Amatitlania / Cryptoheros fry and feeding

[AJ356]

Question applies to convicts, spilurus, sajica, and myrnae. The fry never seem interested in dried food until about 2 months old. Is this normal / healthy? Or am I just spoiling them? They will take a bit, but mostly spit out anything I try, including the good stuff like bug bites, oase and JBL. It doesn't matter whether I grind it down or pre soak etc.

It's not a swallowing or chewing issue. I've tried all kinds of format of the dry food.

Are they missing out in their development?

Frozen that is hit and miss is Daphnia and cyclops.

These are the foods they eat without spitting and leaving what they spit (Their favourite)
Frozen copepods
Frozen rotifer plankton (but this is tiny and they outgrow this at about one month old the fry)

They also absolutely love this stuff but it's a bit expensive and they outgrow it really at about 6 weeks old and I prefer it for fry at 0-3 weeks old (image uploaded).

When big enough they will eat small frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp and frozen mysis.

Is mostly frozen food bad news for these type of central Americans for the first 8-10 weeks when fry?

I'm wondering if partially boiled courgette/zucchini might get nibbled on? In each set up I also have terracotta pots and driftwood with algae growing. All my fry set ups are very mature. Lots of non meaty things to nibble on.

 

[GaryE]

Is it spitting as chewing? They often pull foods across the rows of teeth on the roofs of their mouths, as they can't chew via jaws as we do.

I bred 3 species of Amatitlania/Cryptoheros and had no problem whatsover feeding them. They ate everything, though I usually make freshly hatched brine shrimp a key part of a fry raising diet. They ate crushed flake as well.

 

[AJ356]

Thanks Gary.

They are definitely rejecting most of the dried food from what I can see, and some fry are rejecting all the dry food.

I watch carefully and they are spitting stuff out right away, moving to another bit of dry food hoping for a different result and they are doing the same thing over and over. They are eating well overall, just not a particularly balanced diet right now.

Maybe they are meeting their vegetable needs and other needs outside the foods they like, by grazing. I've got mulm and remnants of filter squeezings in lots of places and some algae. My fry tanks are not show tanks. Very mature and natural.