Catfish is not eating

[Fallenstar2716]

Hey...I have had a baby (very small, maybe 2 inches) pictus catfish for about 2 days now and it will not eat. I also have 3 balloon mollies in the tank and they get along fine...have not had a problem. The thing is, the day I brought it home I bought 4 ghost shrimp as well and the stupid guy at the pet store put them in the same bag (intended to put them in different tanks). When I got home, there were only two ghost shrimp left in the bag (guess he got hungry). I was thinking maybe this is why he's not eating because he had a little ghost shrimp buffet the other day...but he ignores the food I put in the tank for him and the balloon mollies end up eating their own flake food and the sinking shrimp pellets I put in there for the catfish (the package said these pellets were good for catfish and bottom feeders).

My tank is tiny (4 gallons) but I intend to move the Pictus to a bigger tank within the month so it has room to grow.


Any suggestions to get my guy to eat?

 

[WILDER]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, try him on some other foods sometimes they get used to a brand and it takes time for them to get used to a different variety of brand.

 

[SirMinion]

Young pictus are nervous fish, and you've only had him a couple of days. Once he settles and his stress eases he will eat.
As long as he's not already thin then fasting for a week or even two will not harm him.
Try tempting him with blood worm (live if you can get it but frozen if not) There's very few fish that will refuse bloodworm. You can wean him onto processed foods later.

Move him to a bigger tank as soon as possible, 4g is far to small for even a baby pictus and will add to his stress.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, try him on some other foods sometimes they get used to a brand and it takes time for them to get used to a different variety of brand.

Thats an excellent point because I use to have a red devil that was soooooooooooooooo picky. I went to get his food a couple times and my lfs was out of that particular kind. Both times this happened he went on a hunger strike with the new stuff I picked out. Absolutely under no circumstances would he eat until I got him his usual food.lol