african butterfly fish

[Rufio]

Pantodon buchholzi

just got one of these beautiful fish i was told he eats crickets and tried to feed him a few live ones and he dosent want to seem to eat

just making sure thats what he eats

 

[vaheelsfan]

How long have you had the fish? Moving a fish from the fish store and putting it in a new tank is pretty stressful, and fish don't really eat when they're stressed out. What size tank is your fish in, and what are your water parameters?

 

[TKOS]

Also add some floating items to the tank. These fish seem to love plant cover. Duckweed, water sprite, hornwort are all good ideas. Otherwise just some floating styrofoam will help make them feel more secure.

Try floating pellets as well, like betta pellets. He may enjoying eating those.

 

[OrionGirl]

What size crickets? Mine would take the tiny ones, but ignored the bigger ones. Providing cover it a must, as is making sure the tank is very well covered--these fish are very capable jumpers. I lost mine through a 1/2" X 3 inch gap in the tank cover.

 

[Jay]

I have two. They love freeze-dried baby shrimp [which float] and freeze dried bloodworms. They will also take floating flake food. I feed the other fish first and then take care to see that they get some floating food. They are very shy and usually do not compete with the other fish as they rush to get fed.

 

[Demonkow]

I had one of those when I first started keeping fish. I couldn't get to eat anything. It was the first fish that I paid over $10 for and died.

 

[Leopardess]

It is very common for those fish not to eat for a week or two after you buy them. They are extremely nervous little fish. Make sure your tank is *completely* covered, though. Mine likes large flakes and largely chopped frozen krill. He devours the krill like no other.

Don't be too worried yet. As others have said, put in floating plants - you can just use regular plastic plants and let them float.

What size tank is it?

And, do a search on here for it. There are several threads and I know they've got a lot of good info. I think one thread was started by androboz (I dont think I spelled that correctly).