Wild Gold & Green Tetras wont eat pellets or flakes

[Stara'lfur]

I'm assume it's because they are wild, they are not used to eating pellets or flakes...what can I do? They're sooooo shy, they hide in the very back of the tank even though it's planted with a bunch of swords and crypts in a 20g L, getting driftwood to make it a bit more dense. I did see I may have to feed live worms? Which is difficult for me to get right now because I'm not going out to protect my 75 year old dad. Any advice thank you <3

 

[Lalo J.]

Try to get frozen food, bloodworms, and tubifex, any of these might work to prompt them to feed. If you just added them to your tank then give them a little time, they need to get used to their new environment, generally any healthy and properly acclimated freshwater fish will try dry foods quickly, but you have to be much more patient when they are wild, give them time and try to get the foods I mention, either of them is a great option, although if you can get both, better ...

 

[Stara'lfur]

Try to get frozen food, bloodworms, and tubifex, any of these might work to prompt them to feed. If you just added them to your tank then give them a little time, they need to get used to their new environment, generally any healthy and properly acclimated freshwater fish will try dry foods quickly, but you have to be much more patient when they are wild, give them time and try to get the foods I mention, either of them is a great option, although if you can get both, better ...

thanks, yeah i dunno i'd have to go out into a store to get frozen, i will if i absolutely have to... but it's more like they hide so much they don't even try to come out and SEE the food, they stay so low and hidden they never see it, i think maybe a few of them have gotten a bite of a pellet if it floated down right next to them in their hiding spot but i'm not sure and that's hit or miss. so i try to feed them and leave the room, not sure what's happening but i've never seen them out and about. so not sure if frozen would make a difference anyhow since it's still food floating around at the top. would they be able to sense the food in the dark, maybe i should be feeding them in the dark while they are so afraid?

i feel so bad, not sure i wanna buy wild caught fish anymore, feeling kinda guilty for the poor little things. i already feel guilty enough for regular fish, not sure i'm gonna continue the hobby after this *existential crisis*

edit: oh yeah and i've had them a couple weeks now

 

[Lalo J.]

Don't worry, stay calm, chances are you are feeding on something in your tank. I have had a wild scalare angelfish for several months, when he added an extremely aggressive Bulgarian angel, my wild angel stopped feeding fish food for almost a month and a half, until we switched them to a bigger tank and started feeding again, probably due to the stress they had when being chased by my bulgarian angel. I want to give you a suggestion, if you have not achieved any water change in these 2 weeks that you have had the savages, I think it is time to do it, 25% of water would be fine. If you have your tank lighting on for your plants, turn it off a couple of days after the water change, this will probably lessen the stress on your fish, and keep trying to feed them.

 

[Lalo J.]

Frozen food floats, and fish are able to detect it with the sense of smell. It helps a lot if the food is floating, since in nature, the particles suspended in the water are usually food for them.

 

[JPYLOZ]

You can order frozen foods from online vendors; maybe even live food.

 

[fishorama]

I'd get some smaller frozen foods, many pet shops, especially chains are open these days. Mask up & don't mess around, no shopping. Grab some mini-bloodworms, daphnia, cyclops pay & go. As you feed these new foods add a tiny portion of flake or tiny bite size pellets each time. Switch it up to see what they eat or don't. fish can easily go 2+ weeks without food. Maybe some of the Bug Bite foods? I haven't tried these but I hear good things...That said I'm not exactly sure of this species...What are they? I googled & got green neons & gold tetras...I don't know that either is right

Do they exhibit any signs of other issues like parasites, bacteria etc.?

Also call the place you got them from & ask what they fed on...or did they?

 

[Stara'lfur]

F fishorama They are green neons and gold tetras yes hehe :3

Well guys thanks so much for the advice- I think it's gonna be okay, today I fed them and hid in a corner of the room and after 5 min once the food started falling down it looked like at least a few of them were popping about collecting food. I think they're gonna be ok! I'll try to get some other food for them ASAP though. Whew.

Hoping the driftwood that should be arriving soon makes them feel a tad safer

 

[fishorama]

Oh, ha ha! I'm glad they're just people shy & not food shy. They're new & will learn to love you & the foods your bring

Some plants might help if you don't have any...& we're going to need some pics soon.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Wild fish have never seen flakes beforen or many of the other more commonly fed commecial foods. However, no healthy fish is going to starve itself to death. Sonner or later they will give the hitherto untouched food a try. If one sets up a tank and all they add to it are wild caught fish, the odds are they will take some time to undesrtsand what flakes are. However, when one adds wild fish to a tank with other fish who are eating flakes, the new fish will catch on pretty fast. To paraphrase, "Fishy see, fishy do."