Gulper catfish food?

[CatWhat]

Hey everyone, I was wondering what is everyone feeding their gulper cats. I was planning on offering my 4 that I just had ordered in, live earth worms, raw shrimp, chopped tilapia and pellets....if they'll take them. Or is feeding them huge feeder fish the only option, as Youtube would depict lol. I have the space in the fish room for a feeder fish quarantine tank of course but prepared foods are so much easier.
Thanks for the help.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I don't believe in feeding live feeder fish but my results have been rather mixed, mildly put. I have been feeding frozen whole marine bait fish. Then after 2 years I lost two of our three gulpers for no apparent reason. The third one is still around.

Now I believe it could have been better to pre-soak their feed in Vitachem. And perhaps also pre-pre-soak in water to remove the salt. But I also realize this could be just a beginning of a long experiment with potentially an uncertain end.

Our gulpers could have succumbed to an illness that has nothing to do with their diet.

More can be read and seen in my thread dedicated to them: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... st-7630190

[CatWhat]

Thanks for the post.
So far I have tried them on thawed raw shrimp, silversides, pellets and earth worms. Neither were a success, so regrettably I had to begin feeding gut loaded feeder fish for the time being just to keep the Gulpers going. I'm hoping as time passes (as they are wild caught) they will begin to take prepared food as feeders is such a pain.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Understood. All gulpers are wild caught, I think. Usually gulpers aren't associated with being overly stubborn when starting them on non-live feed. They are not easy but not the hardest. There is room for exceptions, of course. Have you tried garlic? Vitachem? Some people resort to training them to tongs, handing them a live feeder first, then a dead one, then non-live.

[Acanthicus]

Hi

Whats the matter with live feeder fish? Gulpers feed on fish in the wild, exclusively I think. So I'd offer live fish, not pellets. Fairly easy to feed and keep then.

Cheers

[Viktor Jarikov]

This topic has been is being debated extensively. If it bypassed you somehow, you can easily familiarize yourself with it. Pathogen transference and morality / ethics are often cited in these debates but not only.

[CatWhat]

Indeed, I will give your suggested method a try, live, dead and then non live. I too agree that this species does not seem to be a fussy eater. I do believe even within the species info contained on this site, it has Oliver Luncas mentioning that these fish in the wild will just about try to put anything in their mouths, even a underwater photographer hand lol. Perhaps in time they will start taking all kinds of food once settled in. The main thing is that they are at least healthy and active thus far, so hopefully everything goes according to plan.

As for the feeder debate, not to dive into that too much. But I'm not against feeding live foods such as feeders, it's just that I find it lower maintenance to feed prepared foods, or even live earth worms are fine. For me it is just simply convenience but of course if I had a species that would only ever take live feeder fish, then that is what they would be getting. There's lots of room in the fish room for a feeder setup, which is a 55G for goldfish and a 30G for livebearer feeders.