About 3-4 weeks ago I bought a baby Elec. Blue Dempsey that was around 1" long. At first, he wouldn't eat any prepared foods I offerered, or frozen blood worms. So I got worried and tried live worms.
Luckily, he took to the live worms which were all he would eat for the first two and a half weeks. Because of that, he doubled in size to 2". So I decided to try to ween him off of the worms so that he could get a better diet.
I stopped feeding him the worms, and didn't feed him for 2 days. On the 3rd day, I dropped in a few shrimp pellets which he immediately attacked. Over the following week, he began swallowing more and more of the pellets. So I moved him from his 6g QT/Grow-out into my 29g planted community.
Of course, he was stressed from the move. But I was anxious to find out whether he would continue eating the pellets, or lose the progress we'd made. So I fed some shrimp pellets a couple of hours after I put him into the tank. For some reason, he didn't like the baby albino gibbiceps that's in there and he charged at it a couple of times during the feeding, but he was still eating the pellets, which made me happy. Once again though, he wasn't as fat as he used to be.
So this morning I fed them shrimp pellets again, and at the afternoon feeding, I when I was feeding the 180g some color enhancing pellets, I figured, why not try to see if the dempsey would eat them now (he wouldn't eat them when I first got him).
I poured a few in and he went for them. He was playing with them in his mouth for a while and I was just waiting to see him spit them out. But thankfully, he didn't!!! He ate almost all of them. It makes me happy because I don't like feeding the shrimp pellets every day since they're a messy food and would make me have to do extra water changes. Plus, since they're high quality color enhancing pellets, he's going to look even more gorgeous when he's grown.
Thanks for reading this long story, I'm just really happy he's finally off of the live worms and still doing great. I'll post some update pics tommorrow. I can't wait till he's big enough for the 180g!!!
Luckily, he took to the live worms which were all he would eat for the first two and a half weeks. Because of that, he doubled in size to 2". So I decided to try to ween him off of the worms so that he could get a better diet.
I stopped feeding him the worms, and didn't feed him for 2 days. On the 3rd day, I dropped in a few shrimp pellets which he immediately attacked. Over the following week, he began swallowing more and more of the pellets. So I moved him from his 6g QT/Grow-out into my 29g planted community.
Of course, he was stressed from the move. But I was anxious to find out whether he would continue eating the pellets, or lose the progress we'd made. So I fed some shrimp pellets a couple of hours after I put him into the tank. For some reason, he didn't like the baby albino gibbiceps that's in there and he charged at it a couple of times during the feeding, but he was still eating the pellets, which made me happy. Once again though, he wasn't as fat as he used to be.
So this morning I fed them shrimp pellets again, and at the afternoon feeding, I when I was feeding the 180g some color enhancing pellets, I figured, why not try to see if the dempsey would eat them now (he wouldn't eat them when I first got him).
I poured a few in and he went for them. He was playing with them in his mouth for a while and I was just waiting to see him spit them out. But thankfully, he didn't!!! He ate almost all of them. It makes me happy because I don't like feeding the shrimp pellets every day since they're a messy food and would make me have to do extra water changes. Plus, since they're high quality color enhancing pellets, he's going to look even more gorgeous when he's grown.
Thanks for reading this long story, I'm just really happy he's finally off of the live worms and still doing great. I'll post some update pics tommorrow. I can't wait till he's big enough for the 180g!!!
Last edited:
