RD. Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Ryan is currently out of town working, and both his wife & I have been overseeing the feeding of his new aro. When the fish first landed in Canada it immediately ate NLS Jumbo floating pellets, but since then has been going on a bit of a hunger strike. I haven't personally seen it eat any pellets, but according to Ryan's wife the pellets seem to be gone when she checks the following morning. The fish seems healthy, strong, and very curious & alert to anyone that is in the room, so hopefully it is eating when no one is around, and will become more aggressive in eating pellets in the very near future. As I have stated to Ryan, starving a healthy adult fish & forcing it to eat pellets is generally not a problem (brooding males can go weeks without eating) but one needs to be VERY careful with juvenile fish. I believe that his RTG took 3 weeks before he came around to pellets, and now eats the Extra Large NLS formula exclusively. If eating pellets is something that the owner insists on (and some do), and the juvie fish resists for several days, then IMO it would be best to train the fish using a mix of market prawn & pellets, slowly reducing the prawn over the course of a week or two, until it becomes 100% pellet. Another method to get them started is soaking the pellets in their current food of choice, such as prawn juice, or stuffing the pellets in small pieces of the prawn, then slowly wean them on to to less of the fresh, and more of the pellet. Eventually the fish should associate the smell & taste of the pellets with food. With some fish this can be a time consuming task, taking weeks to achieve, but if one has enough patience & perseverance you should have a good shot at getting them to eat pellets. These are training techniques used for many years by the manufacturer of NLS, on numerous marine species that are notorious for refusing dry foods in captivity. It's not 100% fool proof, some fish would rather starve than switch, although that typically isn't the case with most freshwater species. Juvenile aros will have higher nutritional demands vs adults, and with their higher metabolic rates ideally they should eat every day if possible. Personally I would not recommend starving any juvenile fish for an extended period of time. Better off feeding the fish what it will eat, and trying again with pellet training when the fish is larger & will not suffer from malnutrition. As far as HIGH protein, as I have stated time & time again, the only percent of protein that is important, is the amount of protein that the fish can assimilate. Species that are classified as carnivores and/or piscivores can generally not properly digest foods that are high in starch/grain content (any more than a dog can) so don't simply rely on numbers posted on a food label. Those numbers are typically nothing more than the total nitrogen content, and do not reflect the overall digestibility of the food. In the end the only protein that truly matters is the amount of total digestible protein, as in the amount of protein that can be utilized by your fish. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDFISHGUY Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 (edited) "This is the video that got my drooling over BB X backs. Best looking arrows in my opinion. Mine is coming from Dragonfish. I am sure I will be talking to Jay in the near future though! Could be as addicting as rays" I've watched that video before. Awesome looking fish! Almost like blue snake skin. Can't wait to see your pics. I hope its a better quality aro than other BBXB I've seen from them in the past. With new competition ,quality aros should be easier to find and that can only benefit the hobby. I think you are right about the addictive aspect of keeping aros. Best of luck , Tim Edited September 19, 2008 by RDFISHGUY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I thought that you were supposed to be hard at work? With any luck your fish will be eating before you get home....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slough Shark Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Wow, after seeing that Vid, this is gonna be one stunningly beautiful fish!!! Is this a natural colour morph? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDFISHGUY Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 More pics : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arovillage Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 that big tank makes him look like a 'guppy' hahah~ he should grow faster when he starts to eat lots... nice tank and setup by the way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDFISHGUY Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Wow, after seeing that Vid, this is gonna be one stunningly beautiful fish!!!Is this a natural colour morph? It is a morph of the gold XB according to this link : http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=20929 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudy Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/s...d=1#post2219434 Here are som crappy pics of mine. I am over my attachement allowance here and I really dont have the energy to figure out what that is all about so hope you dont mind the hyperlink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratos Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Wow, after seeing that Vid, this is gonna be one stunningly beautiful fish!!!Is this a natural colour morph? It is a morph of the gold XB according to this link : http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=20929 If it is in the "golden head" family of Xback, it has some Tong Yan (XB SR Hybrid), crossed again with an XB. The regional colour characterstics of XB's from various watersheds (ex. Bukit Merah, Tasik Bera http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/p.../bera/bera.html, etc. add for some variation. This is my understanding anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silven Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 If you don't mind me asking rudy, how much? I don't want to pry, I just want to buy. I think that Dragonfish Canada is the import business that Street Cypher from Aquatic Predators started. I talked to him on several occasions and he was a pretty good guy. Also rudy if you don't mind, can I look you up next time I'm in C town? I think Kyle can vouch for me. I'm just dying to see your legendary Rays. :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
street cypher Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 If you don't mind me asking rudy, how much? I don't want to pry, I just want to buy. I think that Dragonfish Canada is the import business that Street Cypher from Aquatic Predators started. I talked to him on several occasions and he was a pretty good guy.Also rudy if you don't mind, can I look you up next time I'm in C town? I think Kyle can vouch for me. I'm just dying to see your legendary Rays. :thumbs: Hey Silven, Stratos and I are in on it together. If youre interested a shipment landed thursday. We have a platinumhead crossback, marble blue crossback and numerous Panda Gold Supremes, PM me over arowanaclub.ca and ill hook you up with a deal you may not be able to resist! Im working on pics, but i dont have a good camera or photography skills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDFISHGUY Posted September 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Up until today no one actually saw my fish eat. Pellets were dropped in and later were gone. Neil fed him this morning and actually saw him eat for the first time. No frozen or live foods have been offered to this fish while in my care. Pellets and flakes will be all he gets. I suspect he's been eating the pellets all along but its nice to have visual proof that he's eating. I'm sure a lot of people would've been freaking out after several days not seeing a $1800 fish eat anything. I was definitely starting to think about other options but, thankfully, once again , patience pays off. What a relief! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudy Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Up until today no one actually saw my fish eat. Pellets were dropped in and later were gone. Neil fed him this morning and actually saw him eat for the first time. No frozen or live foods have been offered to this fish while in my care. Pellets and flakes will be all he gets. I suspect he's been eating the pellets all along but its nice to have visual proof that he's eating. I'm sure a lot of people would've been freaking out after several days not seeing a $1800 fish eat anything. I was definitely starting to think about other options but, thankfully, once again , patience pays off. What a relief! Good for you! That is awesome man I wish I could feed mine NLS. I have him growing with a couple of leopoldi stingrays and have to feed them shrimp and massivore. The massivore is too big for the arrow and also a tougher pellet to get fish on. NLS would be ideal for the arrow but my rays would eat them and NLS causes black rays intestinal problems. Oh well I guess Shrimp isnt the end of the world and hopefully will get on Hikari one day. :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudy Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Up until today no one actually saw my fish eat. Pellets were dropped in and later were gone. Neil fed him this morning and actually saw him eat for the first time. No frozen or live foods have been offered to this fish while in my care. Pellets and flakes will be all he gets. I suspect he's been eating the pellets all along but its nice to have visual proof that he's eating. I'm sure a lot of people would've been freaking out after several days not seeing a $1800 fish eat anything. I was definitely starting to think about other options but, thankfully, once again , patience pays off. What a relief! Good for you! That is awesome man I wish I could feed mine NLS. I have him growing with a couple of leopoldi stingrays and have to feed them shrimp and massivore. The massivore is too big for the arrow and also a tougher pellet to get fish on. NLS would be ideal for the arrow but my rays would eat them and NLS causes black rays intestinal problems. Oh well I guess Shrimp isnt the end of the world and hopefully will get on Hikari one day. :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudy Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Up until today no one actually saw my fish eat. Pellets were dropped in and later were gone. Neil fed him this morning and actually saw him eat for the first time. No frozen or live foods have been offered to this fish while in my care. Pellets and flakes will be all he gets. I suspect he's been eating the pellets all along but its nice to have visual proof that he's eating. I'm sure a lot of people would've been freaking out after several days not seeing a $1800 fish eat anything. I was definitely starting to think about other options but, thankfully, once again , patience pays off. What a relief! Good for you! That is awesome man I wish I could feed mine NLS. I have him growing with a couple of leopoldi stingrays and have to feed them shrimp and massivore. The massivore is too big for the arrow and also a tougher pellet to get fish on. NLS would be ideal for the arrow but my rays would eat them and NLS causes black rays intestinal problems. Oh well I guess Shrimp isnt the end of the world and hopefully will get on Hikari one day. :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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