# pellet guidence



## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

I need some pellet guidence at the moment. Right now I got my fish to eat pellets and I also did last night. Thing is this morning I tried to feed them pellets again but they ignored them. So should I keep starving them until they eat pellets in the morning or should I just keep them frozen and hope they will still eat the pellets too? I was very excited when I got them to eat but shortly afterward I was so pissed because it seems like they forgot what pellets were







.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

yup a piranha can go months with out eatin.. realy just lay off a few days and try him(unless you have somthin that a pack fish) thin i wouldnt go to long on the fasting.. mabe some one else could help ya in that area.


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

cueball said:


> yup a piranha can go months with out eatin.. realy just lay off a few days and try him(unless you have somthin that a pack fish) thin i wouldnt go to long on the fasting.. mabe some one else could help ya in that area.


I understand that just they already ate the pellets so should I keep starving them so they eat pellets all the time because they just seem to eat them at night? I have a pack of 4-4" caribas.


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## Doktordet (Sep 22, 2006)

I have a shoal of MIXED pygos and when I converted them to pellets, I starved them but not before fattening them up. Keep an eye out for fin nipping and the like which might be a precedent for cannibalism. Starving a group of ps is totally different from starving a solitary serra. Based on my personal experience, my opinion is to starve them more BUT keep an eye out for any signs of potential cannibalism such as increased fin nipping, significant headbutting,etc. Its a fine line.


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

Doktordet said:


> I have a shoal of MIXED pygos and when I converted them to pellets, I starved them but not before fattening them up. Keep an eye out for fin nipping and the like which might be a precedent for cannibalism. Starving a group of ps is totally different from starving a solitary serra. Based on my personal experience, my opinion is to starve them more BUT keep an eye out for any signs of potential cannibalism such as increased fin nipping, significant headbutting,etc. Its a fine line.


my fish are being pretty nice to each other at the moment. Right now they are full but im afraid if I should feed them frozen in the morning they wont eat pellets again. So should I try to feed the pellets in the morning?


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

stuff the pellets inside his food now thats a idea for you to try


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

cueball said:


> stuff the pellets inside his food now thats a idea for you to try


i tried it, the pellets just go every were and i have some planaria from the pellets that disinagrated.
Another thingIi forgot to ask is how do your fish fill up when they eat pellets? Does it seem like they fill up more on frozen foods then pellets because i think my fishes bellies seem to stick out more from frozen foods.?


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

ya but i think the pellets swell up after being in the water p.s what kinda pellets you use


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## bernokarl (Mar 26, 2007)

I think pellets are more filling than other food and a More balance diet , in return 
makes them not as hungry . 
I feed my P's (Mix school) From ASH "Great Guy" Ones a day and they Chow .


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

i bought tetra cichlid jumbo carnivore sticks there total crap a few chomps and thay go to powder in the water,,, what one of the best to buy? um lookin for somthin new for my oscar===sorry for the de-rail dude


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

cueball said:


> i bought tetra cichlid jumbo carnivore sticks there total crap a few chomps and thay go to powder in the water,,, what one of the best to buy? um lookin for somthin new for my oscar===sorry for the de-rail dude


It's alright because all I care about is ways to improve fishes diets. I use cichlid gold and i have bio gold mini which I see are too small buy they seem to eat them still. I never though about the pellets expanding in ther stomachs, and the nurtitional value being high causing less hunger might play a role to because I can eat a bunch or crap but I can only eat so much of the good stuff.
*Oh cueball maybe should try Hikari since it might be higher quality, IMO the tetra brands seem to be the cheaper brand with alot of things.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

i cant find Hikari brand anywares..i here its the best


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

cueball said:


> i bought tetra cichlid jumbo carnivore sticks there total crap a few chomps and thay go to powder in the water,,, what one of the best to buy? um lookin for somthin new for my oscar===sorry for the de-rail dude


Best two brands of pellets are Hikari Bio Gold+ and New Life Spectrum.

When feeding cichlids pellets be carefull to put the pellets in water first. You don't want the pellets inflating inside the stomach of your Oscars. This could be potentially fatal.



> FOODS TO GO LIGHT ON:
> 
> *Pelleted food.* Some pellets tend to swell a little after they have been put in water; therefore, you will want to soak them briefly before feeding them to your fish. You don't want them to swell inside your fish's abdomen because they could seriously distend, irritate, or constipate their digestive tract.


Obviously with Piranhas you dont have this problem because they chew the pellets first.



> i tried it, the pellets just go every were and i have some planaria from the pellets that disinagrated.
> *Another thingIi forgot to ask is how do your fish fill up when they eat pellets?* Does it seem like they fill up more on frozen foods then pellets because i think my fishes bellies seem to stick out more from frozen foods.?


If your fishes stop eating is because they are full, it doesn't matter what their stomach looks like.

I also hope you are not feeding frozen food to your piranhas frozen. This could be very harmfull to your fishes.

Hater


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

hahaha, by frozen I meant non live like thawed shrimp, smelt, etc..


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

Hey cueball i found some hikari sticks, they are at petsmart but they seem expensive here is the link... Food Sticks

Here is a quick update on my fish, I put in pellets this morning and nothing. I think they will only eat at night because they fear of possible preditors (correct me if im wrong). So I fed them a peice of smelt but that didn't fill them up much. I will try the pellets again at night.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

ya i always had the best luck feeding with the lights out also


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

heres another idea.. find a bunch of thangs your fish likes and get a grinder/blender and mix um up add 2-3-4 packs of knox gelatine through the pellets in the mix aswell thats what um feeding my oscar right now(extra frozen homemade food from my piranha) he was a fussy rhom so he didnt realy go for it ,, and heres another tip i found useful let it freezer burn alittle for a week or so that hardens it up alittle and the gelatine hardens some other wise it goes to sh*t in the water


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## Guest (Sep 4, 2007)

cueball said:


> heres another idea.. find a bunch of thangs your fish likes and get a grinder/blender and mix um up add 2-3-4 packs of knox gelatine through the pellets in the mix aswell thats what um feeding my oscar right now(extra frozen homemade food from my piranha) he was a fussy rhom so he didnt realy go for it ,, and heres another tip i found useful let it freezer burn alittle for a week or so that hardens it up alittle and the gelatine hardens some other wise it goes to sh*t in the water


Thanks for the tips and all the help, I already tried it. It worked for a bit at first then they ignored it. Its alright now my fish eat the pellets like no other, it looks like its there favorite food. I just cant feed them in the morning because they are afraid. I am going to order some biogold in medium, cichlid excel, and mix it with my cichlid gold. I also fed them smelt in the morning so I think I will still feed them 2-3 times a day.


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## Doktordet (Sep 22, 2006)

piranhaseeker said:


> I have a shoal of MIXED pygos and when I converted them to pellets, I starved them but not before fattening them up. Keep an eye out for fin nipping and the like which might be a precedent for cannibalism. Starving a group of ps is totally different from starving a solitary serra. Based on my personal experience, my opinion is to starve them more BUT keep an eye out for any signs of potential cannibalism such as increased fin nipping, significant headbutting,etc. Its a fine line.


my fish are being pretty nice to each other at the moment. Right now they are full *but im afraid if I should feed them frozen in the morning they wont eat pellets again.* So should I try to feed the pellets in the morning?
[/quote]

I experienced just the opposite. Just the other day, i thawed some shrimp with shell on and decided to treat the Ps. And what I saw was that they werent as interested in the shrimp like they used to and I actually had to take out a few uneaten pieces. But with the pellets, they will go after every single one.

Hater, are all New Life SPectrum pellets sinking pellets? I know u get urs online. Where do u order the Hikari Bio gold and new life?


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## barbianj (Aug 3, 2003)

> Best two brands of pellets are Hikari Bio Gold+ and New Life Spectrum.


We fed our reds Hikari Gold for over a year. They relly like them. Then we tried NLS sinking pellets and went for them right away. Another really good one is the sinking pellet with krill from Ken's Fish. When we train baby reds to eat pellets, they will eat NLS or Ken's right away, the first time. It takes a little while for the Hikari.


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

> Hater, are all New Life SPectrum pellets sinking pellets? I know u get urs online. Where do u order the Hikari Bio gold and new life?


George has NLS floating pellets in his store(Shark Aquarium). I bought mines online, I did a search and order them from some website. I forgot what it was.

Hikari Bio Gold+ its easy to get. I go to petsmart.com and look for them, then print out the page and hit my local Pet Smart on route 22. Pet Smart has to match their online prices and I usually save about 10-11$ on my pellets.

Hope that helped Dexter.



> We fed our reds Hikari Gold for over a year. They relly like them. Then we tried NLS sinking pellets and went for them right away. *Another really good one is the sinking pellet with krill from Ken's Fish.* When we train baby reds to eat pellets, they will eat NLS or Ken's right away, the first time. It takes a little while for the Hikari


.

I never tried this pellets but I will look into it. You might be on to something barbianj.

Hater


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## Doktordet (Sep 22, 2006)

Hater said:


> > Hater, are all New Life SPectrum pellets sinking pellets? I know u get urs online. Where do u order the Hikari Bio gold and new life?
> 
> 
> George has NLS floating pellets in his store(Shark Aquarium). I bought mines online, I did a search and order them from some website. I forgot what it was.
> ...


Thanks for the help Hater. I might just get my NLS online and print out from petsmart.com since there's one just 1 mile from where i live.


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2007)

A little update on my fish. Well they are doing alot better, they are even eating the pellets at 3pm. I vant wait until i get the other pellets though and i will check out kens fish./


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