Live Food

[Assaye]

My RTBS has not eaten since I have had him - nearly three weeks ago!

At least, I've not seen him eat, and nothing I've put in the tank has gone. He isn't skinny - seems a good weight for his size - but I'm 99% sure he isn't eating.

I've tried -

Pellets (many types)
Flakes (many types)
Sinking pellets
Frozen 'live' food
Live daphnia
Cucumber
Peas
Prawn

He's not interested. Doesn't even investigate the food.

Water is fine and he seems in good health, aside from the lack of eating. When he isn't in his cave, he's swooshing around quite cheerfully.

I want to try him on something bigger . . . something he can chase. He's a real predator - attacked the tiger barbs my friend housed him with and ate large chunks of them - so I guess daphnia isn't really going to interest him much. Put him with other fish and he gets really excited and chases them around.

I'm toying with starting a guppy farm. I love guppies and want a tank of them, but I don't have anywhere to put the hundreds of fry . . . so I figure Shark can help me out there, and in turn, I can help him out. Sounds gruesome, but I'd rather let 'natural' predation happen than have my shark starve to death.

Anyone think this will work? Anyone have any other ideas?

Does anyone know how I would go about setting up a nice little guppy tank that's good looking, suitable for day-to-day guppy life and breeding friendly? I have a 60 litre than I plan to divide in to 20 litre sections. Would a small number of guppies be happy in 20 litres? What about 40 litres, and only have the one betta?

 

[three-fingers]

RTBS's aren't predators, they are just territorial/semi-aggressive.

Guppy farm wouldent be natural really, as RTBS are mainly herbivores, eating algae and any small bugs that come with it - look at the shape of their mouth, it doesnt look particularly adapted for catching fish, more rasping algae and eating any small invertabrates they encounter while grazing.

What frozen food did you try? How big is the fish?

Bloodworm is usually taken very eagerly, but they should be interested in algae wafers, flakes and sinking pellets too. Daphnia may be to small to be ignored.

 

[Assaye]

RTBS's aren't predators, they are just territorial/semi-aggressive.

Guppy farm wouldent be natural really, as RTBS are mainly herbivores, eating algae and any small bugs that come with it - look at the shape of their mouth, it doesnt look particularly adapted for catching fish, more rasping algae and eating any small invertabrates they encounter while grazing.

What frozen food did you try? How big is the fish?

Bloodworm is usually taken very eagerly, but they should be interested in algae wafers, flakes and sinking pellets too. Daphnia may be to small to be ignored.

I'd say he (or she) is a good three inches long. Not tiny.

I've tried frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia and something else that came in a frozen food 'variety' pack.

He ignores everything that isn't fish shaped and moving. Doesn't even sniff at the food, let alone try it. There is a tiny (and I mean tiny) bit of algea in the tank, so maybe he's grazing on that when I'm not looking. Definitely not trying the pellets though, I keep removing them after a couple of hours when they've not been touched.

 

[three-fingers]

Got a pic of the shark?

I'd presume it's eating sinking pellets when your not looking or something. Its odd since RTBS are usually pretty vigorous feeders.

Your feeding the tank, and you say it looks healthy so dont worry then. It physically has to be getting enough food for it to be healthy, and it will eat whenever it's hungry.

Adding more guppy fry to the tank would just encourage it to eat them over prepared food, which would result in it having a much less balanced diet, so not a good things.

You could feed guppies as a treat, but really you should focus on trying to see it eat some algae wafers/flakes or something like that.

 

[Assaye]

Got a pic of the shark?

I'd presume it's eating sinking pellets when your not looking or something. Its odd since RTBS are usually pretty vigorous feeders.

Your feeding the tank, and you say it looks healthy so dont worry then. It physically has to be getting enough food for it to be healthy, and it will eat whenever it's hungry.

Adding more guppy fry to the tank would just encourage it to eat them over prepared food, which would result in it having a much less balanced diet, so not a good things.

You could feed guppies as a treat, but really you should focus on trying to see it eat some algae wafers/flakes or something like that.

The reason I don't think it's eating the sinking pellets is because I always end up fishing them out of the tank intact.

I shouldn't worry too much, I guess.