A. Agassizi won't come to surface to eat

[shifty803]

I am totally new to dwarf cichlids, so I am not sure what to expect in general. From my research before buying, it seemed to vary...

I have managed to feed my new pair with frozen bloodworms (only the one time - don't want them bloated) and brine shrimp. The stuff that makes it past my rasboras to the bottom they mostly find and eat.

However, they do not even glance at the surface for any pellets or flakes, while the rasboras just eat with abandon. The cichlids rarely come up more than 5" or so off the bottom for any reason. Do they eventually make their way up? Should I try the small Hikari gold sinking pellets perhaps?

I am afraid to "wait it out" for them to come up and eat prepared foods, but dropping in brine shrimp always results in too much leftovers, because they just never find each bit. The tank is very understocked and heavily planted, so little bits of brine shrimp are easily overlooked by both species.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[james595]

If conditions are right, say a tank with a huge group of apistos, they will become more competitive and aggressive towards food, coming up top to feed. There is also some degree of learning that goes on with feeding, so over time they could become more effecient at surface feeding over time. If you blob in a bunch of brine shrimp every feeding, they will not learn from the experience. When I have finicky apistos especially in a tank with a flock of agressive feeders such as guppies, I will put their food in a cup of water, wether it's flakes, pellets or frozen food. Then take some type of injection device, be it a pipette or syringe but preferable something that can generate some force, and inject the food towards your apistos a few pieces at a time. They will quickly learn to associate you sitting down with the cup and sticking the injector past the surface with feeding time. I have had good luck with otohime pellet feeds for a variety of apistogram species and sizes, for sub adults to adults I would reccomend C2 or an S size product. I think you will find the injection method quite effective.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Mine never come to the top to eat, other than if they chase mosquito larvae up the tank. I do the same with the flake or pellets as James, get them wet and then swirl them around in a beaker of water and pour it in.

I also like grindal worms/Daphnia because they are small and they sink (or swim low down in the water column), you can put a good scrape of worms( or sieve of daphnia) in the beaker and pour it into the outflow of the filter, and this makes sure they are swirled all around the tank, rather than being concentrated in one spot where the dithers or dominant fish get them all.

cheers Darrel