Butterfly Not Eating

[Tobigara]

Can an African Butterfly fish be trained to accept flakes or floating pellets? i've tried live worms and frozen foods but if he is eating...i haven't seen any evidence of it. it's been 3-4 days now and i'm kinda worried.

Any advice is appreciated

 

[nmonks]

Sometimes they will take flake/pellets. But don't bank on it, and certainly not immediately after import.

Pantodon hunts in a very specific way: it detects movement in roughly 90-degree arcs around each eye. Everything else is ignored. So, to start with you need to use forceps or similar (not fingers!) to place suitable food items (e.g., mosquito larvae) within a few cm of the head. Once the fish learns that things placed close to the head are food, they'll try other items, including flake.

Most people find fruit flies and insects found around the house useful first foods. Small crickets work well, too.

Cheers, Neale

Can an African Butterfly fish be trained to accept flakes or floating pellets? i've tried live worms and frozen foods but if he is eating...i haven't seen any evidence of it. it's been 3-4 days now and i'm kinda worried.

 

[Esfa]

small mealworms work, too.

 

[corey01]

ive read that butterfly fish can take a while to adjust to flake food. i think your better off feeding live or frozen food

 

[Tobigara]

how about wax worms?

 

[Fella]

how about wax worms?

They'd be fine, but i think Dave legacy did a topic on how these are full of protein and fat, protein being good, fat not.

 

[Tobigara]

Sometimes they will take flake/pellets. But don't bank on it, and certainly not immediately after import.

Pantodon hunts in a very specific way: it detects movement in roughly 90-degree arcs around each eye. Everything else is ignored. So, to start with you need to use forceps or similar (not fingers!) to place suitable food items (e.g., mosquito larvae) within a few cm of the head. Once the fish learns that things placed close to the head are food, they'll try other items, including flake.

Most people find fruit flies and insects found around the house useful first foods. Small crickets work well, too.

Cheers, Neale

Can an African Butterfly fish be trained to accept flakes or floating pellets? i've tried live worms and frozen foods but if he is eating...i haven't seen any evidence of it. it's been 3-4 days now and i'm kinda worried.

Dude...you are the man!! 8) i only had wax worms that are for my hedgehog but i used chopsticks to put the worm about 2-3cm away from his eye. i had to put it there a couple of times but he finally ate it! i'm gonna go and buy some small crickets tomorrow after work. thank you sooooo much!