Rope Fish

[MrGT500]

how do you feed your rope fish? i know they are nocternal, mine seems to comeout during the day, i have read on this forum that they dont really eat sinking tablets. i put massivor tabs in the tank for my eclips cat anyway, but i have been trying a few different foods everynight now including freezedried brine shrimp, tubiflex worms and different kinds of flakes. i know they like worms and have read that they like the shrimp too, but how should i go about giving them to him?

 

[simonas]

I used to have a small group of 4 ropefish and they were etremely easy to feed eating whatever went in, particularly catfish pellet food, frozen brine etc and prawns and mine were active all the time as well. They look lovely when they get to a good 16 inch or so

 

[MrGT500]

mine is about 7 or 8 inches at the moment, and very active. so you think he will munch on the massivor tabs then? my guy at the lfs said anything that is particulary smelly becasue they are basically blind, and #40## do those tab stink.

 

[MrGT500]

i know that in the wild they do not need lots of oxygen and live in almost still water, but does a high oxygen content in thew water bother them?

 

[simonas]

i wouldnt have thought so my tank when i had them had lots of flow, all it means is theyre natural habitat would be oxygen poor and like knifefish for example they can go to the surface and have a breather

 

[MrGT500]

ok, i figured, mine is still very active, i havnt actually seen him eat, but i keep putting food for him in the same spot in the tank, i have read that they get used to finding the food there. and i would assume that he is eating it because it is gone in the morning and he is still alive and active. i would love to actually witness him eat though, just as reassurance.

 

[NeonNeptune]

You could put feeder fish and snails in the tank. I heard that they will dig into the shell trying to get as much meat out. And if all of the sudden a fish is gone and no carcass then he would have to have eaten it. Fish food can just dissolve and look like it disappeared.

 

[MrGT500]

i might try the snails. none of the fish in the tank with him are small enough for him to eat, but i have had that happen with an african dwarf frog and some bamboo shrimp in my cube tank, they where there and then vanished. i think my L114 and rainbow shark was responsable then. i have been giving the ropefish hikari sinking massivor tabs.

 

[kniesh]

I would be 99% certain he is eating the massivore pellets. I have 3 at the minute an mine eat pretty much anything. The reason he is shy and you're not seeing it too much is probably because he's on his own. They do much better in groups, I am currently on the lookout for more to go with mine as I dont think 3 is enough. Mine are reasonably active and I always see them eating, sometimes though they just stay in their cave even at feeding times. Try to feed just before lights out too, this will definitely help.

As for the Shrimp you lost, it was the Shark, definitely not the Frog. Also, I dont think they eat snails, I had 4 Ropefish (Lost one escape artist) in a tank for about 6 months with 5 large Nerite snails and 3 other smaller species. They never touched or bothered any of them.

 

[MrGT500]

i meant that i think the shark ate the frog too. and i would love to have about two more ropefish but my 36 gallon wont allow for it. it is probably already over stocked as it is and my rhino pleco is going to get bigger, although by then my set up will be different. my room is on the second floor of an old house and was once an atic, the floor joists are like 2 by 3's or some nonsence like that, so my grandfather is worried about the tanks ending up in the kitchen...at the moment i have him thinking that the 36 gallon is a 30 and the only way i even got away with it is that i originally had a 29 gallon which has bassically the same dimentions as the 36 bow front.

 

[MrGT500]

well i deffinitly think he is eating and on scedual with the rest of my fish. i have been putting the tabs for him in the same place every night and i usually feed at the same times every day (all of the other fish know when feeding time is) last night i went over to drop the tabs in the tank and when he saw the ones drop in for the catfish he went over to his spot and waited for his. who says fish dont have personalities?