Hand Feeding Fish (Elephant Nose) - Aquarium Advice

Slarty Bartfast · 04-26-2006, 12:08 AM

Just picked up an elephant nose and people are mentioning that they are feeding them by hand, eventually.

So, if you have a fish you hand feed: What technique did you use for feeding to get them to come to your hand, and what are you feeding them?

Thanks!

tropicfishman · 04-26-2006, 12:15 AM

I hear bloodworms works great to get fish to hand feed, just hold it between your fingers in the water until they come and eat it

sir_dudeguy · 04-26-2006, 12:35 AM

i had an elephant nose once...bad experience. loved the fish, but it wouldnt eat ANYTHING! tried live brine, bloodworms, tubafix, even frozen of all the stuff i just listed. wouldnt touch flake either. one time tho, he did nibble tubafix worms. i tried other stuff too, just cant remember.
the water was fine and everything, must have been a bad fish. It really made me mad tho, cuz i got it from an lfs that i really liked and trusted, never had one of their fish die....

anyways, what tropicfishman says is exactly what ive heard. i also saw it at that lfs too, where the guy had his own tank behind the counter, and he would always hand feed it

Slarty Bartfast · 04-27-2006, 04:46 PM

well, he(she?) just died, I don't think he acclimatized to the tank. fed him frozen bloodworms and saw him eat a few times, but I think the new environment finally stressed him out. it's a wide 40gal, with plenty of hiding places, rocks, vegetation. Going to try again, I've tested the water and it looks fine. So I'll drop the $20 and get another. Every time one dies, though, I feel like I've let God down, a little bit, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, the bloodworms are little tiny things, the idea of wiggling it around just doesn't make sense to me, I gotta figure that my big old hand in there will be way more scary than the temptation of the bloodworm, but we'll see. What I want to find is LIVE worms for a while, to make sure it's eating, then switch to frozen....

04-26-2006, 12:08 AM	#1
Slarty Bartfast Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Royal Oak, MI Posts: 17	Hand Feeding Fish (Elephant Nose) Just picked up an elephant nose and people are mentioning that they are feeding them by hand, eventually. So, if you have a fish you hand feed: What technique did you use for feeding to get them to come to your hand, and what are you feeding them? Thanks!

04-26-2006, 12:15 AM	#2
tropicfishman Aquarium Advice Addict Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ashland KY Posts: 1,890	I hear bloodworms works great to get fish to hand feed, just hold it between your fingers in the water until they come and eat it __________________ I love my clown loaches and red tail shark!!! lol

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04-26-2006, 12:35 AM	#3
sir_dudeguy Aquarium Advice FINatic Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: arizona Posts: 515 Images: 1	i had an elephant nose once...bad experience. loved the fish, but it wouldnt eat ANYTHING! tried live brine, bloodworms, tubafix, even frozen of all the stuff i just listed. wouldnt touch flake either. one time tho, he did nibble tubafix worms. i tried other stuff too, just cant remember. the water was fine and everything, must have been a bad fish. It really made me mad tho, cuz i got it from an lfs that i really liked and trusted, never had one of their fish die.... anyways, what tropicfishman says is exactly what ive heard. i also saw it at that lfs too, where the guy had his own tank behind the counter, and he would always hand feed it

04-27-2006, 04:46 PM	#4
Slarty Bartfast Aquarium Advice Apprentice Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Royal Oak, MI Posts: 17	well, he(she?) just died, I don't think he acclimatized to the tank. fed him frozen bloodworms and saw him eat a few times, but I think the new environment finally stressed him out. it's a wide 40gal, with plenty of hiding places, rocks, vegetation. Going to try again, I've tested the water and it looks fine. So I'll drop the $20 and get another. Every time one dies, though, I feel like I've let God down, a little bit, if you know what I mean. Anyway, the bloodworms are little tiny things, the idea of wiggling it around just doesn't make sense to me, I gotta figure that my big old hand in there will be way more scary than the temptation of the bloodworm, but we'll see. What I want to find is LIVE worms for a while, to make sure it's eating, then switch to frozen....