Looking for food advice

[Ashley W.]

I have a tank with neon tetras, african frogs, a betta, and a bristlenose pleco. None of them are eating their food. I'm currently feeding an algae wafer, betta pellets, and slow sinking pellets for the frogs and tetras. What should I be feeding them?

[Scapexghost]

Frogs usually need frozen foods, tetras do good on crushed flake. If none of them are eating, it could be health problems.

[CJs Aquatics]

It’s odd that nothing is eating, my first question would be how long has it been going on?

[Ashley W.]

On 8/28/2022 at 5:01 PM, Scapexghost said:

Frogs usually need frozen foods, tetras do good on crushed flake. If none of them are eating, it could be health problems.

Thank you! I'll get some frozen foods and some flakes.

On 8/28/2022 at 5:03 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

It’s odd that nothing is eating, my first question would be how long has it been going on?

I just started the tank a few weeks ago. I added all of the fish over the past week. I've been checking parameters and everything looks good. I haven't seen them eat since I brought them home. Considering they're still alive I'm assuming they are eating, I just haven't seen it.

[CJs Aquatics]

If your parameters are correct perhaps they are eating and your just missing it. Some things that have worked for my picky eaters in the past have been:

-blanched vegetables (for the pleco)

- when they aren’t eating pellets sometimes I’ve switched to flakes or sometimes using a pepper grinder to crush the pellets to an even smaller size almost dust has stimulated a response 

live baby brine is a miracle or any of the cultures really, sometimes that stimulates a feeding response 

time- I listed this because it takes some fish a while to get used to there new set ups

some of the gel foods you make like repashy are a good baseline staple to have. 

finally I’ll say patience. You can continue to introduce foods you want them to eat daily and remove them before they spoil if they aren’t eaten. Eventually 95% of the time the fish will start to recognize it as food and will eat it, sometimes it takes days sometimes 2 weeks or more, but when they are hungry they will eat what’s available. 
 

you can also call the pet store or place you got them from and ask specifically what they were feeding them and start them on something they are used to as well, I typically don’t but it might be worth mentioning. 
 

idk if you ran them through quarantine or not but if you don’t notice after trying some of the suggestions above a change in eating behavior that would be what I would recommend as perhaps they have some sort of illness preventing them from wanting to eat. Hopefully this helps, this is what has worked for me in the past.

 

[Ashley W.]

On 8/28/2022 at 5:50 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

If your parameters are correct perhaps they are eating and your just missing it. Some things that have worked for my picky eaters in the past have been:

-blanched vegetables (for the pleco)

- when they aren’t eating pellets sometimes I’ve switched to flakes or sometimes using a pepper grinder to crush the pellets to an even smaller size almost dust has stimulated a response 

live baby brine is a miracle or any of the cultures really, sometimes that stimulates a feeding response 

time- I listed this because it takes some fish a while to get used to there new set ups

some of the gel foods you make like repashy are a good baseline staple to have. 

finally I’ll say patience. You can continue to introduce foods you want them to eat daily and remove them before they spoil if they aren’t eaten. Eventually 95% of the time the fish will start to recognize it as food and will eat it, sometimes it takes days sometimes 2 weeks or more, but when they are hungry they will eat what’s available. 
 

you can also call the pet store or place you got them from and ask specifically what they were feeding them and start them on something they are used to as well, I typically don’t but it might be worth mentioning. 
 

idk if you ran them through quarantine or not but if you don’t notice after trying some of the suggestions above a change in eating behavior that would be what I would recommend as perhaps they have some sort of illness preventing them from wanting to eat. Hopefully this helps, this is what has worked for me in the past.

 

Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful response. I know what the petstore was feeding, so I could do that. But I'll try grinding until I get some live baby brine. I'll pick up some veggies for the pleco, too. I really appreciate your help. Thank you again!

[CJs Aquatics]

No problem at all, I hope things work out