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I noticed that my 4 wild zebras love bloodworms,brine shrimp and maybe carnivore pellets, not to sure though since I can't really tell if they eat it or not, since I crush it up. But I have 4 F1s that I bought this last summer and I noticed they don't really fatten up on the bloodworms, but once I feed them carnivore pellets they fatten up overnight!

I talked to the breeder of these and he said all he feed them was carnivore pellets. I have been trying to condition them to eat all other type of foods but I don't want to risk losing one to starvation.

So my question is are zebra's diets conditioned on what food they grew up eating? Can I change their diets by starving them for 3 days or so and then feed them something different?

Thanks
Jeremy

Hi

The diet you are feeding sounds very good. Pellets often swell so this could be the reason why your plecs look larger after feeding on these.

I have found the best why to introduce a new food is to feed a little with existing tried and tested food. Often over time they will start to eat the new stuff as well. I have never tried starving a fish to induce this but is could work I suppose. HOWEVER, most fish can easily last for 2-3 weeks without food (although they will lose alot of weight) so I suppose they might not jump at new stuff after a few days.

I often let me fish go without food for a couple of days (every 3-4 weeks), I think this can help their digestive system.

Cheers

Tom

HI Tom
Sounds good I will try it to see if it works. You said those pellets expand, right? Do you think I should soak them in water before i feed them?

Thanks
Jeremy

jerms55555 wrote:You said those pellets expand, right? Do you think I should soak them in water before i feed them?

For sure. This will definatly help. This is a tried and tested method with feeding cichlids. Although I would expect the zebras to rasp at the food so I can't see the swelling of the food to be much of a problem, but a strong possibility all the same.

Tom wrote:I often let me fish go without food for a couple of days (every 3-4 weeks), I think this can help their digestive system.

I do this too. I beleive it to be very benificial. Seemingly feeding shelled peas the night before the fast will also aid digestion....not that every fish will eat peas

Hi

Totally agree with the Doc. I always soke my tetra prima for the same expansion reason as well. I very much doubt it would cause any harm but I always soke the food for a few seconds before feeding, just incase.

Alright I will try it tonight.
Thanks again, Tom and the Doc!

Jeremy

I feed both frozen (sometimes life) bloodworms and food pellets.
I think it is good to feed both. Bloodworms for proteins and vitamins and pellets for fattening and because they are slow eaters, they got a chance to eat sufficient before other fish (or shrimp) eat everything.

I don't think you need to starve them for accepting pellets, my zebra's love it. I do have the habit to leave my fish (including my zebra's) once a week without food.

I never gave a thought about the swelling pellets. My zebra's are doing very wel, so I don't have the impression that is very important.

The swelling might not usually be a problem for adult fish, but I have been told by other breeders that they have lost fry for this very reason.

I only feed pellets to the fry and to the adults I find it to be a lot of mess when feeding freeze dried blood worm, daphnia, cyclpe eeze, etc. ( I dont turn off the filter) and I'm to paranoid feeding them any live food especially black worms, with twice a day OVER feeding of pellets my females will breed every 4-5 weeks and longer for the less experienced females. with 4-5 varaities of pellets I'm sure they are covered nutritionally. the down side, the fry don't grow as fast as feeding them newly hatched brine shrimp.