Weaning wild fish from feeders???

[SHARKDIVER]

I have 2 wild....now I will say it again because it seems people ignore me when I say that, WILD Peacock Bass. Which feed far different from pen raised Peacock Bass. They are still VERY young, only about 4 inches in length, if that. I have a friend who had two pen raised Bass and he told me being that young I could teach them to eat pellets. For the first week I tried this, they didn't take...so worried I went to the pet store asking them what else I could feed them. I was told "Oh wild bass won't eat anything but live food" So I started buying guppies, but as soon as they were big enough to eat small feeders I stepped up. I thought my Oscars weren't big enough to eat small feeders and didn't want them to have that rich of a diet regularly....well I don't want my Bass to have such a rich diet regularly either, but thought I had no choice.

Problem 1...the Oscars are big enough to eat small feeders. That in itself isn't such a large problem because the bass are so much faster out of 3 Oscars only one will get ONE feeder before the bass eat the rest, however now they Oscars are starting to turn away their pellets and wait until live fish feeding days.

Recently I found out that the fish store may have been wrong and that Wild Bass will in fact eat NON live food.

So now new problem, they have been eating live feeders for about 2-3 months and ONLY live feeders.

I've been told at their young age I can re-teach them to eat the same Ciclid pellets I am feeding the Oscars. Is this true and how do I go about it? For the past two weeks I have been feeding the Oscars pellets twice daily as usual and not feeding the Bass more than ever 3 days, and at that I only buy 4 feeders, as apposed to the 8 I used to buy EVERY day. And I only buy the 4 every 3 days so they don't starve. In the hopes that they will get hungry enough and not get feeders enough they will realize "Hey if we want to eat, we have to eat these round things the other fish are eating". Alas no luck in two weeks, when I feed the Oscars they see the Oscars eat and swim around in "hunt" mode. You can just tell they are looking for live food. Am I going about this right? Or am I just waisting my time trying this? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

[Menagerie]

For the past two weeks I have been feeding the Oscars pellets twice daily as usual and not feeding the Bass more than ever 3 days, and at that I only buy 4 feeders, as apposed to the 8 I used to buy EVERY day. And I only buy the 4 every 3 days so they don't starve.

First, stop feeding so often. These fish can survive just fine being fed every other day.
Second, try feeding a frozen food as the intermediate step.
Finally, soak the pellets in frozen food. I know when blood worms defrost, it's a gross mess.
I hope this helps.

[SHARKDIVER]

Yeah I have recently stopped feeding them everyday, I actually suspected that they did not need to eat everyday, I mean afterall in the wild food is not available everyday...I only started feeding them every day after someone who already owns two said I should be feeding them everyday. Since he had two I had no reason to disbelieve his advice. Thanks for the help, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my time trying to ween them from feeder fish.

Also once I get all my fish off of feeders, well the bass anyway, I have gotten the Oscars back to pellets. Is it safe to feed them live feeders now and again as a treat. I mean honestly I like watching them hunt down live fish...as sadistic as that sounds.

[grimlock3000]

Where are you getting the feeders from? Unless you have your own tank breeding feeder fish, many times feeder fish can bring disease and parasites into a tank.

[Menagerie]

Giving fish treats is okay. I would keep it to once a month. I feed all my fish every other day and you're correct about fish in the wild! I would not feed feeder fish within the first couple months after weening. Good luck and keep us posted!

[TankGirl]

I'd try fasting them for three days and then offer the pellets, and that is a fabulous idea, Menagerie, about soaking them in the "juice" of the frozen bloodworms. They need to think they are not going to get another feeder, and go ahead and accept the pellets. They probably can be trained, and I think it will be better for them in the long term if they are given a quality prepared food in addition to the live and frozen treats.

Good luck - it is so hard when they are begging, begging, begging for food!

[BrianNY]

I wasn't going to respond Sharkdiver because I'm not famailiar with peacock bass a s a species. I do know that some fish will only accept live fish as a meal. I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping these species and feeding live foods.

Were it my tank, there are certain investments I'd make, and they all have to do with filters.

1. Get the largest HOB you can find. I say HOB because they are the easieast to clean. Use this in conjunction with your cannister.

2. I would suggest a diatom filter as well. 1 hour or so twice a week will make a big difference in your water quality.

3. A UV sterilizer will help if you feeding live fish. It isn't a cure all but it will kill anything microscopic that may be brought in with them.

[TankGirl]

That's a good suggestion about the UV filter - may be a lifesaver in this case.

[SHARKDIVER]

Thanks for the advice, but a month of fasting these fish for days at a time has seemed to do no good at all, maybe since they are a wild species, genetically that just won't realize pellets are their food. Although I am determined so I haven't given up just yet. Again thanks for the great advice.