Tips on feeding fish needed

[nmprisons]

So, after only a week in my tank, the smaller of my two leaf fish accepted frozen food with a vengence yesterday. I was really excited about it and it.

However, there was once catch. I am feeding him frozen PE mysis shrimp and I need to dance them around in front of his little face for him to have any interest in eating them. To do so, I tied the shrimp to a pice of fishing line.

Two of the times he ate the shrimp, he refused to let go of the line and so it was like I was fishing for him (so much so that once i could have pulled him from the water before he let go). I don't want him to become wary of the frozen foods and so I don't want this to happen again. is there another way to dance small frozen foods in front of him without risking the possibility of him latching on too hard to retrieve the line? I was thinking about using a piece of white thread or something like that.

any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[dc]

Since he's eaten them, maybe you could try shutting off your flow and using a small baster or something like that to drop it in front of his face. You may have to watch your levels and do more water changes till he 'gets' it. Good luck with it.

 

[nmprisons]

yeah ... i thought about that. i tried a couple of times, but they are so slow to react that, even if they wanted to eat it, it just falls right in front of them and, after it sits on the ground they are not even interested.

do you think i could use a small baster to keep pushing it around or would it just kick up a ton of sand?

 

[dc]

Boy that would be a toss up, be real careful? I've seen little feeder tubes you might try. I'll see if I can find one on the net.

 

[dc]

This one looks interesting, not quite what I was thinking.

Drs.Fosters

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've heard that "sea Squirter" is pretty useless.

I would start by feeding him live brine shrimp out of a turkey baster or syringe. He should eat this no problem because they will "dance around" on their own. After he starts to make the association that these tools mean food he should eat frozen foods out of them and maybe eventually flake or pellet.

 

[nmprisons]

live brine shrimp seem too small to interest these fish, or am I wrong?

btw ... my dad lives in towson, i am visiting next weekend to do a little crabbing.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Brine are not much smaller than mysis, I figured if the fish ate mysis it would go for brine.

This is what I did for my dwarf lion. I started out my dropping live FW guppies and ghost shrimp right into the tank. Eventually I would drop pieces of krill and silverside right into the water column, and the water flow would make him go after it (maybe drop it in front of a powerhead). Now he takes everything I drop in the water including flakes and pellets.