A. cacatuoides feeding problems

[chimera999K]

Hello everybody,
I am having a problem with my A. cacatuoides male. He was eating frozen Hikari brine shrimp really well until this Saturday and now, all of the sudden he wouldn't eat it.
I don't know what to do. He doesn't look sick, trying the shrimp, but spitting it out.
Any suggestions??
Thanks

 

[BigJohnW]

A.Cacatuoides feeding problems

Have you tried any other foods besides just brine shrimp?
I always varied the diet of my apistos. I feed alot of Tetra color bits, frozen blood worms and flake foods.

Maybe given a varied diet, your male would start eating again.


Have you introduced any new fish to the tank with your male lately? What changes in daily routine do you do differently now that maybe you didnt do before?

There could be alot of reasons your fish isnt eating, you need to look at a wide scope of reasons as to why your fish isnt eating.

John

 

[chimera999K]

Have you tried any other foods besides just brine shrimp?
I always varied the diet of my apistos. I feed alot of Tetra color bits, frozen blood worms and flake foods.

Maybe given a varied diet, your male would start eating again.


Have you introduced any new fish to the tank with your male lately? What changes in daily routine do you do differently now that maybe you didnt do before?

There could be alot of reasons your fish isnt eating, you need to look at a wide scope of reasons as to why your fish isnt eating.

John

Mine wouldn't eat any dry food since I bought them. Brine shrimp worked very well until now. I bought some glass worms and he seems to eat some, but not the same amount as before.
There are no new fish, i am cleaning everything the same way.
I started to lower the pH, very slowly, using Seachem no phosphate buffer, but it only went down from 7.5 to 7.2.

Very upsetting. For some reason, everything is going wrong with this tank

 

[Zapisto]

Try frozen Blood worm
usually i have good result.

 

[fishgeek]

water quality and internal parasitism can also lead to early non specific signs

check the nitrate's etc
maybe get some r/o water , although cac's are not so botherd by harder nor more alkaline waters

watch his feacal output and belly size

andrew

 

[scott]

a ph of 7.5 isn't necessarily to high. a cacatuoides can live and breed in moderately hard and alkaline water. i have had several sucessfull spawns at that ph. it should be safe to say that the ph isn't causing the loss of apetite. you could try live foods. all of my apistogrammas are on a varied diet of live foods such as: california black worms, live brine shrimp, daphnia and microworms, baby brine shrimp and sometimes decapsulated brine shrimp eggs for fry. the wriggling movement and also the chase entises the fish to eat. if it is available to you i would suggest trying live foods. if you choose the CBW's make sure you get them from a reputatable source because they can carry disease. if you do a search in this forum for "california black worms" there is a ton of info and i believe even names of companies you can order them from. good luck!

 

[nightowl1350]

When I first got mine they were very small so I was feeding decap brine shrimp, I put in shrimp pellets for the pandas and they started eating them as well as flakes now and then. Give him a bit of variety and see if it helps and a good water change may help to.