Featherfin help

[oddballfan33]

I have a 2 inch juvenile synotodis eupterus who currently resides in my 29 gallon. I got him about a week ago, and he will not eat. I have tried carnivore pellets, algae wafers, flake, and live brine shrimp. I have tried feeding both day and night. Any suggestions?

 

[LyndaB]

What other fish do you have in the tank and what size is the tank where he's housed?

Do you have driftwood in there for him? Caves?

When I got mine, he was about 3-4 inches and he hid for the first couple of weeks. I could tell by the patterns in the sand that he was scavenging at night. It's taken him months to get over his shyness and even now he will dive for cover if he sees a sudden movement by the tank.

I tried dropping wafers for him at night, can't say whether the blood parrots got them or he did. But he looks great and well-fed. I know he's a scavenger so I crush up algae flake, soak in garlic guard and vita-chem and put it into the tank. Because it's a wet product, it immediately goes to the bottom of the tank and he ends up feeding well.

 

[oddballfan33]

I have a 29 gallon tank with an african brown knife fish. It has two large rock caves, the syno has picked one and the knife has the other.

 

[LyndaB]

In my opinion, your tank is much too small for these species, even if you only had one. The featherfin will grow to about 8 inches and really needs room to cruise the tank floor. I have mine in a 75 and that works for him.

The knife fish could reach 8 inches and requires the same amount of tank space.

Your best bet would really be to rehome the two fish and then stock your tank with something more appropriate. I'm sure the featherfin is stressed by having no way to escape the territory of the knife fish. It just won't work in that tank. Sorry.

 

[meegosh]

I had a syno also and it got huge! I had to rehome it quite a few times. Right now it is in a 125g cichlid tank and it is well over 8" right now. It was quite boisterous in my tank, knocking rocks over and uprooting plants, so I rehomed him.

Given a large tank and a good diet they can easily grow past the 8" mark you see all over the interwebs.

Mine always loved gobbling up algae wafers and shrimp pellets. He also goes crazy for the sinking cichlid pellets that my friend feeds her cichlids.

 

[Mogurako]

I have a 2 inch juvenile synotodis eupterus who currently resides in my 29 gallon. I got him about a week ago, and he will not eat. I have tried carnivore pellets, algae wafers, flake, and live brine shrimp. I have tried feeding both day and night. Any suggestions?

My Eurpterus were mostly active at night and stayed in their caves for most of the night. If yours is new give it a few days to acclimate, keep the lights off and skip feeding for a couple of days.

On another note a 29 is much to small for a Eurpetus they will grow to be 6-8" and need to be in a school of 5-7. A 55 with lots of caves would be IMO/E the smallest tank I would keep them in.