Needlefish help

cjr4497

cjr4497

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Nov 8, 2005
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i purchased a needlefish from petsmart the other day and he still hasn't ate. i have a few feeder fish in the tank for him to eat, but he could care less.

will he eat when he is hungry? do they not eat as often as other fish?

i have also come to find out that they are a brackish fish. does that have anything to do with him not wanting to eat?

to be honest i bought him on impulse because he looked cool. the dude at petsmart didn't give me any special instruction or info on him.

please help

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thanks zepplin

i am having a lot of trouble finding info on how to care for this fish :pc:

does anyone know any thing about them?
 
Most elongated top water predators like that should enjoy (feel more secure) with some floating cover. Live plants, or those BIG plastic plants that are designed to float on the surface should make him feel more secure. Once he feels comfortable he's more likely to eat. Good Luck.
 
Try some live ghost shrimp, or raw chopped shrimp from the grocery store like Dino Eel suggested. Apparently they eat only crustaceans in the wild and only eats fish in aquaria. Probably cause no one tries feeding them shrimp and stuff.

I've read two sites now that said they have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and can and will bite, so be careful.

Some links:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=10124
http://www.fishinthe.net/html/fishguide/fishguide_fish.php?FC=73&nl=1&nt=2&genus=Xenentodon
http://www.****************/catalog_pages/brackish_water/needle_nose.htm

Definitely brackish. Couple say plants, but no floating plants because they need open water to swim. Ah, they are also schooling fish. Need to be in schools.

HTH
Roan
 
These fish are notorious for being picky eaters, most of them will only eat live food, guppies, small feeders. Its a needlenose gar, there is a true FW one and there is a brackish water one. Try small feeder guppies im sure it will get to eating those in no time since most people who own needlenoses feed them that. Good luck!
 
i will put in some floating plants.
i have 4 guppys in there for him, but he just swims in the middle of them.

thanks for the suggestions guys
 
Hold off on the plants. Sounds like roan did some research. I was just basing my suggestion on what the fresh water barracudas at the LFS seem to enjoy.
 
mooman said:
Hold off on the plants. Sounds like roan did some research. I was just basing my suggestion on what the fresh water barracudas at the LFS seem to enjoy.
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Dunno, yankee boy posted that there is a brackish and a fw one. He needs to find out if he has an actual Needlefish, which are brackish/marine or a gar, which are fw.

The stuff I posted is for needlefish, so if he finds out it is a needlefish then he can use that. If it's a gar, he'll have to do a search 'cause I don't have time right now :D

Here are some needlefish identification keys:
http://www.fishbase.org/keys/keyslist.cfm?famcode=207

Here are some indentification keys for the halfbeak family (garfish)
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/keys/keyslist.cfm?famcode=475

Dunno if the gar ones are correct. I only had a few minutes to look.
Roan
 
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