When A Fish Refuses To Eat?

[Primous]

Ok so I got hold of an Apistogramma Borellii Juvenile. He has no visible signs of ill health, swims normally and is quite playful/active. Yet for 7 days he has not eaten. He ate/nipped at one flake in 7 days and his colours are not as prominent as they used to be.

My tank stats are ammonia/nitrite 0ppm Nitrate at 0-5ppm consistently. The tank is semi densely planted and stocked with tetras, juli cory, and a male gourami. It also has co2 running at 1bpm.

I'm unsure of what action to take next. Any suggestions?

 

[DrRob]

What's he in with? Sometimes it's just a lack of confidence and some dithers may help. I've had apistos ignore flake until the tetras they were in with went for it and they caught on to the idea and defended their new food supply. Other times they're just fussy, in which case you may have to resort to live food or frozen, which isn't a bad idea in general to be honest, and then slowly add the flake back in.

 

[creeker]

Try live food like Brine Shrimp. He should not be able to resist.

 

[soybean]

When I first got my apistos, and later bolivian rams, neither accepted flake, and tbh are still not that bothered by it and manage to look very unimpressed on flake days.

Frozen bloodworm and tablet food, especially jbl novo tabs, go down much better.

 

[Primous]

Update


I wasn't able to get hold of any live food until today so I decided to give all my fish a 2 day break from feeding, only fed them one small serving of green peas until today. I moved him to a 35L and as creeker predicted he wasn't able to resist the live brine. Now my question to you is this, how would you store this live brine?

Should I leave it in the bag and under the tank or should I refrigerate them? Simple question yes, in fact I'd say it's quite newbie-ish and basic but I figured I'd ask anyways because most of the live brine (60-80) is actually dead and he seems most attracted to the ones that show movement.

 

[creeker]

Update


I wasn't able to get hold of any live food until today so I decided to give all my fish a 2 day break from feeding, only fed them one small serving of green peas until today. I moved him to a 35L and as creeker predicted he wasn't able to resist the live brine. Now my question to you is this, how would you store this live brine?

Should I leave it in the bag and under the tank or should I refrigerate them? Simple question yes, in fact I'd say it's quite newbie-ish and basic but I figured I'd ask anyways because most of the live brine (60-80) is actually dead and he seems most attracted to the ones that show movement.

Keep it in the fridge. Scoop out the dead ones with a fish net, rinse under the faucet, shake out the excess water, and freeze in a thin layer in a sandwich bag. At least some of your fish should accept it dead. Your Apisto will accept it dead in time too.

 

[Greg_DS]

You could try the frozen brine shrimp??

 

[creeker]

You could try the frozen brine shrimp??

That would be the next logical progression after he finishes up this batch of live.

 

[Primous]

Sighs


The crisis has been averted. My boy "spot" (yup that's his name) is in real good condition now but today I tried feeding him tetra min and tetra prime and he turned his nose up at both! I don't have any live or frozen foods left and even if I did, I'd still need him to accept a flake food as a staple. Feeding frozen twice a week. Reason being that I have a community tank and can not feed solely frozen or live food to the entire community.

My apistos before him ate tetra without issue and from research on a few apisto forums it has been suggested that I don't feed him for a couple of days and then introduce a new brand of food. My question is, which brand of flake/staple do you think I should start using as a replacement to tetra?

Hopefully with your guidance I'll be able to order something via ebay tonight.

 

[soybean]

Have you considered tablet food? I'm yet to find a fish, including my rams and apistos, which turn their noses up at jbl novo tabs. They stick to the glass too for mid-water feeders.

 

[Primous]

JBl novo tabs. I have two vicious female borellii and bringing them together to feed over one tab would be mayhem lol Feeding for them often ends in a fight so I shudder to think what one tab would do. But at this stage I'm willing to give it a try. I also have the following short listed:

Tetra color crisp
Ocean nutrition formula two flakes
Tubifex?
Hikari tropical micro pellets

Has anyone used any of the above or have any thoughts on how my finicky apisto is likely to react to them?

 

[soybean]

I break the tab up into 4 and drop it in. Cue two bolivian rams merrily sucking on their own bits at opposite ends of the tank.

They also like hikari sinking wafers.

They have now eventually started eating tetra pro colour crisps but I think they have to be really hungry.

Basically I think they prefer stuff off the bottom rather than stuff floating past them.

Oh and the micropellets you mention are far too small.

 

[Primous]

Hmm

I already bought the micro pellets as they were only 3 pounds on ebay. I'm looking for jbl flake.

 

[Primous]

Tetra color crisp was rejected

 

[soybean]

Tetra color crisp was rejected

Stick with it, mine took it in time, soak it a little while first so it sinks and they might pick it from the bottom.