Taming A Rope

chelseasmile

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So 3 months ago i got myself two of these amazing fish!
They're loving it in my 75 gal tank so far. They eat very well, and they've fattened up rather nicely on a diet of selfbred guppies (the rope doesn't mind off-colored specimens, I do!) and bloodworms / catfish pellets. All's well. Except for one thing: they're acting like ropefish! I only see them if I sneak up on my aquarium with a torch at night, which is a real shame :(

Does anyone have tips on how to get a rope to show himself more often during the day-time, or perhaps even getting him to accept food out of my hand/tweezers willingly?
It crossed my mind to perhaps remove some of their hiding places (they have alot of those) but I wouldn't want my fish to become stressed...
 
That's how Rope Fish behave. I have 4 in my tank.
The only really seem to come out at feeding time which is at night. But they sometimes dash to the surface for a gulp of air during the day. And very rarely one will just cruise around the tank during the day.

Don't remove the hiding places. As you say, you will stress them, and that could well shorten their lives.

I feed mine at night. I switch on the light of the room the tank is in, but not the tank light itself. So I do get to see them a bit.
 
Mine used to be out alot, i did have suttle lighting, with a layer of duckweed over the top, tank mates need to be peaceful members, mine would take dried bloodworm from my fingers, after soaking it first, i would reccomend weaning away from the live food, live food is not needed unless usually wild caught fish, it does not hold many benifits, if you got a problem with the live food you will pass it on to them..
 
Mine used to be out alot, i did have suttle lighting, with a layer of duckweed over the top, tank mates need to be peaceful members, mine would take dried bloodworm from my fingers, after soaking it first, i would reccomend weaning away from the live food, live food is not needed unless usually wild caught fish, it does not hold many benifits, if you got a problem with the live food you will pass it on to them..

Hmmm i suppose i could get some more flaoting plants to smoothe the light a bit!
As for the live food, i don't mean to say there's something wrong with the fish i feed them, not at all.
But when you are breeding guppies for a certain colour, you will always get a few young with different genes, this is even more exagerated with how fast guppies breed. For example if I get an albino guppy out of a nest it will go into the ropefish-tank (since I don't want the albino to pass on his genes)That's pretty much all they get in the way of life food, the rest is bloodworms and catfish pellets :)
 

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