Threadfins won't eat! - Fish for the Planted Aquarium

inareverie85 · 07-06-2008, 07:16 AM

I added a school of 6 Threadfins to my planted tank three days ago, and I haven't had much success in getting them to eat anything. My school of Harlequin Rasboras eat like they're starving, but I make sure I drop enough food in there for the Threadfins to get their fair share if they wanted it :-/. I end up having to vacuum the excess food though, as the threadfins don't even make an attempt to eat. They seem too nervous when I'm around the tank, and then when they calm down, they just swim about and ignore the presence of the food. I've tried flakes as well as bloodworms. (I must admit though that even the Rasboras don't take well to the bloodworms..) Is this a natural process when adding a somewhat shy species to a new home, or am I looking at bigger problems? What can I do to coax them to eat well and be healthy?

Tex Gal · 07-06-2008, 09:14 AM

Have you tried frozen daphnia. Mine go crazy for that.

ultimatehipster · 07-06-2008, 10:20 AM

I have 10 and they love to eat but because they have super small throats they must be fed super small food. Frozen daphnia, cyclops and baby brine shrimp (preferably newly hatched live bbs) are great for them. Then a good flake crumbled into a powder and disbursed to fall for them will get them chowing... They also love heavily planted tanks to swim around in.....

cs_gardener · 07-07-2008, 10:58 AM

When I defrost brine shrimp there are the whole shrimp and then the "waste" of tiny broken bits that normally cloud a tank - my threadfins love the tiny bits. They also go crazy for frozen or dried daphnia and will eat well ground up flake food as well. When I feed the cherry shrimp their pellets I leave the pellets near the the tops of the plants so snails can't get to them and the threadfins will happily eat the minute particles that gradually break off and drift down. I tried blood worms once but they are much too big for the threadfins to eat. So think small when you try to feed them. Also make sure they have plenty of hiding places. Mine are out a lot more when they secure places they can dart to.

overboard · 07-07-2008, 06:01 PM

I had the same problem... I was using Hikari micro pellets a lot when I got my featherfin rainbows, but they couldn't eat them. So now I grind up flake food, and give them frozen daphnia a couple times a week.