Frontosas Not Feeding - Please Help

[nagukush]

Hey Friends !

My 6 x 3" Frontosas are not taking any food - PLEASE HELP ME !

I have a variety of food like - freeze dried Bloodworms, Shrimp, Brine Shrimp, Flakes, Tetra Bites, Floating food etc but they dont seem to be interested in anything. I dont have access to any live food except for feeder fish from a local petstore. I know that these fish love to hunt and eat smalller fish but I'm not sure if they'll be able to hunt and eat at this age - they're only about 3" - Will they be able to catch the smaller fish ?

Please help and guide me friends...
Thanks and Regards
Kush

[nagukush]

Friends some help please...

[Coler]

Whilst I appreciate your concerns for your fish please do not bump threads before a number of hours at the very least, if not a day, has elapsed, unless you have an acute emergency which on the face of this post you do not.

Do not feed the Frontosa anything like bloodworms etc. I suspect this is a little too rich - I don't know mind you because they are indeed carnivorous, or pescivores at least, as adults.

Yours are too small to eat goldfish at the moment although they do predate on smaller fish at adult size in the wild. Feeding feeder fish is never necessary but if you choose to do so you should breed your own so as to be sure of a supply which will not bring disease into your tank.

My advice is to feed your frontosa a high quality cichlid pellet. If they are too small to take this you can buy a designated cichlid flake which should be fine.

New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula is excellent as a daily food and comes in a range of sizes - the smallest pellet available will work at pretty much any size at which fronts are sold. Suppplement with a good quality Spirulina Flake. I know a lot of people also feed freeze dried krill to fronts. This should colour them up nicely and is about as healthy as it gets.

I take it these are the frontosa in question http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168764

Feed sparingly until your tank is cycled to minimise the load on what bacteria there may be present. in the tank.

[Pittbull]

hey have you even tested your water conditions yet if not i so would and come back and let us know what your perimeters are like PH, AMMONIA, NITRITE, NITRATE, HARDNESS and WATER TEMP. becuase this could be the reason your fish arent hungry and it could most def be stress to a newly setup system dont be surprised if you lose a few fish hence placement in a newly uncycled setup i hope not for the fish sake but yep get those results and let us know aye.. good luck..

[DrNo]

hey have you even tested your water conditions yet if not i so would and come back and let us know what your perimeters are like PH, AMMONIA, NITRITE, NITRATE, HARDNESS and WATER TEMP. becuase this could be the reason your fish arent hungry and it could most def be stress to a newly setup system dont be surprised if you lose a few fish hence placement in a newly uncycled setup i hope not for the fish sake but yep get those results and let us know aye.. good luck..

I have to agree with Pitt.... strongly suspect your fish are stressed and therefore are not interested in any foods at this time. Do you have your own test kit? If not, you need one ASAP and need to measure all of the water parameters mentioned above. You also need to check the GH and KH of your tank. This is a seperate test kit from the 'master kit' sold by API. If the GH (general hardness) of the tank is too low you need to rectify. Measure your water paramters and post the results here so we can help you interpret.

[DrNo]

Any update here?

[nagukush]

Hi Friends !

Sorry for the delay in replying... I'm trying to get a test kit but as I'm from a very small town here in India, I'm finding it almost impossible to get a test kit...

I just managed to get a PH test and its above 8 - Normal ?

My Fronts are finally showing interest in food but they still are'nt swallowing anything... They attack any food dropped in to the tank like hungry wolves but as soon as one tastes it, it spits the thing right back and they all trun away... Kindly help me understand this behaviour...

Also Is too much waterflow bad for the fronts ? I mean should the water be stagnant for them ? I feel that my 2217 is pushing too much water and the flow is on the higher side...

Kindly guide me...

[Pittbull]

how are the return tubes pointing from the filter, india ahh i see yep you may have to order on line but it will be a fortune aye, normal cichlid fashion is to taste it and spit it out to turn around and take it back into the mouth but if still not eating it may be the water conditions i understand where you are coming from on the issue of not having supplies nearby but with the ph being stable you could still have problems in the other gray areas are you doing daily water changes still, where did you obtain the cichlids from what were they eating before you bought them and you may have to go frozen foods if thats the case and no do not let the water go stagnant you can aim the return tube at the side of the glass or pointed to the top of the water column to devert any hard water flow towards the center, best wishes aye.....