RD. Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 they won't ever eat it,as soon as i feed them the frozen stuff (once every 3 days)they go nuts ... and therein lies the problem. Your fish have now trained you. If you want your fish to accept pellets you need to stop feeding frozen food & give them some tough love. I have yet to see (or even hear) of a geophagus that cannot be trained to eat pellet foods, and that includes wild caught specimens. Most accept NLS straight away. Don't feed anything for 3 days, then feed sparingly, a little bit each day until your geos realize that's all they are going to get. They will catch on soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHLIPS Posted February 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2012 i've starved my puffers for 10 days before they start accepting. they will not accept if they get food q3days. i feed that tank a mixture of 3 or 4 pellets and the severum ends up eating 95% of them and the pleco the rest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted February 20, 2012 Report Share Posted February 20, 2012 If it was me, i would continue with the pellets and eventually the geos will start competing for the food as well. They are probably not competing for food as they know the "good stuff" is coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairdeal Posted February 21, 2012 Report Share Posted February 21, 2012 Wild caughts are by far the hardest to get on most commercial foods - not many pellets flowing down the Amazon. If you can get them onto new food it shouldn't be a stretch to get F1, F2, tank raised, etc. onto pellets. Jorg and I use a couple of tricks to get them started. 1st don't feed for a few days. 2nd put them in tanks were there are fish already eating the food you want them to accept. 3rd feed them initially with the NLS grow pellets - the .5mm. Plecos are by far the hardest to get onto new foods and they just lap up those little grow pellets like they are never going to see food again. Initially they kind of hang back and watch the other fish swimming around the tank grabbing food. After a day or so most have at least tried the food even if they still spit it out but they eventually get into the habit of eating when it goes in the tank or they soon realize there is no more until tomorrow. I think there is much less chance of getting the water cloudy or food being left over with the little pellets as well. Then some of the fish will accept bigger pellets after a while depending on how big the fish are of course. I was feeding my acara cats smelts and shrimp so they wouldn't starve and it took them at least 2 months before they would even look at the pellets. They would literally bounce off their heads and they would just swim away but now they scurry around the tank pounding those pellets down as fast as they can find them because the other food was gradually decreased until they were on just 1 smelt or shrimp every other day. The water tends to become a little murky if you overfeed for sure but when you have found the right amount to feed that will not be a problem any longer. You can also tell by the amount of excrement from the fish - too much food results in lots of chunky poop and the right amount will tend to show very little or at least a lot less of normal looking excrement. Because there are not a lot of fillers like some other foods the fish get a better chance at properly digesting most of the NLS instead of just shooting it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisher Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 (edited) :thumbs: Thanks Harold! Edited February 23, 2012 by Fisher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bet Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Was at Francos a bit ago. Lady there said not to feed NLS food as it was the dirtiest food on the market and you should be feeding fish Hikari as it was soon the only food they would be feeding/selling. Opinions of this would be greatly appreciated as from some research I did NLS was a good option. Feedback>>> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Go back and read the thread, an you'll see how to avoid the dirtiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Was at Francos a bit ago. Lady there said not to feed NLS food as it was the dirtiest food on the market and you should be feeding fish Hikari as it was soon the only food they would be feeding/selling. Interesting, considering the fact that for a long time NLS was all Franco fed to the fish in his store. I heard nothing but praise about the quality of the food from both Franco & Linda. It must have taken them a few years to figure out how "dirty" it was? Perhaps Hikari is now giving them a better deal on food? Who knows. Sometimes what a retailer promotes simply boils down to what product is giving them the better profit margin at the end of the day. I can understand that, with todays economy times are tough for a lot of the smaller stores, especially where the competition is fierce such as in Calgary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistolPete Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Wild caughts are by far the hardest to get on most commercial foods - not many pellets flowing down the Amazon. If you can get them onto new food it shouldn't be a stretch to get F1, F2, tank raised, etc. onto pellets. Jorg and I use a couple of tricks to get them started. 1st don't feed for a few days. 2nd put them in tanks were there are fish already eating the food you want them to accept. 3rd feed them initially with the NLS grow pellets - the .5mm. Plecos are by far the hardest to get onto new foods and they just lap up those little grow pellets like they are never going to see food again. Initially they kind of hang back and watch the other fish swimming around the tank grabbing food. After a day or so most have at least tried the food even if they still spit it out but they eventually get into the habit of eating when it goes in the tank or they soon realize there is no more until tomorrow. I think there is much less chance of getting the water cloudy or food being left over with the little pellets as well. Then some of the fish will accept bigger pellets after a while depending on how big the fish are of course. I was feeding my acara cats smelts and shrimp so they wouldn't starve and it took them at least 2 months before they would even look at the pellets. They would literally bounce off their heads and they would just swim away but now they scurry around the tank pounding those pellets down as fast as they can find them because the other food was gradually decreased until they were on just 1 smelt or shrimp every other day. The water tends to become a little murky if you overfeed for sure but when you have found the right amount to feed that will not be a problem any longer. You can also tell by the amount of excrement from the fish - too much food results in lots of chunky poop and the right amount will tend to show very little or at least a lot less of normal looking excrement. Because there are not a lot of fillers like some other foods the fish get a better chance at properly digesting most of the NLS instead of just shooting it out. haha thats why my L368s love nls soo much. They dont even like the wafers bc they are all about the pellets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanie1978 Posted February 27, 2012 Report Share Posted February 27, 2012 (edited) LOL My fish love the NLS although my community tank I almost swear they6 are flipping me off for feeding them the pellet version (NLS Spectrum Comm. F.F.). They sink way too fast for most of them but they do love it. Switched to flakes for them and yes I noticed the first few days I was feeding way too much, had the same scum appear on bottom. Reduce to a third of amount you were feeding originally. Stoped the pollution of my tank. Also since it is such a rich food the fish can/will gorge on it, especially guppies (lost a few as they literally burst from overeating). You can get the NLs spectrum pellets for surface dwellers. Half floats while half sinks. I found this works best with my cichlids. Edited February 27, 2012 by jeanie1978 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 All my fish eat NLS pellets. Weird thing is the wafers aren't a big hit, except for the small cichlid fry that pig out on them. Keeps the tank clean, drop one in in the morning, and easily sucked out in one chunk at night with a turkey baster at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 All my fish eat NLS pellets. Weird thing is the wafers aren't a big hit, except for the small cichlid fry that pig out on them. Keeps the tank clean, drop one in in the morning, and easily sucked out in one chunk at night with a turkey baster at night. I also find the same thing with the waffers. The bottom feeders and regular fish won't touch them and prefer the pellets, while the fry go crazy for them. Definitely makes feeding the fry easier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 28, 2012 Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 My big plecos (L91, L114 and L128) LOVE the wafers; BNs tolerate them; but, L134 won't touch 'em. All like pellets, and Thera+A is by far the favorite! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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