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Is my Lima shovelnose stupid. I bought 20 feeder fish and it dont eat them. Now i had it for 6 months and it only eats flakes how come? And do you know how to make it eat feeder fish.
[img]http://lima%20Shovelnose2.JPEG[/img]

First of all, if you have a shovelnose that takes prepared foods then you should be happy as that is a very hard accomplishment. I would try giving him shrimp pellets, krill, bloodworms as well.

Second, if it eats prepared foods then why the hell do you care if it eats live feeder fish. Feeder fish is a pain in the butt,can be a source of disease, and can get stuck in throat and suffocate fish.

To answer your question you may feeding too large of feeder fish for their mouth and/or they are getting enough food from the other food you are feeding so why waste all of their energy chasing a meal. He is not retarded, more smart than all of mine who will only eat live fish.

I guess its good and the feeder fish cost to much any way. thanks for your reply

I understand the fascination of a piscivore that shows natural behaviour...
A big catfish chasing and eating small fish is a really cool thing to see; I remember a video shot by Marc (or by someone else, but it was about his shovelnose collection); great vieuwing.
but indeed, a shovelnose that feeds on flake is an easy one.

you might seduce him back to guppies or so; but don't be surprised if he suddenly stops eating flake!

Where did you see the shovelnose collection

It's in my private video collection and was shot for a lecture on Catfish in Amsterdam.

YEAH

"getting all misty eyed on the salad days again"

it WAS pretty cool, though.
maybe pick it up where we dropped it?
I know a certain fishclub where a serious dose of catfishkeepers-info is in short order!

Wow, you are lucky! I can't even get my lima to eat flakes, even after a year with him. He might be eating the fish, just under the cover of darkness. SorubimLima

Well I think it is very fish specific, I have recently bought two limas (see my post) ,the one eats literaly anything you put in the tank, different frozen foods, flake, lieraly anything that enters the tank he will try and eat it, yet the other one I'm yet to see eat, I "think" he took some flake that went passed him but not sure, but he pretty much ignores everything I try

Try live black worms...they cant resist

You can get them at most fish stores. When you buy them, they look like a pile of sewage, but are actually small worms.

My two lima's love chopped mussel - even though I have to drop it right on there heads otherwise my Red hooks get there first!!
My smaller lima (10") will eat JMC catfish pellets when he's hungry too.
However they are fussy eaters - mine won't touch lance fish now, yet they loved them before I introduced the mussel!!

Just as a side note you might want to read this thread. http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=14508