Super red eating issues

[rudy]

I got my fish from a guy who fed him superworms exclusively. i cannot seem to get him off them. I realize they are good for the fish, but lets face it they are discusting, and the ammonia smell reminds me of having a gerbil in the house.

Bottom line is if I cant get the thing off superworms on to shrimp, or pellets I am selling it.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated

 

[Dragonguy]

Starved your aro for about a week then introduce the food that you want to feed your aro.
My green aro took him 2 months to eat whatever I feed him.

 

[Cirrus]

I see two, maybe three options.

One - buy a 1000 superworms, feed them on Hikari Koi food, and then freeze them in a deep freeze. Take out as many as you need for feeding, thaw in a minute or so, and then feed the aro. No mess, no smell. Still slightly disgusting!

Two - Get your aro onto feeders. By feeders I mean quarantined fish that carry no disease. Probably make sense to order in a shipment yourself.

Three - Get ready for a battle of wills and set out to starve your fish into submission. Can take a month or two. I talked to some guys recently who say that adding a Red tailed cat can help as the aro gets freaked out as the catfish outpaces it in growth, and hence starts eating. Not so sure about that bit of aro-psychology though.

Good luck!

 

[carcrazy]

My RTG and Jardini are the same way, they refuse shrimp for a while after I feed them superworms. Fortunately, it only takes them a few days to a week at most to get them back on shrimp. I still feed them worms occasionally for a varied diet as I'm afraid that a shrimp only diet may be lacking something. I may try getting liquid vitamins to soak the shrimp in as a substitute.

 

[oshiet]

Had the same problem with my 13" SR. Old diet consisted of mainly superworm, cricket, and the occassional peice of shrimp.
I too wanted to convert him to a mainly shrimp based diet, with the ever so often feeder because my wife doesn't like the idea of crickets (or any type of critter) in the house. Have to buy them and feed immediately if feeding critters.

After 6 persistant weeks, he finally gave in to a whole deshelled shrimp minus the head. Now, he's eating like a monster again.

 

[homebrewed]

]
One - buy a 1000 superworms, feed them on Hikari Koi food, and then freeze them in a deep freeze. Take out as many as you need for feeding, thaw in a minute or so, and then feed the aro. No mess, no smell. Still slightly disgusting!

Great Idea.

I'm definatly going to try this one out. I hate having super worms around and it would definatly save me a few dollars from having to constantly gut load them.

 

[ninjaturtle]

use tweezers/chop sticks, hold a piece of shrimp 1 inch above the water, ur aro will jump up to snatch it without knowing what it is (its just their instinct to jump for anything above the water line). this may allow it to see shrimp as a food source.

another method, get tankmates who'll constantly nibble on the piece of shrimp, monkey see monkey do.