Spotted rapheal diet

[sequoiacat]

So what is eveyone feeding their Agamyxis pectinifrons ?

What should its diet be, i am trying to feed my two directly with sinking shrimp pellets but haven't noticed them having any interest, same with diced shrimp and defrosted frozen bloodworms.tried late night , morning and evening feedings.

Do they eat small snails?

I also have along with the small snails , young mosquito fish gup hybrids the biggest at 1/4 in long and 1/8 inche wide as prey items.

thanks

[Cory_lover]

Hi sequoiacat,

when you say "didn't notice them having any interest", do you mean you've just not seen them eat before? My doradids particularly love sinking tablets (mine are the Carnivore pellets from Hikari). When they were young (I bought them when they were super cute at 1.5cm), i dropped in a couple of tablets, and didn't see them eat at all, but upon inspection of the tank, I couldn't find the tablets, hence assuming they eat it when no-one's around. Remember that these fish are initially very secretive (when just introduced, or when they are young). They have now grown to 5cm in a the space of 4 months, just on a staple diet of those pellets, and the occasional frozen bloodworm when they were bold enough to venture around the tank.

Apparently they do eat small snails, however at this stage, i might suggest not to try snails, because if left unattended, you may soon end up with a snail infestation in your tank.

How long have you had the agamyxis for? Perhaps try live blackworms because they may have been wildcaught, and only respond to live foods, rather than commercially available pellets.

[Cory_lover]

sorry, gave wrong dimensions before - I bought them when they were about 4cm, and are now 8cm

[sequoiacat]

one i have had for a month(3 inches) the second for about a week( 2inches), food is still there in the morning is how iam thinking there isn't any interest.

I like the snails so i don't mind and snail infestations i get rid of by crushing the unwanted snails shell and dropping it back in the tank for fish to eat. also the snails and ghost shrimp eat uneaten food, until a tank cleaning.

Would the live worms found as bait in fishing shops work, smaller sized ones of course.iam guessing i would need to have the worms rinsed off and have their guts clean.

[Cory_lover]

hmm, that sounds pretty strange.. do the fish look healthy? or do they look pale and sickly? What's your water quality like, in terms of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, but also ph and hardness etc?

I don't fish so I don't know what type of worms are found at fishing stores , but you can just as easily buy liveworms from any aquarium store, and those ones will be safer to use in terms of being "bacteria-free" because the worms are most likely commercially bred.

Because the raphaels don't seem to be eating, if you add live blackworms into the tank, they will very quickly dig into your gravel. I overcome this simply by adding a dish/plate in the tank, and drop the worms onto the plate so that they remain above gravel-surface for catfish to eat.

Maybe the other forum members have better ideas about your fish

[Proteus]

was there any changes lately? like change in tank layout, change in temp, change in the water, added new fish? Some cats just takes time to readjust if that was the case if its the new fish few variables could be the case


if its just out of the blue ....as long as the belly is not caved in, and looks decent then I think its the best course to let them to be and really keep close eye on them in case its something bothering them

[arcsb]

I very rarely see my Doradids eat but if my

Platydoras armatulus

is hungry he will cruise the tank looking for food when the moonlights are on.

The only time I have ever seen my

Amblydoras nauticus

eat was when he lost his barbels to fungus and was starving and i was able to drop food directly in front of him and he would eat with the main tank lights on,he soon made a full recovery and became very nocturnal again.

I feed my 2 Doradids tabimin,prima,frozen bloodworm,high protein pellet's and tetra variety sinking crisps which I have seen P.armatulus swallow whole.

I agree with what has been said above,If your Doradids look in good health they are most likely feeding well when the light's are out,but it is probably a good idea to keep a close eye on them and make sure their stomach's look full and swollen.

[sequoiacat]

The bigger spotted seems to be a bit lighter in color than when i got it, iam going to go to a petco near me to see if they have blackworms, i have learned now how to culture them thanks to the internet, and ill us the underwater plate idea, what time should i feed the blood worms, i am thinking when it is dark and with the help of a dim light place the black worms in/ near their hide tonight.

There bellies arent sunken in but, the larger ones color has gone a bit grey since i upgraded my tank size, got the smaller one after upgrade.

[arcsb]

I sometime's feed my Catfishes a little food when the moonlights are on just to see them out and about,but they get their main feed after lights out and the room is also in complete darkness.

This make's me feel they all get a fair share and A.nauticus wont be out competed for food by the P.pictus that are also in the tank.

You could also try feeding your's with some prepared food's I find the Tetra range to be very good and accepted greedily by all my fishes,I like the sound of the Hikari carnivore pellet's mentioned earlier and will be adding them to my shopping list

your larger A.pectinifrons may just be getting used to his new home and will hopefully settle in and get his colour back soon.

Also if you have upgraded recently your water quality may be suffering slightly in the new tank,if you have any NH3 or NO2 present a few large water change's will help,then I'm sure they will get back to normal.

[sequoiacat]

Thanks everyone, couldn't find anyone in my town that sold blackworms so i bought some red earthworms, and took two of them put in distilled water and forced them to crap, then rinsed them in fishtank water and put each worm in each of the rapheals hides with a flashlight , so the cats know their is live worms next to them i hope not to see the two worms in the morning.

[sequoiacat]

The red earthworms have now disappeared from my tank, so iam assuming operation catfood is complete

[Cory_lover]

Sounds great!

Although considering Raphaels shy away from bright lights, you can do without the flashlight. If the worms are still alive and squirming in the tank, the movements and scent of the worms will be enough to be detected by the Raphael's barbels and Lateral Line.

[sequoiacat]

the flashlight was just used for my benefit so i wouldn't screw stuff up and they were left in complete darkness to enjoy their worms.

[taheton]

One I founded a dead rapheal filled with planorbis shells do they really digest shells?