Weaning fish

[On_a_dishy]

Is it easy to wean brats fish off the diet they enjoyed in their LFS?
I have just spent a fortune on frozen daphnia, Bug Bites, Tropical Flake - and eventually spoke to my LFS who explained that Tetra Prima Granules is what they have been used to. £6.99 later, and I have happy, satiated fish (Rasboras) - and a basket full of food they spit out in sullen defiance.
The only fish I've kept who seemed genuinely happy to eat anything were cichlids.
Is there a secret to giving them the varied diet we're supposed to, or is it just perseverance with the painstaking routine of feeding them and then hoovering up what they don't eat until they give in?

 

[Ichthys]

There’s no secret. Just stop feeding them Prima.

 

[Sgooosh]

Is it easy to wean brats fish off the diet they enjoyed in their LFS?
I have just spent a fortune on frozen daphnia, Bug Bites, Tropical Flake - and eventually spoke to my LFS who explained that Tetra Prima Granules is what they have been used to. £6.99 later, and I have happy, satiated fish (Rasboras) - and a basket full of food they spit out in sullen defiance.
The only fish I've kept who seemed genuinely happy to eat anything were cichlids.
Is there a secret to giving them the varied diet we're supposed to, or is it just perseverance with the painstaking routine of feeding them and then hoovering up what they don't eat until they give in?

what type of fish?
you can go like a day or 2 without feeding if they reject it so they get hungry and will try out other food
and once you have a few fish in the tank that aren't picky, other fish will slowly learn to try out new foods

 

[Byron]

I suspect the fish ate the same way in the fish store. Fish normally "spit out" food as they chew off tiny bits. It does not mean they are not eating it. The smaller the fish the more obvious this eating method will be apparent.

It is true that some fish do not seem to relish "x" food as much as another. This is one reason for feeding a variety. I use three basic (prepared/dry) foods for upper fish and three for lower. They get a different food each three days in a row. None of my fish ever died from starvation.

Quality foods is important, not junk food. Bug Bites, frozen daphnia may well be the #1 food for quality. A good flake that does not contain fish meal or cereal meals. Same for shrimp pellets for substrate fish.

I cannot seem to find the ingredients of Tetra Prima Flake, but it is not (or has not been) on my list of quality foods, so I agree don't feed it.

 

[Sgooosh]

I suspect the fish ate the same way in the fish store. Fish normally "spit out" food as they chew off tiny bits. It does not mean they are not eating it. The smaller the fish the more obvious this eating method will be apparent.

It is true that some fish do not seem to relish "x" food as much as another. This is one reason for feeding a variety. I use three basic (prepared/dry) foods for upper fish and three for lower. They get a different food each three days in a row. None of my fish ever died from starvation.

Quality foods is important, not junk food. Bug Bites, frozen daphnia may well be the #1 food for quality. A good flake that does not contain fish meal or cereal meals. Same for shrimp pellets for substrate fish.

I cannot seem to find the ingredients of Tetra Prima Flake, but it is not (or has not been) on my list of quality foods, so I agree don't feed it.

yep, the pearl gouramis i have spit it out, and after a few times they swallow it.
i have found that my multiple types of fish enjoy bloodworms the best

 

[On_a_dishy]

Cereal - right up there as one of the first ingredients

 

[Byron]

Cereal - right up there as one of the first ingredients

I would not feed that to my fish. The ingredients in the foods I feed are whole fish (salmon, herring), whole shrimp, insects (in the case of bug bites which are black soldier fly larvae). Omega One and New Life Spectrum foods have these primary ingredients. As opposed to fish meal which is the junk like ground bones and stuff, or cereal meals which fish cannot digest.

 

[On_a_dishy]

what type of fish?
you can go like a day or 2 without feeding if they reject it so they get hungry and will try out other food
and once you have a few fish in the tank that aren't picky, other fish will slowly learn to try out new foods

Nice, @Sgooosh - I’ll try that. They’re very young Espei Rasboras.

 

[On_a_dishy]

I would not feed that to my fish. The ingredients in the foods I feed are whole fish (salmon, herring), whole shrimp, insects (in the case of bug bites which are black soldier fly larvae). Omega One and New Life Spectrum foods have these primary ingredients. As opposed to fish meal which is the junk like ground bones and stuff, or cereal meals which fish cannot digest.

Yep. Let The Weaning begin!

 

[GaryE]

People don't realize that fish chew by spitting. Most species have rows of teeth within their mouths, and scrape pieces of food off by spitting it out and taking it back in, repeatedly. I like fish, but going to a dinner party with them is not my dream. It'd be like a toddlers' birthday party at McDonalds.

I always rotate foods, and have only had one or two foods outright rejected by my fish. One was a high end flake that was all the rage at the time, and one was a cheap flake. Neither is still available.

I choose based on what my fish eat in the wild. Often, prepared foods are low in fibre, and insects have a lot of fibre in them. So I will check that and choose accordingly.

 

[Sgooosh]

Nice, @Sgooosh - I’ll try that. They’re very young Espei Rasboras.

i have some very similar heteromorphas, and once they get used to eating one thing, they will eat everything so its definitely not the species