Help!! Megalodoras Uranoscopus not EATING?

[Djthomas]

Please help me. I have a new

Megalodoras Uranoscopus

. I have had him for about 2 weeks. He was eating as soon as I got him home. He was eating 'Hikari's Massivore Delites', Sinking Shrimp Pellets, earthworms, and a bunch of snails. Then he just stopped eating. Any Ideas? Ph is 7.4, temp is 78*F

[Cory_lover]

Hmm, is he off-colour too? any other weird behaviour/appearance? I may be wrong, but unlike smaller catfish like corys that require regular feedings, larger catfish eat a large meal and can live off that for several days. So maybe he's just in that "in-between-meals" period....?

[Djthomas]

His color is fine, he is still active at night. I just can't get him to eat

[MatsP]

First thing to look for is nitrite or ammonia in the water. Also check the nitrate level - if that is higher than about 50 ppm, then that is likely (part of) your problem. This is a main river channel fish, not something that normally lives in a puddle for a part of the year, so it's not adapted to high levels of nitrogenous waste in the water.

As suggested, large cats, particularly when they feed on a meaty diet, will "take a break" in feeding to process their food.

How big is the fish, and how big a tank is it, and what filtration do you have?

--
Mats

[hankinswood]

Does he have a good place to hide? Mine rarely moves from the same spot, fortunately right next to the front corner of the tank. He likes to wedge himself tightly between rocks and just waits for me to bring food to him. Even with lights off he very rarely moves away from his cave. Earthworms are an all time favorite food.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Many of my doradids, e.g., megalodoras uranoscopus, pterodoras granulosa, and megalodoras irwini, have proven to me that they can go on for long periods of time without food, and I mean long. Some of them are/were small, like 4", and at some points in time refused to eat (at least when the food was offered in a community tank and everybody else was feasting) for 1-2 months! They looked thin afterwards but not scary thin, just moderately thin. The reasons for their initial refusal were obvious - stress of rehoming, sometimes poor water quality, even though the latter may had been resolved within a few days to a week, they still went on a hunger strike for many weeks, up to 2 months as mentioned. I thought for sure I was gonna lose them, but not, they rebounded great!!

Still, I have some bigger ones in the indoor pond that wanna eat always - each and every time the food is offered and even more than is offered. Have not refused once yet.

[grokefish]

Ph is a bit high I would say, but as mentioned these guys will go for ages without food.
Try and get him a buddy as they are much happier in this situation.
I personally believe when they are small they are a shoaling fish, but this is me speculating.
Any ideas how old it is?
I'm guessing around 1.5 to 2yrs from your picture.

Oh and by the way they like to eat green stuff now and again, especially peas.

[Djthomas]

he is in a 75 gal for right now. He does have a few tank mates, but they all seam to get along well. there is plenty of places for him to hide, he tends to hide with my

Oxydoras niger

, who is around 7 inches. My Megalodoras Uranoscopus is around 11 inches.

The tank has a canister filter which is rated for a 125 gal tank. I have checked the nitrates levels, and use Mardel NH3 and Ph monitors, I have changed both with in the last week. Both are reading in the safe zones.

He is VERY active once my lights are turned off. I have lots of snails in the tank, well I did! I think he is eating the snails, but I have yet to see him do it.

Thank you all for your help with this problem I was having. I would be crushed if I lost this fish!!!

One weird thing, he seams to like his head rubbed, when I feed, he will come right up to the top of the tank and splash me until I rub his head, right around the "third eye". Any clues as to why???????

[Cory_lover]

i have no idea, but that is insanely cute

[MatsP]

Would you mind telling us what the actual value your NO3 (Nitrate) test shows?

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

yeah, actual ppms for NH3, NO2, and NO3 would help...

yeah, my big doradids tolerate being petted but I cannot say they ask for it; sounds like you got a heart winner!!! I guess you guys just really hit it off Short of a behavioral ichthyologist or fish psychologist weighing in (maybe Milton Tan? ), I doubt you will find even the vaguest guess at a real answer, other than deeply scientific: "He is friendly. He likes you."

It is obvious but I'll vocalize it: perhaps, he is full with your yummy snails and for now prefers to pass on what you want him to eat?

anyone: can one have snails in the tank with the Mother Of Snails Catfish, aka Oxydoras niger? Would not he/she eat them up? Also, why exactly is this strangest name?

[MatsP]

The common name is explained here:
http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/m_urunoscopus.htm

And they do indeed eat snails - I think Sidguppy suggested keeping O. niger as a suitable "disposal" for Giant African Land Snail babies.

--
Mats

[Djthomas]

The only way my

Oxydoras niger

would eat a snail is if it crawled into it's mouth, he is the laziest fish I have ever seen! LOL

My NH3 level is right at 0.01, and after a MAJOR water change the Nitrite is at 0ppm, and the Nitrate is at 20ppm. I took a sample of water into my LFS and had them check it for me so that I was not going off the Mardel meters

The Great NEWS of the day is: HE ATE! I offered some fresh ground up Beef Heart that I froze into ice cube tray's (half finely ground Fresh Beef Heart then topped with water). I dropped the cube into the tank while it was still frozen, as it thawed, but was still floating, he attacted it, much like my Red Tail does shrimp or clams!

Thank you all for you help and the extra education you have been so kind to give me!

[Bas Pels]

beef heart is not the food most of us would prefer.

After all, in nature fish don't get it, and beef is hard to digest for fish. Fish are coldblooded, cattle are warm blooded. Therefore the beef in the fish will be tougher then it was in life

shrimp, and so on are better, much better, although the problems are very temperature dependend: @ 25 C they are, obviously, much bigger then @ 32 C

[grokefish]

I personally wouldn't feed any catfish beefheart, it's just not for fish.
I know alot of keepers feed this but it's just not good practice.