X-rays Not Eating - Spitting Out Food

[fishforthekids]

My 5-gal tank has (1) male betta, (1) red wag platy and (2) x-ray tetras. (I have already been told my tank may be a little small for this community, but I can't really do much about that right now).

Water conditions checked out fine for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

We have begun treatment for finrot using Melafix (for 3 days so far). Things on that front are improving--no further loss of fin material.

Now the problem. My x-rays are not eating. They used to go to the surface to eat, but I think the piggish betta (even though I feed him first) is starting to establish the surface as "his" territory. However, even when the flakes go down to the lower levels, the x-rays are not aggressively eating. In fact, when they do grab a flake, they spit it back out. They are obviously hungry but are not swallowing the food. The food has not changed (using TetraFlakes and Wardely's flakes).

Any suggestions? Please!

Thanks.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The fish are eating- the reason why they are spitting out the majority of the food though after biting it is because the peices of food you are feeding them are too large. Many small tropical fish don't have any teeth and cannot chew in the same way we can, so the only way they can eat large peice of food is to bite it, swallowing a any of the food that comes off in the bite, and then spitting out the rest. They may repeat this quite a few times with the same peice of food.
If you are feeding them flakes, just crush the flakes up more when you feed it to them . If you are not feeding them fish flakes, it depends on the food- what foods are you feeding them?

As others may have mentioned, your stocking is not ideal. If you do not want a tank much larger than your current one, then the minimum amount of gallons i would advise you upgrade to is a 10-12gallon (long) tank and change the stocking to;
6 x-ray tetras
2-3female platys and 1male (or all all-female group of 3; i wouldn't really advise an all-male group of platys as you'd need at least 5 males to disperse any potential agression amoungst them, and you generally need larger tanks for all-male groups, something like a 15gallon minimum would be good).
And just keep the betta in the 5gal on its own or with some very carefully chosen and research tankmates- bettas do best on their own due to their territorial (and sometimes agressive) nature and also due to being slow swimmers.

Once you have your Melafix treatment finished and the affected fish are better, i would advise trying to sort an upgrade of your tank and sorting out your stocking as soon as posible .

 

[WILDER]

Check the gills to see if there pale with excess mucas on them, or red and inflamed.

 

[fishforthekids]

Thanks for the replies.

I tried crushing up the flakes since the x-rays are so tiny. I have observed very carefully over the last 3 feedings, and they even spit out the smallest pieces. It's almost as if they are not liking the taste and then spitting it back out. Should I try a different food maybe?

Tweety: No apparent problems with the gills or gill plates.

 

[WILDER]

Lol tweety.
Try another food spitting can be a sign of gill flukes so if there gills are ok that's fine.
The tank is way to small for them though they could be stressed.

 

[fishforthekids]

Lol tweety.
Try another food spitting can be a sign of gill flukes so if there gills are ok that's fine.
The tank is way to small for them though they could be stressed.

Wilder,
I picked up some blood worms last night and one of the x-rays was eating them just fine. He still had to wait for them to drift to the bottom (b/c the betta), but at least he was munching down on them. The other x-ray (who lost about 40% of his tail fin to finrot) still doesn't seem interested in eating.

Sorry to be a novice, but I have a question about tank size. I know the inch/gal. rule, and I am within that (barely). Does the addition of the betta alter that calculation? He doesn't really attack the other fish, but he does run them off sometimes. The rascal took over the new tank ornament I bought for the x-rays. I bought a small one with holes in it to give the x-rays their "own" place and stuck it in a corner. That dawg-gone betta weaseled and squeezed his way into it and the x-rays still have no place to hide.

Do I really need to let the betta have the 5 gal. tank to himself? I am not sure the wife will want two tanks in the house.

?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Lol tweety.
Try another food spitting can be a sign of gill flukes so if there gills are ok that's fine.
The tank is way to small for them though they could be stressed.

Wilder,
I picked up some blood worms last night and one of the x-rays was eating them just fine. He still had to wait for them to drift to the bottom (b/c the betta), but at least he was munching down on them. The other x-ray (who lost about 40% of his tail fin to finrot) still doesn't seem interested in eating.

Sorry to be a novice, but I have a question about tank size. I know the inch/gal. rule, and I am within that (barely). Does the addition of the betta alter that calculation? He doesn't really attack the other fish, but he does run them off sometimes. The rascal took over the new tank ornament I bought for the x-rays. I bought a small one with holes in it to give the x-rays their "own" place and stuck it in a corner. That dawg-gone betta weaseled and squeezed his way into it and the x-rays still have no place to hide.

Do I really need to let the betta have the 5 gal. tank to himself? I am not sure the wife will want two tanks in the house.

?

The inch of fish per gal thing is only a rule of thumb/guide to stocking tanks, it is not a proper rule since it does not take into consideration the many other factors which need to be taken into consideration when stocking. The betta would be better off in a tank on his own- check out the betta section of the forum for more advice/info on betta's and community tanks. Whats more important in some respects is the types of fish you have, the numbers that you have them in, and what other fish you are mixing them with.

Bloodworms are readily accepted by the majority of fish, its posible that the brand of flakes you were using were simply not to the tetra's liking. Either way though, a varied diet is best for achieving healthier fish. Daphinia, krill and artemecia and various other small crustaceons will be readily accepted by most tetras and other types of fish. During the summer, if you can also go down to your local ponds/lakes and get live mosquito larvae to feed your fish too (which your fish will go crazy over- they'll love the live larvae- i spent a lot of time last summer simply feeding my fish off critters i scooped out of my pond) .

 

[fishforthekids]

UPDATE: X-rays are doing much better. Spooky's tail fin is starting to grow back from the fin rot. And, they are eating and racing around like their old selves (Spooky and Ghost a/k/a the Grimm Brothers ).

They are still rejecting both brands of flake food, but they are devouring the blood worms. I saw little lumps on the stomachs from eating so much. They looked like little puppies who at too much. I know I shouldn't feed them too much, but the little guys were so hungry.

As an aside, I have a new technique for feeding them. Since the bloodworms float for so long, the betta and platy eat them all before the x-rays can get a chance. So, I soak a few bloodworms in some tank water then suck them up into a little 10 cc medicine dispenser. Then, I shoot them down towards the bottom of the tank. It becomes a little x-ray feeding frenzy. Kind of silly, but it works!!

THANNKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Glad to help .
Just be careful not to over-feed them though particularly if the bloodworms are dried and not frozen (frozen is generally better since its more nutritional either way). A lot of fish will continue eating even after they are full and give themselves digestive problems- so just give them what they can eat in a minute or so. Small but regular feeding sessions are better than larger but not so regular feeding sessions. Small but regular meals are better for smaller fish since they have quite short guts and although they can only digest small amounts of food at anu given time, they get hungrier much quicker than bigger fish with longer guts.

Try also feeding them other foods like krill, daphinia, brine shrimp, artemecia and small river shrimp etc just to vary their diet a bit more so they are getting all the nutrition they need in their diet . Veg is also important to help make sure they continue to have a good and healthy digestive system, but they are less likely to eat it, but blanched and chopped up spinache and cooked de-shelled and chopped up pea's are good to feed them every now and then too .

 

[WILDER]

Good there eating.