what to feed bass

[vsnsofadrgn]

what should we feed our peacock bass. hes on a diet of feeders and ghost shrimp, but id like to get him on more of a variety. the one problem is that he wont take anything thats not alive. we even went to the bait store and got night crawlers, but hes scared of them..... what about crickets or meal worms???

[redswi]

I used to have tiger oscars that loved to eat leaches...I would buy them by the pound from a local bait shop

[vsnsofadrgn]

hmmm, thats a good idea. i just hope hes not scared of them!

[tropicfishman]

the ones my teacher had in school we fed them a wide variety of things, earth worms, meal worms, feeders, one even ate bubble gum that someone put in there lol

[Idealconcepts]

vsnsofadrgn - how big are your Peacock Bass? If they are small, under 6 inches the temp of your tank needs to be higher (between 82F-86F) in order to prevent ich. From what I understand they are very prone to this when they are young. Also it is recommended you do large water changes each week, 50% to 70%, because they produce alot of waste from eating tons of food. How large of a tank are they in? You can get them onto frozen and pellets by dropping live food in the tank and every 4 one drop in a pellet or frozen food. You are trying to train them to eat whatever hits the water and not bother with what it is. Feeding live feeders will get expensive when they get larger, they typically grow to 2ft and the larger species up to 3ft. They recommend a 180gal tank for one, you could keep other non-aggressive fish with it as long as it is large enough to not be eaten. I had a 3 inch p-bass eat a 2 inch p-bass, except the large one couldn't swallow the smaller one so both died.

[tropicfishman]

I'm sorry idealconcepts but I would have like to seen that ( I'm really really sorry that sounds so mean ) I can't imagine what that would have even looked like

[Burks]

Originally Posted by Idealconcepts

I had a 3 inch p-bass eat a 2 inch p-bass, except the large one couldn't swallow the smaller one so both died.

I've seen something similar except it was a 6" Largemouth and a 4-5" Channel Catfish.

Luckily the Largemouth was still alive and we pulled the dead cat from it's throat. He swam off.......maybe he's still out there today and learned his lesson!

[Idealconcepts]

tropicfishman - I took some pics, if I can find them I'll post it.