apistogramma cacatuoides not eating!! help =(

[FreshWaterTropics]

I have a male and a female cacatuoides in a 35-gallon tank along with 3 rainbows and 10 neon tetras. It’s only been about 2 days since they were introduced to their new home. I have been trying to feed them bloodworms, but the other fish get to them first and eat it all. The cacatuoides are mostly in the bottom of the tank with each other, they occasionally swim up to the top, but refuse to eat. What types of food do you recommend, and is there a technique to feeding them.

 

[Josh]

Do you think they could still be settling in or do you expect that by now they'd be pretty hungry? What kind of conditions were they coming from? Have you tried feeding anything else besides the bloodworms?

 

[krudolph]

Agree with Josh above, if they came from water conditions that varied a good bit from yours they may still be trying to acclimate? If so, they probably needed a longer acclamation (adding small amounts of water over time) time before you put them in...

 

[UnicornsvstheWorld]

When I have a particularly slow fish to eat I feed them blood worms. First I feed the other fish to distract them. Then I hold the live/frozen blood worm with tweezers so it gets to the bottom and hold it in front of the fish. That usually works for me.

 

[FreshWaterTropics]

Do you think they could still be settling in or do you expect that by now they'd be pretty hungry? What kind of conditions were they coming from? Have you tried feeding anything else besides the bloodworms?

My ph is 7.0 and ammonia and nitrites are both zero with Nitrates at 20 ppm. Water temp is at 75 deg. I'm going to go buy some small sinking cichlid palletts today. Hopefully that does it from them.

 

[FreshWaterTropics]

When I have a particularly slow fish to eat I feed them blood worms. First I feed the other fish to distract them. Then I hold the live/frozen blood worm with tweezers so it gets to the bottom and hold it in front of the fish. That usually works for me.

That sounds like a good idea, thanks for sharing that with me. I'll give it a try tonight