My Story

[fishmode]

Hi everyone,

Upon purchasing my first batch of CPDs (13), I’ve found them to slightly go for the frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp. They would take the food in, chew a couple times, then spit it out. Then, it would take at it, chew on it, then spit it out again. Now, this would happen a couple times before the fish loses it and/or another comes behind and has a go at it. The sequence of grab, chew, spit would occur for at least a dozen times between the fishes before someone would swallow and take.

I decided the food were too large or the fish were too picky. So, I went to the lfs where I brought the fish and asked for advice. I ended up buying the Hikari Micro Wafers, frozen cyclops, and frozen BBS. The BBS and cyclops did better than the brine shrimp were as the fish just take and swallow. However, the food were a bit small and required quite a bit for the fish to grab at before they grew tired and started spitting it out again.

The Micro Wafers did worse, the fish’s mouth were too small, so they never really ate of them.

So, I thought, what the hey let’s try some flake. At first, i put some on the top. These guys will not go to the top to grab food! They would wait until some would sink due to the flow of the filter and then grab. But, get this. They would eat A LOT of flake! It seems ackom’s razor wins again, the most simpliest solution was the best. My fish really goes for the flake.

Although sometimes, they are picky on which color flake they like. Beats me.

Question: How do you guys diet your fish to look like the one’s on top of the page? My females ar absoutely pale, although some are showing signs of coloration. I also have a non-dominant male that is so pale, he often looks like a female. The only notion I have in distinguishing this male is his slight, slight colour in the anal fin and his lack of the “gravid” spot.

Thanks again,
-David

[celestialdude]

Hi David and welcome to the forum!

Mine actually enjoy frozen bloodworms. They gobble them up, no questions asked. I’m not sure if maybe you got a bad batch? You can tell from the color — the redder the better, and nice big fat worms.

The other thing you could try is feeding them at regular times, twice a day. I hope you have a timer for your hood lamp, so that they have regular simulated dawn and dusk. This is really important in regulating their body clock and appetites. Feed them an hour after “dawn” and an hour before “dusk”. This is what I’ve found to work best for all my fishes actually. They know when the food is coming, and nothing can stop them from getting it!

Hope that helps…

[atlantis_child]

Did you use the reg. wagers, or the microwafers? I find the microwafers just right for them, or crush with my fingers regular tropical fish granules.

– Atlantis

[altaaffe]

Mine don’t go for bloodworm either, but this may be partly due to the fact that they have live white worms now and again. Might be the actual wriggle factor.

[fishmode]

Atlantis,

Does your cpds gobble those microwafers up easy? Mine are having some difficulty getting it through their small mouths. It could be the phishes are a little on the small side.

I gave them a piece of bloodworms now and again but they sure are picky when it comes to soft food. They seem to love any hard, crunchy pickings they find… :roll:

-David

[atlantis_child]

Yeah. Not when they were juvies, but the adults definately.

It’s good stuff. The fish seem more colorful when it’s in their regular diet.
Don’t have any right now though, and am hesitant to get more fish food considering how many different types I have already…

Dry tubifix cubes are good, but need to be cut before puting it water. Once in water they float, then start to soften. Once softened they can be easily picked at, or crushed so the small pieces float off into the water.

Caution with feeding too many of the non-basic fish food, as too much feeding of the ‘goodies’ can be bad news for your water quality.

– Atlantis

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