Rainbows And Nls Pellets

[Jayba]

I received some pretty rare rainbow fish from Rick Wilsack, one of the demi gods for rainbows in Canada. He, and his colleagues feed a ton of live foods and flakes to bring out the best colors in their fish.

I would like to change these guys over to NLS pellets as a little experiment, not to mention the convenience of prepared food as well. The problem is that they have been spoiled and don't see the pellets as food. Or even seem to see them at all. The food can hit them on the way down and there is no response.

They don't eat at the surface. I have semi sinking pellets that either sink or float, nothing really in between. In a perfect world the food would be neutral buoyancy and the fish would have multiple chances to eat them as they get blown around the tank. Right now they swim right on by. They also don't root through the substrate looking for food, so they won't eat one just by chance and figure it our t that way.

I don't want to feed them a flake food, it'll just be messy in the tank. I feel that pellets are neater, and just a few does the trick, so I would like to go this route.

Any Ideas on converting them to the dark side? Jay

[dunl]

I usually just fast the fish for a few days before switching them over.

[BettaFishMommy]

you could try soaking them in a bit of garlic juice to entice the fish to eat.

if they are young juveniles i wouldn't do the 'keep offering pellets until they eat' method, since baby fish need to eat more often. if they are adults and you aren't worried about them going a few days without food you might try the perseverance method.

what size pellets are you feeding, and what size are the fishes mouths? maybe the pellets are a bit too big?

[Jayba]

I have .5 .8 and 1 mm. It will fit in their mouths for sure. They just don't see them as food at all. May as well be dropping sand in the tank... I have skipped a day of feeding and didn't make a difference.....*sigh*

If they would even mouth it they could figure out it was food, they need one of my cichlids in there to show em how it's done. With vigor too!

[syno321]

You have come up with your own solution. Add some appropriate size young of another species already familiar with NLS, and the rainbows will soon learn from watching the other species.

[rED O]

Why not just toss a few pellets in? They will probably like the NLS better anyways. Iv never seen a community fish that did not accept NLS almost instantly.

[dunl]

Why not just toss a few pellets in? They will probably like the NLS better anyways. Iv never seen a community fish that did not accept NLS almost instantly.

The problem is that they have been spoiled and don't see the pellets as food. Or even seem to see them at all. The food can hit them on the way down and there is no response.

:smokey:

One more thing you can try is to put some pellets into a pepper grinder, and grind it up so that the grinds float on the top of the water. About as close to flakes as you can get. Hopefully that works.

[jvision]

If the fish are healthy, fasting them for 2 or 3 days won't hurt. Mixing pellets w. frozen might help. Syno and BettaFM both have good suggestions as well.

[Jayba]

You have come up with your own solution. Add some appropriate size young of another species already familiar with NLS, and the rainbows will soon learn from watching the other species.

Once the quarrintine is over, maybe a few 1.5 inch cichlids will go on in.Show 'em how we roll in Jay's basement!

Making new friends, showing others life skills and crossing the species barriers . All this is gonna happen in MY basement. It's gonna be wicked!

[Baos]

Why not just toss a few pellets in? They will probably like the NLS better anyways. Iv never seen a community fish that did not accept NLS almost instantly.

The problem is that they have been spoiled and don't see the pellets as food. Or even seem to see them at all. The food can hit them on the way down and there is no response.

:smokey:

One more thing you can try is to put some pellets into a pepper grinder, and grind it up so that the grinds float on the top of the water. About as close to flakes as you can get. Hopefully that works.

I do that for my smaller eaters. But I use an electric coffee grinder.

[CursiveDuck]

If they're picky I really don't see 1 day of fasting being enough to switch em over, I really think at least a 3 day fast to switch em to the dark side might be in order :P Maybe even a 3 day fast, and when the fish are good an hungry mix in a little frozen with their pellets, so they know its feeding time, but are only left with mostly NLS. That is if the standard 3 day fast doesn't work on it's own. Its surprising though most of my fish didn't need to be persuaded at all lol, they just loved NLS from the moment I put it in the tank.

[Blue Ram]

I've kept rainbows for several years and have many from Rick Wilsac. My suggestion is just to be patient. Rainbows are great eaters and usually will eat anything. I probably feed my rainbow tank at least 6 different feeds a week. Lots of clean water and a temp. of about 78 should trigger their healthy appetite. Good luck.