# Dont Like New Food



## flow (Jun 25, 2010)

Hi all، i have been feeding my baby piranhas tetra cichlid pellets for about a month now , they seem to like it , anyway i got them medium sized frozen shrimps , they dont like it at all , they just seem to come closer to it for a taste and go away, is this normal? I left 2 pieces of shrimps in the tank for about 4 hour and they didnt touch it at all , but as soon as a started throwing the pellets in , they went frenzy, what do u think?


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

you have to be strong and not offer the flakes again until they start accepting the shrimp. sound like they may be small still so might help if you cut the shrimp into smaller bite size pieces for them. when introducing new foods it doesnt always happen overnight. they will not starve themselves so just keep offering them the new food until they eat it readily. I do have a couple more suggestions though. first one being to not leave uneaten food in the tank for that long as it will messup your water quality. if they do not eat the food within a couple minutes or lose interest remove the food and try again later. fish like most people want what they cant have so leaving it in there just sitting on the bottom is not appealing. secondly the flakes are a good food i would try to get them a cichlid pellet next just as a upgrade as they grow. you are never wrong feeding a good pellet.


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## Redruckus (Mar 13, 2011)

if they are taking pellets why are you trying to switch them to other foods??? thats the best thing for them i wish mine would take pellets. also are they raw or cooked shrimp mine never wanted to take cooked shrimp but the would eat up the raw ones shell and all. but some times it just takes a bit for them to want it like said above. but if you want to switch it up gut load feeder gold fish(if you have another small tank) with a high quality food then feed them to the piranha they get the nutrient from the fish plus the nutrients from the food in there guts


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

i cant say i agree with the whole goldfish idea but to answer your question about the shrimp uncooked is best because cooked shrimp do not have the same nutrient value for the P's.


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## Redruckus (Mar 13, 2011)

the gut loading is actualy what i found out when i was quarenteening my fish just to make shure they didnt have any illness for a week or so but i would feed them with a high quality flake food i used for my other tank. a few days after i noticed there colour getting realy nice so i stoped with them to see if thats what it was and the got dull again so i started almost over feeding the gold fish to the point they were totaly full. then i would feed them and the colours on my Ps were super amazing


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

i understand you but the issue is goldfish are a bad feeder fish also you need to quarantine them for more then a week.


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## sadboy (Jan 6, 2005)

How big are your baby p's? Also my p's never liked eating anything cooked. You should try and give it to them raw. Once route you can take is to not feed them for a few days and then give them the shrimp uncooked. also stay away from goldfish. Thats like living on fast food. that golds are no good for your p's.


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## flow (Jun 25, 2010)

About 3.5 inchs


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## Redruckus (Mar 13, 2011)

i know gold fish are not the best food for Ps but after you guy load them with the nutritios food they are like a hot dog bun they just hold all the good stuff inside. you could do it with any kind of fish you want but gold fish are just easy to gut load cuz they dont stop eating...i would try frozen blood worm since they are still fairly small its a very good food for them and they should take to it very easily


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

the thing your still missing is it takes more then a week of quarantine to ensure no parasite. you need to wait a few weeks and even treat with prazipro to ensure you are not passing something on to the P's


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## Redruckus (Mar 13, 2011)

the store i got them from kept ther feeders very healthy and ran like 4 large filters/power heads in the tank. i guess the only reason i put them in the smaller tank was for storage at home so i wouldnt have to go to the store all the time. and to make shure they were 100% full of the food i was feeding them..i guess"quarenteen" was the wrong word to use


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## sadboy (Jan 6, 2005)

Thiaminase is reason you should stay away from gold fish. No matter what you feed the goldfish, you are still giving you p's an unhealthy amount of Thiaminase.


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## Redruckus (Mar 13, 2011)

i havent feed them gold fish since i moved and cant get them regularly..i feed whole fozen smelts i caught this spring i have about 10 lbs frozen and bagged that is going to be the main food sorce. last time i checked they were amazing food


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