food more often as well.

If you do try a frozen food (your fish will love you for it), make sure you set the cube on a sacuer or something for about 20-30 minutes to thaw out. Use a paper towel or napkin to suck up the melted water that pools. I also gently pat the thawed goods down to remove any more access packing liquids, then add the shrimp a little bit at a time until it's gone (5-10 minutes total in my 30G), otherwise too much sinks to the bottom if you put it all in at once.

Colin

 

[vantgE]

Thanks coloin iu bought some frozen mysis shrimp and i saw her eat three, so that's better but still haven't seen her eat anything else for about three weeks total now

 

[Colin_BC]

Glad to hear it's at least taken a few bites. It's a start...

There's a product by Seachem called Garlic Guard. It has many different uses, one of them being to help finicky eaters by giving the food a bit more flavour (mmmmmm, garlic ). For an added bonus, in some cases it can be used to drive nematodes (worms) out of the fish as worms really aren't fans of garlic. Garlic Guard is natural and shouldn't pollute the tankor damage your biofilter. All you do is soak a dried or thawed out frozen food in a little puddle of it for about 10 minutes or so, then use a paper towel to suck all the excess liquid out before feeding.

I have this stuff and have used it before. All the fish ate the soaked food, but I still prefer to offer finicky eaters a variety of frozen or live foods. You can always even try live baby brine shrimp. They may not be large, but they are very nutricious (fresh hatched babies much more than adults BS) and virtually all fish love them.

Sometimes though, the problem is not so much in the diet but the competition between tankmates for food.

Colin

 

[semper fi]

you said she, are you sure that she has not been holding and just released the fry?

 

[vantgE]

Thanks for the help but she just died, I thought she was getting better though,

 

[Colin_BC]

Sorry to hear...

Are the rest of the fish appearing in good health?

Colin