Best firsts food for smaller Datnoids?

[Cirrus]

I recently brought in a bunch of smaller NTT's, about 2.5-3" and they all came in great. Getting them all to eat is the harder part. I used frozen bloodworms, but they did not all seem to eat them. Likewise with cut up prawn. I even tried cut up beef heart (one or two nibbled), and Hikari sinking carnivore (none touched).

I am thinking of bringing in more small dats in the near future. This time I am thinking of bringing in a bag of feeder guppies at the same time and, after quarantining them and treating with anti-parasite med, using them as feeders for the Datnoids. My thought is just to get them started on eating in my tank or the tanks of the people who buy them.

My questions:

1. Do you think I will spoil the datnoids for good if I initially give them some feeder guppies?
2. What other strategies are people using to get their small datnoids to take non-live foods?

 

[m_class2g]

theo. when i bring in predatory fish that doesnt want to eat frozen/pellets, i feed some feeders just to get them eating/a bit fat. i do this for around a week. after that, i just starve them and dump in what i want them to eat. so far this has worked for me.

the ntts i got from you are feeding on bloodworms. 2 are eating them now but the 3rd one isnt yet. im sure he will follow the rest in no time. after they are all eating bloodworms, ill switch to prawn and starving will continue again. dats follow other dats. all you need to do is get 1 dat eating a certain food and eventually the rest will follow.

 

[Cirrus]

Maybe my housing them in the 150 gallon is wrong, should use a smaller tank. I will take the few I have left and transfer to a 50 gallon.

Thanks Mike

 

[jackson]

theo. when i bring in predatory fish that doesnt want to eat frozen/pellets, i feed some feeders just to get them eating/a bit fat. i do this for around a week. after that, i just starve them and dump in what i want them to eat. so far this has worked for me.

the ntts i got from you are feeding on bloodworms. 2 are eating them now but the 3rd one isnt yet. im sure he will follow the rest in no time. after they are all eating bloodworms, ill switch to prawn and starving will continue again. dats follow other dats. all you need to do is get 1 dat eating a certain food and eventually the rest will follow.

I second that.

 

[m_class2g]

Maybe my housing them in the 150 gallon is wrong, should use a smaller tank. I will take the few I have left and transfer to a 50 gallon.

Thanks Mike

yea the 150 is waaay too big. they get really skittish and are reluctant to feed when theres too much space. having other tankmates that eat dry stuff works too. in my case it was arowana food sticks that i feed my aro. one day my widebar just followed.