getting hillstreams to eat

[shari2]

...anything that isn't growing on a surface seems impossible around here. No interest shown in bloodworm, brine shrimp, flake (of multiple types), pellets or held down veggies. Just algae on either the glass, rock, wood or leaves.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to expand their food finding abilities? They won't even eat algae pellets unless I use Mr. Sticky's glue to hold them to the rock.

[Jim Powers]

Sometimes it just takes time for them to adapt to eating frozen and prepared foods. I have one G. scitulus that I have had for two years and I have never seen him eat anything but algae. He has not grown much, but is definately not starving. I have a G. ocellatus in the same tank that took four months to figure out that bloodworms were good to eat. Now he can't wait to get at them in the morning. He has also grown substantially since then. My Chenis and Sewellia on the other hand, just seemed to adapt to the food almost immediately.
In the past, I was able to use Tetra Delica gel food. It came in Brine shrimp, bloodworm and daphnia. It had the consistency of toothpaste and could be smeared on rocks or the tank glass. I got several hillstreams to eat using this. They loved it. It is now a discontinued product( at least the brine and daphnia versions). I have been able to secure several months supply of the daphnia version (I know people ) I still use it in one tank because the gastros in particular have come to expect it and they have me well trained. In a few months, though, they will have to eat something else.
You can still get the bloodworm version sold as Tetrafauna ReptoTreat delica bloodworms. Unfortunately, it does not stick as well to surfaces because of the whole bloodworms and is therefore a bit messy. It might be worth getting, however, to wean the fish over to bloodworms. You can find it at Petsmart. I can say that my gastros who have eaten this food for several years are enormous. I imagine other fish would love it too. I was told by the Tetra that its the exact same product once sold as fish food.

[angelfish83]

...anything that isn't growing on a surface seems impossible around here. No interest shown in bloodworm, brine shrimp, flake (of multiple types), pellets or held down veggies. Just algae on either the glass, rock, wood or leaves.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to expand their food finding abilities? They won't even eat algae pellets unless I use Mr. Sticky's glue to hold them to the rock.

Why not start out with stick on glass foods? Many of them also stick on rock.

Sera Onip for example... fish go for it like a... umm... beaver to water... or something.

[Martin Thoene]

Sounds like good advice. I've never had a problem with any sucker-type Hilly when it comes to eating. Some take a little while to catch on to certain things, but mine will even eat flake no problem.

The weird thing though is that angelfish's mutant Ninja Botia are refusing to eat anything but Bloodworm or Mysis shrimp. I've tried that NLS food you gave me Pablo, algae wafers, JMC Catfish Pellets, flake, Hikari Sinking Carnivour Pellets (which my Clowns would kill for).....nothing.....the stuff just sits on the bottom ignored. They'll even be digging in the substrate, obviusly looking for food and completely ignore these things when they're 1mmm away!

Put Bloodworm in the tank and they go nuts!

Weird fish.....

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

You could always try creating your own version of Martin's algae farm with, um, that special ingredient.

Emma

[Martin Thoene]

Yeah..........how much shall I send you Shair?

Martin.

[shari2]

eeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

um. no.
No, really.
Thanks, but NO!
Don't even think it!

[Martin Thoene]

No problem. It would probably be stopped at the border anyway. Homeland security would check it out....., "Hey this Whiskey tastes like p...."

Best thing about this ingredient is we all have it available for free. It's just that some of us have more convenient dispensing equipment than others.

Martin.

[mikev]

Sounds like good advice. I've never had a problem with any sucker-type Hilly when it comes to eating.

I had it with exactly one Gastro (Ocellatus). This actually happens to be the fish which had a serious septicemia infection yet at the store (I even posted the pictures at the time). While the infection was quickly cured, the fish never properly ate and starved to death in two months.

One thing to try: take a large flake and sink it all the way to the ground. Gastros here would eat such flakes. Another thing: Veggie/algae wafers, try different brands. A large wafer stays in one place on the ground and would appear as a "rock" to the fish.

hth

[shari2]

I do have large wafers. They sink and stay put pretty well. The hillies ignore them. The snails, on the other hand, feast.

Just to vary the diet a bit I've been plucking some of the brown algae covered anubias leaves from the clown tank and weighting the stem with a rock. Takes less than an hour for them to be a lovely new green again.

[LES..]

Hi Shari,

I'm in the "stick the food to the rock" camp. For my S.Wui i have been using interpet freeze dried brine shrimp which comes in beige cubes that become very sticky when wet and will stick to rocks or glass for a while before dissolving into the water body. This seems to suit P.Cheni well as they will hover up the food stuck to the rock and will pounce on the floating particles.

Hope you find something that works for you.

LES..

[shari2]

thanks LES. I'll keep trying. I haven't had them that long. It may just take time.

[Setsuna]

Jim:
Is this the Daphnia food you mentioned above?

[shari2]

Someone had mentioned defrosting their frozen food on a paper towel (Jim, maybe) elsewhere. So today I decided to try and see if my frozen brine shrimp would stick to a rock if I defrosted it this way. Well, it did, kinda. One sheet fell off after about 10 min but some stayed on the rock. The ocellatus found it and wouldn't leave the rock. Yippee!

Just before that one of the ctenos/scitulus (couldn't tell which cause I'd turned out the light) found the sheet that fell off on the sand and chowed down. By the time it was almost gone there were 4 or 5 scooting around checking it out. There are now at least 2 hillies stuck to the front glass with extremely chubby bellies!

Is good! I'll have to try it with bloodworms, too. Maybe I'll 'pastify' them first a bit...

[Jim Powers]

Congratulations Shari!! Now there will be no stopping them.
I have noticed that mine seem to get much more excited about brine shrimp than they do bloodworms although they eat both.

Setsuna: Yes, that is the product I was talking about, although the box is a different color in the US. I managed to find yet another box of the stuff in a clearance bin of a fish store this week. I think I now have about a dozen boxes stockpiled. One store I know can still get it in, but it is definately a discontinued item here. Do they still sell Tetra Delica in Australia?