Surface Feeding

[pto]

I've had my rams for about a week now, and I have Cichlid staples, the hollow ones that float, and they never seem to eat them, and i think they starve themselves and eat some plants and some flakes, for my other fish.
I thought it might have been that my light is too bright, and it is, but i turn it off and they still don't eat.
I'm not sure what to do and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
-mike

 

[kimmers318]

I have 2 german blue rams....one will come to the surface and eat most anything...the other waits for stuff to fall midlevel. But both love frozen bloodworms and regular flake, so you might want to try some bloodworm, at least to get some eating being done.

 

[pto]

Ok thanks, ***hole at the LFS convinced me into buying staples rather than bloodworms.

 

[kimmers318]

Well, I have found what works best for me is to keep a variety around anyway...just start picking up something different that you have read/heard your fish like whenever you can and then you have an array to offer. I have many different types of fish...and haven't found one yet that WON'T eat bloodworms except for the otos. I started out doing this because I was sold a dwarfpuffer as a community fish....didn't work out that way....then realized when I separated her that she wasn't eating anything...so I started trying all of the different suggestions until I got her fat and sassy. She is way too sassy now, but hey, I love her! Now I can offer a different frozen food every am, and leave the easy flake feeding to my daughter in the pm.

 

[Griz]

It's not unusual for it to take a while before a ram will come to the surface to feed. They normally don't spend much time at the upper level anyway and probably don't feel comfortable. I would get something that sinks (frozen brine shrimp or bloodworm) to feed every so often to make sure they are getting enough food. Like kimmers318 said, it's best to feed a variety anyway.

 

[bleechme]

Ok thanks, ***hole at the LFS convinced me into buying staples rather than bloodworms.

Rule #1 NEVER LISTEN TO THE WORKERS AT A PETSTORE
follow your own instincts or do a little research before you plan on buying. The people that work there probably know only as much as you do or less. they only know basics live, cichlids eat food with cichlids on the cover. and what ever... but there are some stores that do know thier fish species good enough to give you the right information.

As for me. I feed them regular flakes. nothing special and they love it.

 

[Alps]

I feed the omega flakes and I found that some of the smaller cardinals really didn't get much food so I used a regular straw you pick up from a fast food store to feed so that a bunch of flakes would fall at the same time. If you have enough middle fish these will all be eaten before any touch bottom.

- eventually my cherry barbs ate at the top, and all of my cardinals followed, but I still do it to try and fatten the runts up.

steps: 1 dip straw in water about an inch
2. drop some ground up flake food into the wet end of the straw
3 stick straw into water a few inches and quickly put thumb to hole to keep water and food mix in straw
4 release food and water mix into water and it will all float down.

 

[annka5]

Alps, thats v. sweet..... nice to know other people are daft enough to come up with "Heath Robinson" devices to make their fish happier....!