Apistogramma feeding

[kappaalby]

Hi,

I recently got my first pair of Apistos, Borrelli Opal, and I was wondering how apistos feed.

I observed that they pick the pellet in their mouth, start "chewing" for 30-40 sec and then they trow
it out and start again. The pellet looks smaller and or broken in pieces, but It looks like they rarely if
at all really swallow the pellet or part of it.

I know this can be symptoms of sign of internal parasite, but also some fish actually feed in this
way.

So here my question, is this an expected behavior for apistos or can something is not going well?

for info, the pellets I give them are dip into water/vitamin before being distributed

Thanks in advance!

Alberto

 

[MacZ]

It's pretty normal. My A. cf. ortegai chews on it a bit and then spits it if it' not soft enough. It's better to feed live or frozen, they really need that. I only feed every other day. I feed frozen white mosquito larvae, daphnia or artemia on frozen food days and pellets, freezedried tubifex or broken bottomdweller tablets on dried food days. As I only can provide ever so often once or twice a month I feed live foods, mostly white mosquito larvae or daphnia. If I can't get live I feed a fracture of a cube of bloodworms, that stuff is only for rare occasions. Last time was weeks ago.

 

[kappaalby]

thanks, noted!

I will continue keeping a close eye on them, if possible I will do a small video too

 

[ButtNekkid]

Hi,

Maybe their feeding habits seem a bit peculiar. They are "eartheaters" after all. They sift through mulm and sand in the nature.

 

[kappaalby]

resuming this thread after a while...

all is ok with the apistos, so far so good! My feeling is that they had to get used to the new food and environment. They do not split out the food as before, just a little

thanks to all!