Lima Shovelnose feeding ?

biomechmonster · Post by **biomechmonster** » 13 Nov 2005, 18:22

Picked up a Lima who's about 5 inches on 11/4.
We asked what they had been feeding it and was told goldfish

The same night we brought it home, it spit out 1/2 a goldfish

We have it in a 10G for now, eventually going into a 180G with another adult Lima.
Have tried feeding it some krill(the one in the 180 loves it) with no success, tried feeding it a small worm and a nightcrawler cut in 1/2 with no success.
So it's had nothing to eat in 9 days, it still looks good(not too thin) but yeah, any suggestions?

biomechmonster · Post by **biomechmonster** » 16 Nov 2005, 03:06

Bump! Fish is getting hungry, anyone have an answer???

Post by **Shane** » 16 Nov 2005, 15:08

Many newly purchased fish are a bit stressed from the capture, transport, and unfamiliar surroundings/new water parameters. My guess is that this is why the fish regurgitated. Give it a few days to settle in and build up an appetite before trying foods that are new. Most large pims feed like snakes. That is to say that their meals, in nature, are often infrequent. I would give the fish 4-5 days to settle in and then try some frozen foods or krill.
-Shane

biomechmonster · Post by **biomechmonster** » 16 Nov 2005, 17:13

Hi Shane, we've had the newbie (what I call the new fish around here) for nearly two weeks now with no success.

We do have feeder rosey-reds (they're not staple of our fishs' diets, we also quarantine them for a few weeks before feeding them) but I don't want to give any to the new guy because I know he's most likely only been fed live fish up until now and I want to break him of that habit.

Our 10" lima in the 180 relishes worms and krill but the new guy doesn't even look at the stuff. From what I remember, it only took the older lima about a week to learn that it was ok to eat worms. So why is the new guy taking so long?

We've taken the steps to make sure he feels secure. He's in a 10 gallon by himself. We put dark paper (actually, we cut out pictures from an old H.R. Giger calendar and used those!) all around the tank except the front and put in a flower pot large enough for the fish and took one of the massive fake floating plants from the 180 and put it in the 10 so it pretty much takes up the whole top half of the tank. The new guy spends most of his time swimming in place there.

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 17 Nov 2005, 12:45

biomechmonster wrote:He's in a 10 gallon by himself. We put dark paper (actually, we cut out pictures from an old H.R. Giger calendar and used those!)

There you are then, it's having nightmares and has lost its appetite!

Different fish have different "personalities", what takes one fish a week to do can take another a month. When it comes to food the survival instinct will take over generally unless they are an extreme specialist (which Sorubim aren't). Keep the water good, keep it calm and keep trying with the worms. If it turns out to be really stubborn you could try moving from live fish (which obviously carry the risks you are aware of) to freshly-killed fish, to fish strips and then introducing worms along with the fish strips.
I'd still wait it out though for a good few days longer.
Pete

buzz763 · Post by **buzz763** » 18 Nov 2005, 00:30

I have 2 Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum(tiger shovelnose catfish). I had trouble in the beginning feeding any kind of food to them except live roseys or gold fish. I have since got them to take frozen freshwater shrimp, but that is all they will take. I think sometimes you have to adjust to the fish, not the other way around. Atleast until the fish has settled in.