Bala Sharks, Rainbow Sharks, and Sun or Eclipse Catfish

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vanimal

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If anybody has bala sharks, a rainbow shark, or an eclipse/sun catfish could you please tell me what you feed them. I've tried a lot of different foods and mine dont eat much so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
 
my rainbow eats omega 1 floating pellets,hbh shrimp pellets,bloodworms,and jewel fry. not very picky. and if eclipse catfish are anything like raphaels,whatever fits in its mouth
 
I use it feed my bala sharks flake food, brine shrimp and shrimp pellets. My experience with balas has been that they appear to eat less than their tank mates but they grew bigger and faster than them. You could try soaking the food in some type of garlic additive, garlic is suppose to encourage the fish's appetite, I know Seachem makes a garlic additive that you can find at a LFS or online.
 
My rainbow wont eat he sucks a part of a flake in and then spits it back out... And he doesn't seem to eat the shrimp pellets I put in. I even put my bottom feeder tablets in his tunnel that he stays in and they never get eaten
 
My balas eat flakes and they absolutely devour it! Grow like crazy also
 
My rainbow sharks whatever he can find and skims algae off surfaces too. They are scavengers more or less so one doesn't really need to worry about them. They will just eat whatever is left over from the normal feeding of the tank.
For the Bala sharks and Rainbow alike, I would suggest try a high quality pellet. Like New Life Spectrum.
 
I've tried hikari pellets and they didn't get eaten. And I put in sinking Pellets for my rainbow and catfish but they never get eaten. I just can't get my fish to eat. But I have a different cichlid tank and they devour the pellets I put in.
 
vanimal said:
If anybody has bala sharks, a rainbow shark, or an eclipse/sun catfish could you please tell me what you feed them. I've tried a lot of different foods and mine dont eat much so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

I used to own a 5" Bala shark, he usually ate just regular flake food, and occasionally hikari food sticks(when I was raising my silver arowana at the time) never seemed to have any problems with him eating
 
Oh and as for the sun catfish, I own a 8" right now... they're scavengers, hides all day, comes out at night, just throw some sinking pellets in there, he'll find them :)
 
Really that's all you can do is just provide food for them to eat at their own time, don't over feed b/c then you'll have water quality problems and that's not going to help your fish's appetite. Again all the balas I've had over the years from 2" to 10" never seemed to have big appetites and I never once saw any of my pictus catfish eat during the day. I know you have a different catfish but most if not all catfish species are more active at night. Try the garlic additive I've read on AA and other forums that it works.
 
One of my bala sharks randomly stopped eating and evidently died. Not sure why?
 
Daniel R said:
One of my bala sharks randomly stopped eating and evidently died. Not sure why?

Just realised it's not your thread, try starting a thread so more people can specifically help you, and see what's wrong:)
 
Yeah I'm having the same problem! Mine eat but not much. But I guess its enough for them to survive.
 
I feed my 2 Bala's....

Hi! I have 2 Bala's. I named them from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well mine, Michaelangelo and Rafiel, eat tropical flakes. I haven't seen them go up and eat them, like my other fish, but Bala's are scavengers. They spend their time looking for food from past feedings. They also keep the algae under control. Thats why mine are always wating off of rocks and such. Hope it helps! :lol:
 
Unfortunately my balas died... One jumped out of the tank because I was an idiot and left the lid open after a feeding. : / And the other two got sick but none of my other fish in the tank got sick. So I don't know what it is and it's weird that it only killed my balas... But now I have the rainbow shark, eclipse catfish, and bristle nose pleco. All are healthy and I got them to start eating! :)
 
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