Festae wont eat...

I have three new festae fry from APFP. They did not eat the first night i got them, but that did not seem too unusal for a first night in the tank. This is the second night, (i have had them almost 30 hours now) and i have attempted feeding them three times. i have cichlid flakes by omega one (recommended by someone at apfp), and I crushed it to small pieces before putting it in. It sits in the tank for a while before sinking, and eventually is sucked into the filter or rests on the bottom. This evening (besides the three feedings i have tried) i even floated some frozen bloodworms in front of them, but there was no interest. Are they eating the food off the bottom later? or is this normal behavior?

you can try PE mysis shrimp. that is what i primarily feed my small festae. but i also feed the omega flakes and blood worms. mine attack all the food i put in there. they literally eat it right out of my fingers.

the festae are i think the only fish i have ever had that i never had a problem with them eating. a couple things i do different then alot of people i talk to is i keep my temp around 82-84 and i add a cup of water softening salt for every 100 gallons of water at every water change.

hope this helps.. good luck and post some pics i would love to see them.

my temp is at 80 - 80.5 ill increase it to 82 and try again in the morning. how soft do you keep your water?

tank was at almost 82 this morning. put 10 bloodworms in and no interest... tried flakes a little later and reaction was the same. I even put in an algae wafer, but they didnt want it. At least the pleco will eat that later. what to do?

My Festae are not picky eaters. Though I must say, mine will not eat flakes. I never feed flakes. I use Hikari First Bites for the fry and then gradually wean them off of it and onto NLS Cichlid. I also feed a chunk of frozen blood worms every night. My guys grow like mad with my feeding regimen.

Get yourself a good pellet food like NLS Cichlid and stick to it. I have never seen a fish turn its nose up at NLS.

All 15 of my Festae are voracious eaters, the little guys meet me at the glass when I come home from work, they are so anxious to eat. And when a chunk of blood worms hits the water, it's like a feeding frenzy.

bleh, mine havent stopped hiding under tank deco. Ill pick up some nls cichlid today after work I guess, and do a 3rd water change when i get home.

Here is a stupid question, and I am sure you have done so. Have you checked all water parameters? My Dovi stopped eating, and then started to die, I checked all of mine and everything was perfect, couldn't figure it out. OH YA, that includes the ph. DAH

My ph had dropped below 6.0. Dumb ass I thought. So since I have brought the ph up, its been just fine.

My only test kit at the moment is some strips, but they are new. my water is soft, just under 70 ppm, ph is 7-7.2 nitrate is around 20 ppm, nitrite is 0. I have done two water changes of 5 gallons (30 gallon tank) since i put them in.

the only thing i can think of is stress, i got them from apfp the same day they got them in, they probably only spent an hour in the tank at the store. two of them are a bit more active today, but the 3rd is still hiding under the little ceramic elephant... (i have a 2 yr old)

just to be sure of nitrate/ammonia i have put a little prime in the water every morning, just a few drops from the bottle.

I should probably pick up a real test kit though huh

Testing your water parameters is a good idea. I never had an issue getting mine to eat, they are little piggies.

i usually test the parameters about once/week, but i only had enough cash on me for a bottle of strips. I have heard they aren't as accurate as drops, but the bottle is only 3 weeks old or so and i keep it closed tightly.

my 12 festae came from california and spent 72 hours in a box, no heat pack, water was cold. they all lived and were going crazy for food as soon as they hit the tank. after, three days you say? they probably should be over the stress to the point were they are eating.

do you have other fish in there? if not, you can always try to put some smaller fish in there to try and draw them out.

i am absolutely horrible about testing my water, the only time i do is when there seems to be a problem. i do two water changes a week now. somtime i will throw in a 10 percent water change here and there extra.

good luck

the only other fish in the tank is an L110 pleco about 3 inches long. I dont know if i can find fish much smaller, they are only 3/4" long. maybe some guppy fry?

Bring them back to Kevin, they may be broken.

Yea i just called, Kevin was busy but the younger guy said they usually don't even try to feed them for three days. So I told him if they haven't eaten by Sunday I will call again. Hopefully they eat tonight!

eh, I had 12 come from Florida last month. Fed them IMMEDIATELY and they ate 4 times that day. Mine were only in the bag for a half a day, but they get starved for a few days before shipping, that's why there was no poop in their water when I got them!

wtb fish with appetite.

they only other fish i have trouble feeding is my black ghost knife, because hes SLOW! My SA/CA Cichlids are like a pack of starving fat kids. I have to be sneaky.. feed them at one end of the tank and hope they don't see the blood worms I give the knife on the other end!

Well if interested in aggressive eating small fish. I have 1000's of fry. I have Amph. Hogaboomorum babies at about 3/4", I have Red Devil Babies at 3/4", both are F1's. I also have Dempsey babies that are about 1/2", these may have the Electric blue gene in them.

keep your light off may help them to come out of hiding and eat

A red devil might be fun, do you have pics of parents?

I will try turning the light off, though it is sadly a terrible light that only turns on about one in four tries, and is mostly dim.

here they are. [img][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.][/img]

Dad
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My Hogas
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How big are those red devil's at full size assuming aquarium grown?

My male Devil is about 10", full size is probably 14". The female is about 7". I may put my 5" Blue Devil female with him next. But she just spawned with my white male.

MORE BABIES!!!!! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Well, at least one of the festae ate one piece of food this morning. So there is hope! hopefully they will eat food off of the bottom of the tank today. I thought about a devil last night, but I don't think I have enough tank space. I am stuck with 125 gallons for at least 1-2 years, unless I find some sort of amazing deal, and I already have 11 fish! I'm only allowed to keep this 30 gallon long enough to grow out the festae til they can go in the bigger tank.

I have an idea. Get rid of the Convicts. Jack Dempseys and Fire Mouths are old world fish. And stock that 125 with some New World Cichlids. And isnt a Red Zebra an African Cich?

There are sooooooo many New World fish out there.

But just my Opinion. Good luck with the Festae, and enjoy.

yea the red zebra is african.. but my 2 year old likes elmo and the red zebra was the closest thing i could find to "dorothy" elmo's fish... i figured it would last longer than a gold fish

the Auratus is also african, but that one will be gone soon if I can help it.

Time to get your daughter her own tank!

Nah, it is the highlight of her morning and evening. She runs into my room in the morning ready to feed the "fishies". Its hard to beat watching cichlids eat at feeding time.

Also effective "You cant feed the fish until you finish your broccoli"