Xenentodon Canaila

[bunjiweb]

Bought three of these today under advice from the staff at Wildwoods, supposed to be England's number 1 Aquatic retailer.

They're in my 6x2x2 with the other big stuff for the moment... Can't find much info on them, Baensch has nothing on them at all, any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Apparently I may have to feed them live foods to start with but i will try them on frozen...

Ben

EDIT - after further research and some post searching I have any info i think there is on them. If anyone has kept them I would like to hear their experience, and some tips on feeding them. I may have to buy some river shrimp to feed them... Ben

 

[CFC]

I had them a few years ago, interesting fish but i couldnt get them off live foods which was a pain.

Heres a profile i put up on them http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=41749

 

[Final Dynazty]

they do eat live. I found minnows where the easiest for them to eat.

 

[bunjiweb]

i am going to try frozen first.

If they won't eat I will either try river shrimp or platy fry...

Ben

 

[cane76]

i have had 3 for 4 months now and river shrimp and live fish are the only things they will take.if its not swimming they wont recognise it as food.lucky i live 2 mins from lfs coz i have to go there twice a week its worth it tho i like watching them feed they are great.river shrimp have totally dried up in my area i have tried about 6 different places and nothing so they are going hungry at the moment.i got them 1 serpea tetra each on saturday to tide them over.next im gonna try dangling white bait on the water surface and moving it around but i bet it wont work

 

[T1KARMANN]

just be hard

the rule of my tank is always the same eat or die

 

[kubora666]

i have never had that type of gar...
but i dop have a hujet gar ( slant nosed gar) he is about 6" and doub led in size since i got him and he only ate live crickets... but now he will eat pellet food!! its his fave.

i also have a florida gar 1 foot, he only eats cockel or live. i am trying to wean him onto the pellets though.

kubora666

 

[bunjiweb]

Well its not what I would call a "true" gar, its a needle fish. But it is usually referred to as a Gar.

I had to sacrifice 6 lampeyes today as they are the cheapest thing I could get from work. They ate them with relish although i DONT want to have to do this again as I hate the idea of using feeder-fish, aswell as it being illegal

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ben

 

[andywg]

I believe the supposed illegality of feeder fish has been covered a number of times, from the research I have done; so long as the fish did not suffer (i.e. were small enough to be eaten in one bite, maybe two) then there is no law against it. Indeed, there is some consternation that the most recent animal welfare bill does not contain an outright ban amongst reptile keepers.

However, in the discussions at (I can't remember exactly here) either the House of Lords, or the Committee stage, it was noted that where it is necessary to wean an animal off of live food, but it does not yet take dead food, then using a suitable live prey that will not come to undue pain and suffering should be perfectly acceptable. Prey applies to both vetebrates and inverts.

Bottom line is, anyone who tells you that feeder fish is outright illegal in the UK is not telling the truth. they would have to prove you were intentionally feeding one fish to the other, and that you intended for there to be suffering. Proving the intent to a criminal level would basically require an admission, or recorded evidence of you stating it (and I doubt very much, Ben, that you intended any suffering to take place to the feeders).

There is the possibility in the case of someone who fed a largish oscar to a shoal of red belly pirannhas purely to take gratuitous pleasure from the fight, and suffering of the oscar being targeted, but even then, it would be difficult to prove the intent necessary under current legislation.

 

[bunjiweb]

I didnt want them to suffer at all, i haven't used feeders before and i'd rather not do it as I hate the idea of buying one fish just to feed to another. If it comes to it I will get a pair of platy and breed fry to use, but hopefully I will be able to tempt them with some of my other foods....

Ben

 

[bunjiweb]

Well hurrah!

Today on their 2nd feeding they accepted silver sides very readily. Dropped in 6 small pieces in total, they ate 5 of them between the 3 so i am VERY happy!!!

Of course my spotted shovelnose hoovered up the last piece, so i chucked in a bit more for the big cats

Im so happy I hopefully wont have to use any more live feeder foods at all!

Ben

 

[bunjiweb]

Another update...

today one of them tried some shell-less Tesco Value prawns and it went down well, the other 2 didnt touch it but happily took a couple of small pieces of silver-sides each.

Will get a good pic at some point but like anything in my darker 6x2x2 they are quite hard to photo.

Ben

 

[cane76]

ben are they eating it whilst its sinking?or are they eating from the bottom?

 

[bunjiweb]

They are eating it whilst it is sinking. They probably don't like going right to the bottom of the tank as there is alot of catfish to compete with for food.

Ben