Aquarium Bluegill (Brim) Feeding

[dwunder]

Hello,

First post, so if I am do something incorrectly let me know and I will learn from it.

I have a cold water (no heater) aquarium that I have been using to raise a small Bluegill I caught last year. I want to keep his home natural. Natural plants, rocks, etc. I have been feeding him red worms, mealworms, wax worms, and blood worms. The local aquarium shop recommended a Cichlid pellet to be added to his diet to provide plant vitamins/minerals. The only problem is he won't eat them. He as since eaten down all the natural plants that I put in the aquarium (harvested from his home pond). Occasionally, he gets picky with his food and won't eat the various worms and I feel it is because he is lacking the plant matter he needs. If it was spring/summer, I would just go get more natural plants, but since it is winter I can't do that. Any suggestions for a vegetable substitute that will provide those nutrients? I have tried Kale and he did not seem to like that. (spit it out)

Thanks

 

[Andy Sager]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
There are couple of things I would suggest: live crickets, romaine lettuce, spinach, spirulina flakes/pellets and frozen gut loaded brine shrimp. The brine shrimp is fed a spirulina algae before freezing so that gives the eater some extra vegetable matter in their diet. With live crickets, since they are omnivores, there will be plant matter in their stomachs as well. The rest is self explanitory.
There are also sheets of nori that you can try but then you are getting into some extra expenses. I would use that as a last resort choice.

Hope this helps.

 

[dwunder]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
There are couple of things I would suggest: live crickets, romaine lettuce, spinach, spirulina flakes/pellets and frozen gut loaded brine shrimp. The brine shrimp is fed a spirulina algae before freezing so that gives the eater some extra vegetable matter in their diet. With live crickets, since they are omnivores, there will be plant matter in their stomachs as well. The rest is self explanitory.
There are also sheets of nori that you can try but then you are getting into some extra expenses. I would use that as a last resort choice.

Hope this helps.

Excellent! Thank you! I had considered crickets but failed to follow the thought completely to consider what the cricket ate. Very much appreciated!

 

[Andy Sager]

Excellent! Thank you! I had considered crickets but failed to follow the thought completely to consider what the cricket ate. Very much appreciated!

 

[Autumnsky]

Also another ploy to get the wild fish to eat pellets is to add some in while feeding a favorite live/ or defrosted frozen food. They inadvertently may eat a few pellets and start to see them as a food source. Hikari also has a food called Vibra Bites which have a unique shape, somewhat of a twist shape which makes it seem to move in the water and the fish like it. Again, it may take time for the fish to see it as food.

 

[CfishGo]

Insects for sure. You might want to try soaking food before feeding cause Blue Gills usually feed more towards the bottom in ponds and by soaking first food will sink faster. Bug bytes may be an option.