I have a picky eater

[LuminousAphid]

So you may have seen my other thread about my Blue Rams, and they really are doing pretty well except that I have been noticing more and more lately that my male is a very picky eater.

He really only goes for live or meaty frozen foods, and doesn't pay much attention to dried foods. He even ignored Repashy Shrimp Souffle when I tried it; he seemed to eyeball it for a minute, but then decided against trying it. Whenever I come home from work I see his little sunken belly, and I don't know whether it's good to keep feeding him meaty foods all the time, but that's all he really eats, even when he looks pretty hungry. He doesn't seem to be ill or sick though, because he does eat well when I give him food he likes.... I think he's just picky. At first I thought it was just lack of appetite as he was settling in, but he still won't eat any dry food that I have tried.

I should point out that he seems pretty healthy, has good colors, and is behaving normally. It just seems like he is a bit skinny, and although he is eating now, I don't want to let him keep starving until he just can't eat anymore. I also don't know whether feeding a diet of only meaty things like frozen bloodworms, frozen spirulina brine, frozen daphnia and live blackworms will be good for him long-term.

I know it's not the types of food I am trying, either, because the female is the polar opposite; I find that she will eat almost anything I throw in there. In fact she has gotten pretty fat since I got her, which I guess isn't bad to a point, but it's strange that the male is staying skinny while the female seems very well-fed. I don't think the female is lording over or hogging the food either, the male just doesn't show any interest in it. She will go crazy over stuff like Hikari crab cuisine, and the male won't touch it.

So, I am looking for advice on how to train my male Blue Ram to eat dried foods. I have tried putting both types of food in at once, and it didn't work, the male just ate only what he liked. Should I try not feeding for a couple of days, and then re-introduce some sinking dry foods that the female appreciates, and hope the male will be hungry enough to try? Or, has anyone tried making a mix of dry and frozen food to get them used to the flavor?

Thanks in advance for the advice,
- Ryan

Here you can see how his tummy normally looks, not terrible but he doesn't look well-fed. Now that I look back on this pic it makes me a little less worried, because he is looking better now than he does here; this is about 2 weeks ago:

 

[DMD123]

Im in a similar situation with one of my fish. Ive been trying to do a hardcore switch over to pellet but after about two weeks I always give in and give stuff it will eat. Some say a fish will not starve itself to death but I dont know.... I think some would. You could just keep on trying prepared foods and stop giving the stuff it wants.

 

[LuminousAphid]

My rubberlip starved itself to death, so that's not always true. There was plenty of food for it to eat, it just didn't want to try it. All it would do was suck on the glass, constantly, all day long, for a couple of months straight. And then it died.

I think I will man up and stop worrying about him starving. I will try that for a week or so, just stop giving him tasty stuff altogether and see if he will come around to eating pellets etc. I don't think he will starve in a week, but might be hungry enough that he eats repashy or something else good.

 

[LuminousAphid]

Another factor I just thought of.... I don't have the softest water in my tank, so I am wondering if it might just be the osmotic stress that is affecting his appetite? Although if that were the case, you'd think the female would be suffering too, and like I said, she is doing very well.

I haven't really been the best at doing regular water changes recently, so maybe if I make sure I keep up a regular schedule for that, he will feel a little better.

I might also try some cichlid-specific sinking food. Anyone have suggestions for types that Rams specifically go for? Hikari Cichlid Gold a good place to start?

 

[cichlid-gal]

My ram will eat NLS 1mm pellets.

 

[Madness]

Is the fish eating anything?

 

[DMD123]

I never tried it but NLS has a Finicky formula.

 

[lloyd378]

I have always done the eat what I feed or die method ( natural selection) I might need to knock on wood, but I have never lost a fish due to refusal to eat. Good luck with him, I hope he eats soon!

 

[Ewb46]

I have found feeding my fish a merry go round of foods has helped. Typically for a dry food if I have a stubborn fish I "First Flakes" they have a very high fat content and just about every fish I own goes bonkers for it. I have yet to see a fish turn down Repashy. I have had some not touch it when it was in a big cube form. To combat that I would just squish it in my fingers and drop it in my tank. My EBJD was really stubborn and got on a kick of only wanting black worms. So after a while I would add a little bit of garlic to my black worms then added garlic to my repashy that was a trigger for that fish. I have been lucky to not have a really picky fish. Sometimes fasting a fish will change their mind about what it wants to eat.

 

[Anonymous]

there is a diy video by uarujoey on youtube that works well and I use the method for my discus, pretty much blend up your meats (i.e. bloodworm, shrimp, beef heart...) with steamed veggies like lettuce, peas, spinach, carrots, then you put in gelatin like your making jello and you get A LOT of food for way less than you will spend buying it at the store and plus when you blend it all together your fish will have a better chance of getting the veggies also if you soak your fish food in garlicgaurd it usually attracts the fish to eat it.

 

[star_rider]

madness's ? has merit

refusal of food can be an indicator that something else is amiss.

 

[Chiisai]

madness's ?  has merit

refusal of food can be an indicator that something else is amiss.

the OP stated the fish was only refusing DRY foods(flake/pellet) but WAS eating meaty foods such as bloodworms. I recently tried the "eat what I give or die" method and lost 2 dovii juveniles. I personally dont believe this method works on ALL fish. I think it may work for some but now that I lost $30 in fish... I am unwilling to risk it again. I think some fish are just more carnivorous then others. Good luck with your fish and let us know what happens!

 

[dwarfpike]

If you do go with a pellet, go tiny. Members of the geophagus family tend to eat tiny stuff relative to their size. Heck, most breeders still give their 7"-12" geo's 1mm pellets. They are used to picking at the substrate all day long, so the smaller feed helps to encourage that natural behavior (rams are just mini, or micro if you will, geo's).

 

[Madness]

But he also said a little sunk in belly, to me that points to parasites. The fish will get more and more picky and then wont eat at all, therefore my question.

Have you noticed any white poo in the tank or from the fish?

 

[star_rider]

I am leaning the same direction as Madness.
fish infected with parasites may show decreased appetite and on impulse will feed on Bloodworms eventually refusing these as well..
they may also suck the bloodworm in and spit it back out.
I recently had to deal with similar issues in my Altum tank as well as some
discus I had in a growout.
any white or clear poo??

 

[Chiisai]

But he also said a little sunk in belly, to me that points to parasites.  The fish will get more and more picky and then wont eat at all, therefore my question.

Ahh, didnt put the two together. Good call!

 

[LuminousAphid]

No, like I said in the first post, he eats live food (blackworms) or frozen foods (spirulina brine, blood worms, and daphnia) just fine, but I am wondering if this is balanced enough for him to thrive. He could be sick I suppose, but he definitely is eating, just picky, and won't really touch prepared foods of any kind.

I tried not feeding them yesterday, but it may have backfired in a way because they spawned sometime yesterday, and then most likely ate their eggs sometime today before I had a chance to come home and feed them! Oh well, it is just over a week since the spawn before this, so hopefully there will be plenty more chances. I fed them tonight, and while he once again wouldn't touch the prepared foods I tried first, he ate the frozen bloodworms I put in afterward. Since they are pretty smart fish, he may have just caught on to this pattern and just waits until I inevitably cave in and give him something more tasty than sinking foods.

I think they are doing OK, I am just being overly sensitive and probably watching them too much and giving them "stage fright" or something.

Any suggestions on what to add to the above diet that he (the male Ram) might eat, and would make a more complete diet, would be appreciated!

 

[LuminousAphid]

I have found feeding my fish a merry go round of foods has helped.  Typically for a dry food if I have a stubborn fish I "First Flakes" they have a very high fat content and just about every fish I own goes bonkers for it.   I have yet to see a fish turn down Repashy.  I have had some not touch it when it was in a big cube form.  To combat that I would just squish it in my fingers and drop it in my tank.  My EBJD was really stubborn and got on a kick of only wanting black worms.  So after a while I would add a little bit of garlic to my black worms then added garlic to my repashy that was a trigger for that fish.  I have been lucky to not have a really picky fish.  Sometimes fasting a fish will change their mind about what it wants to eat.

That's something I will have to try, with the repashy.... I always just put a cube of it in there, and never tried squishing it up. That will be my next experiment tomorrow evening when I feed them, I think.

The garlic thing is worth trying as well I suppose, I don't normally use garlic but have used it on squash to get a pleco to eat. Mine really does like blackworms, so that exact strategy might be worth trying. I appreciate it!

 

[LuminousAphid]

But he also said a little sunk in belly, to me that points to parasites.  The fish will get more and more picky and then wont eat at all, therefore my question.

Have you noticed any white poo in the tank or from the fish?

It's certainly possible there is a parasite, I had wondered the same. I have seen some white poo about a week ago, but at the time I had fed them spirulina brine for a couple of days (because that's their favorite so far) and I thought it might be due to that. Right now it looks normal, but a parasite is definitely possible... I will do some research and see if any other signs point to this.

edit: after reading up a little bit, I'm not sure one way or the other whether it is a parasite or not, but I'm just going to watch for now. I will probably up the water changes a little, doing smaller ones more frequently, and keep rotating foods to try to keep the male healthy. The reason I'm not sure is that although he doesn't look 100% healthy, he also doesn't seem to be taking the nosedive in health that many people seem to have when their rams get sick... it seems like usually they go  downhill very quickly, whereas this male has been doing OK since I got him, just not thriving like I would like to see.

The pair have mated 3 times already (or at least the female has laid eggs and they started guarding them, this time they got eaten) since I got the male, so it could be the stress of this that is also keeping him a bit skinny

By the way, thanks everyone for the help, if any of the information I posted above indicates anything new, let me know

 

[LuminousAphid]

This guy seems to still be doing fine, and since I did a couple of back-to-back water changes, he seems to be a little less picky about what he eats. Today I gave everyone some frozen daphnia and he really seemed to have an appetite.

It may have just been higher levels of nitrates than he liked, and that was making him not feel too well; this tank usually shows more nitrates than I should ideally have, especially for more sensitive fish, so I just need to make sure I am doing more frequent water changes. Up until now I have just been dealing with more hardy species, so I didn't need to worry much about nitrates.